Stephen King’s Hardboiled Crime Trilogy
A move away from his typical ‘monster-lurking-in-the-dark’ horror stories
In case it wasn’t already apparent from my other articles — I’m a massive Stephen King fan. So, at the moment, it should come as no surprise to learn that I am pretty much making my way through everything he has ever written (I mean, there is a lot!) … and recently it's been his hardboiled crime novels.
If like me, you aren’t familiar with hardboiled fiction, the Britannica encyclopedia provides a much better synopsis than I could potentially type up;
hard-boiled fiction, a tough, unsentimental style of American crime writing that brought a new tone of earthy realism or naturalism to the field of detective fiction. Hard-boiled fiction used graphic sex and violence, vivid but often sordid urban backgrounds, and fast-paced, slangy dialogue.
From the 1920s onwards, hardboiled crime novels were all the rage and one of the fastest-selling categories in publishing during that time. The style of hardboiled crime was originally pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s and ultimately popularised by Dashiell Hammett over the remaining decade. Other notable authors between the 1920s and the 1960s include; James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Mickey Spillane.
By means of recreating the paperback crime novels of the mid-1900s (this felt weird to type … man, I feel old), and reviving the excitement, suspense and thrills that captivated millions of readers from the WWW II-era right through to the 1960s, Hard Case Crime was founded in 2004 by Charles Ardai and Max Phillips. An American imprint of hardboiled crime novels, Hard Case Crime is the publishing home for modern writers who still delve into this age-old genre. Stephen King, alongside Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, and Donald E. Westlake are some of Hard Case Crime’s big-ticket authors.
Determined detectives and dangerous women…fortune hunters and vengeance seekers…ingenious criminals and men on the run…Hard Case Crime novels offer everything you want from a great story in handsome and affordable editions. — Hard Case Crime website
I doubt I would have read anything in this particular genre if it wasn’t for King, who published the following three books with Hard Case Crime between 2005 and 2021, but now I can honestly say I am a BIG fan of the lost noir and hardboiled genres.
So, now on to the novellas that brought me here. Whilst I didn’t read these in order of publication I will start that way, noting that I purchased each of these titles on Audible — and I can’t recommend the audio versions more!
*Warning — this will contain spoilers!*
The Colorado Kid
Published in 2005, this is King at his best storytelling …and also the one I came to last. Nevertheless, I was hooked from the get-go, and not just because Jeffrey DeMunn narrates it.
This novella involves the recounting of a mystery that plagues two veteran reporters, Vince Teague and Dave Bowie. Vince is the 90-year-old founder of The Weekly Islander, a small circulation newspaper servicing the fictional island of Moose-Lookit which is located off the coast of Maine, and Dave is the 65-year-old managing editor. The two men take it in turns to tell their 22-year-old intern, Stephanie McCann, about the case of The Colorado Kid; the investigation of the body of an unidentified man found on Moose-Lit some 25 years previous. Whilst the case lacks any identification or obvious clues and reaches nothing but repeated dead ends, the man is identified a year after the discovery of his body giving rise to further questions that remain unanswered.
The story of The Colorado Kid is fascinating and I spent a lot of time waiting for the penny to drop. But, as so correctly put in the novel itself,
“It was that kind of story. The kind that’s like a sneeze which threatens but never quite arrives.”
Like many of King’s novellas, the chapters are short and the momentum strong, with King still managing to create captivating characters that we know very little about and an intriguing mystery that has no resolution. Predominantly passive storytelling — which worked for me, but many not others — , we learn that the whole point of the rehashing of the 25-year-old mystery by these two older men was to assess and inspire the investigative mettle of Steph and ultimately proclaim their approval of her as a permanent employee of The Weekly Islander.
Though I was initially left feeling a little frustrated by the end, after a few minutes of reflection (and a lot of Google searching) I was left marvelling at King’s storytelling. For me at least, he created a page-turner out of a story where nothing happens — if that’s not skill, then I don’t know what is!
For those of you who like to go on a deep dive after every novel they read — surely not just me? — then you’ll learn that there is far more to this novella than meets the eye. Seemingly, a research error, regarding the mention of a Washington-based Starbucks that wouldn’t have existed at the time mentioned in the novella, gave rise to a clue! On his website, King confirmed:
“The review of The Colorado Kid in today’s issue of USA Today mentions that there was no Starbucks in Denver in 1980. Don’t assume that’s a mistake on my part. The constant readers of the Dark Tower series may realize that is not necessarily a continuity error, but a clue.”
I haven’t read the Dark Tower series yet … but, after this mystery novella, I’ll be moving on to it rather quickly I think!
Joyland
I came to Joyland second … so yes, I read them in reverse order but don’t worry they’re not linked! Published by Hard Case Crime in 2013, this is King’s second book for the imprint and was nominated for the 2014 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. The cover art was created by Robert McGinnis and Glen Orbik.
This one is narrated by Michael Kelly — yes, Doug from House of Cards and no, I didn’t twig it straight away. When I did though … mind-blown! His voice for Devin Jones, the 21-year-old college student who takes up a summer job in an amusement park in North Carolina, is ideal. Unlike The Colorado Kid, which is told from a third-person perspective, Joyland is told from the first person: Kelly is Devin and he sells the struggling college kid, who gets dumped by his first love before summer, perfectly.
I know King has his ups and downs like most writers … yet, unlike most writers, he still makes a bomb of money for his least noteworthy novels. But straight off the cuff with this novella, whilst not his best, you could tell it was mounting to some pinnacle, to a revelation. In the hot summer of 1973, Devin makes friends with other carnival employees; he learns the colourful carny lingo; he dresses up as ‘Howie the Happy Hound’ (Joyland’s mascot) and makes kids laugh. All the while Devin continues to brood over his ex-girlfriend Wendy; he stops sleeping, barely eats and contemplates suicide. But as the summer rolls on, he begins to embrace the carny life and so much so that he decides to take a year off from school to continue working there. Over this time he eventually becomes increasingly interested in the case of Linda Gray; a young girl who had been murdered in the amusement park several years previous. Linda’s body was found in the park’s only spook-ride, ‘Horror House’, and her ghost is rumoured to still haunt it. King adds a touch of the supernatural to this novella and it works, but only because it’s so far in the background that it doesn’t completely stick out like a sore thumb.
Perhaps more a coming-of-age story, Devin eventually does solve the crime of Linda’s murder, which turns out to be one in a string of unsolved murders, but the main crux of the novella seems to be Devin’s touching relationship with a woman called Annie and her terminally ill son, Mike.
Whilst not a typical King story and not completely applicable to the hardboiled crime genre, I still thoroughly enjoyed the read. The 1970s vibe, a summer and a year out from college spent in a carnival, walks along the beach and losing one’s virginity to an older woman, all add a unique charm to this novella that only King could conjure up.
Later
Later is the last in the trilogy and the one I came to first. Published by Hard Case Crime in 2021, I had finished The Stand and was on a King bender. I saw this as a new release on Audible and jumped on it immediately to get my fix. Narrated by Seth Numrich, this novella also dips into the supernatural/horror genre that is so readily associated with King at his best. I’m a sucker for the supernatural so I didn’t mind, but again I wouldn’t necessarily call it a hardboiled crime story … or maybe it is, but with King-flare? However, as the main protagonist, Jamie, repeatedly tells us — this is a horror story. Which it is … especially at the end …
Later is told from the first-person perspective of Jamie Conklin, a young teenage boy living in New York with his single mother, Tia. Jamie’s narrative moves between the immediacy of now and the hindsight of “later” to tell both a coming-of-age and mystery story, wherein we quickly learn that Jamie is no ordinary boy; he can see and speak to ghosts. A very common plot slant for King — a little kid with supernatural abilities — but with a few caveats; Jamie can only see the ghosts for a short period after they initially die, and they can’t tell lies.
Tia, a literary agent, knows of Jamie’s special abilities and, for a time, they live very comfortably off the success of Tia’s main client, Regis Thomas. Whilst the relationship between Jamie and Tia is genuine, Tia still uses Jamie’s gift (or curse) to her advantage when on the verge of financial ruin — somewhat justified, no? Unfortunately, this incident, whilst successful for Tia, draws the attention of Tia’s one-time girlfriend, Liz Dutton. Liz is a dirty cop who then seeks to exploit Jamie for her own gains. It is through Liz’s involvement, and her slow decline into drug addiction and eventual involvement in drug trafficking, that King’s novel finally verges into the detective/crime genre. Interwoven are tales of financial strains, shady lawyers, and evil spirits that belong to other dimensions — real life and supernatural horrors all rolling into one.
There are a few twists throughout which I won’t go into detail on because one, in particular, is a serious ‘WTF’ moment. But overall, Later, with its adolescent voice, is both terrifying and tender; an echo of his other works, such as IT, King explores the journey from childhood into adulthood, whilst tackling demons, both human and otherwise, along the way. As also seen in The Body, King gifts his protagonist with the power of hindsight and effectively delivers various one-liners — “I know more now, but I believe less.” and “We change, and we don’t. I can’t explain it. It’s a mystery.” — that is sure to pull at your heart and mind in a way that only King can do.
Conclusion
As already noted, I don’t know if I would have been drawn to the hardboiled crime genre if it hadn’t been for these novellas, but now I’m a big fan and I even have my eye on The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates.
So many books, so little time…!
