Although known throughout his career as one of the literary masters of horror, Stephen King has always peppered crime elements in some of his books. Novels like The Dead Zone, The Outsider, or the Mr. Mercedes trilogy are arguably more crime and mystery than horror. King’s new novel, Later, follows suit and successfully joins Joyland and The Colorado Kid as part of the Hard Case Files collection from Hard Case Crime, a major publisher that focuses on crime fiction novels from a variety of successful authors.
Later is a story told by Jamie Conklin, a 22-year-old aspiring writer recollecting his life with the gift to see and speak with the dead for a few days after they’ve passed away. As a child, Jamie keeps his gift mostly to himself after seeing horrors that no kid should endure, confiding only in his strong, but financially struggling mother. When Jamie’s mom shares his gift with her girlfriend, an NYPD detective skating on thin ice with the force, he’s dragged into a high-profile murder case, and introduced to a horrific side of his gift that could haunt him forever.
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I was hooked from the first chapter of this one. King has such a special way that he introduces and develops characters, even in his shortest of stories. Later clocks in at 248 pages, so it’s not a booming giant like Insomnia, but has enough there to really make the reader fall in love/loathe with Jamie, his mother Tia, and the few other explored characters in the story. King is able to get his readers invested in even the smallest side characters, creating relationships with the readers from all directions. In my opinion, this has always been the greatest strength to his writing.
Like most of the genre-blending novels he’s written, Later follows an old-style detective story feel, with just enough supernatural elements to keep even the most die-hard, non-horror liking crime fans saying “Okay, but maybe this could happen,” and stick around for the ending. The story itself was strong overall, but I did find myself picking up on all-too familiar tropes and story directions that have been used in other novels of his. I’m not sure if this comes with the territory of writing 62 novels and 200 short stories, or whether he’s purposely using similar designs to attract readers that may be younger or more invested in other genres, to other works of his. As someone who has read most of his books, I was feeling a little Déjà vu, but never found myself disliking it.
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One thing I’ve really appreciated when reading King’s other crime-horror novels is his pacing. I’ve always felt like they moved smoothly, rarely stopping to give the reader time to dwell on realism or try to slow a mystery down in hopes of solving it. Later is maybe the only example where I feel like the pacing is a little too fast for the story. I found myself wanting more explanation and more time dedicated to specific climactic moments, that seemed over before they’d really begun. What I really wanted was a longer book, but once again, this never led to any frustration with the story.
My only actual issue with Later was the absolute very end. I’m talking the last 10-15 pages or so. I felt like the story wrapped up nicely with great closure for the reader, then went on for a couple more chapters, answering questions we never needed the answers to, with strangely selected explanations. King has admittedly struggled with some of the endings of his books, and I agree with him. The extra pages of these chapters could have been used earlier, to give the reader more story-building and explanation. It left me with a bit of a bad aftertaste, forcing me to quickly remind myself that I loved the 98% of the book.
Overall, Later is a great addition to the Hard Case Files, and another testament that Stephen King probably could have made an entire career off writing crime and mystery instead of horror. It’s exciting to know that after almost five decades of publishing books, the 73-year-old horror master is still pumping out great novels. I totally recommend checking it out!
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