Sea of Poppies is the first book of the Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh. This is a beautifully told story set in India, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal on the eve of the First Opium War. The Ibis is an ex-slave ship purchased by merchant Benjamin Brightwell Burnham for the purpose of transporting indentured labour from Calcutta to Mauritius. Ghosh gives the reader a veritable feast of characters: Deeti, the strong-willed wife of Ghazipur opium addict, Hukam Singh; Hukam’s uncle ruthless Bhyro, a recruiter of migrant labourers; carpenter Zachary Reid, the son of a Baltimore Negro freedwoman and her white master; Burnham, merchant and closet masochist; Jodu, a boatman; Raja Neel Rattan Halder, a debt-ridden zemindar; Serang Ali, leader of the lascar seamen; James Doughty, a pilot for ships entering Culcutta; Kalua, a low-caste ox-cart driver; Paulette Lambert, the feisty orphaned daughter of a French botanist; Baboo Nob Kissin Pander, Burnham’s accountant who is a virgin celibate with strong religious beliefs; Captain Chillingworth, engaged for his last sea-voyage; first-mate Jack Crowle, a man with an inferiority complex and a sizeable cruel streak; and Chinese-Indian opium addict, Ah Fatt. Ghosh carefully develops each character, weaves them into this marvellous tale until they end up on the Ibis together. It feels like the Ibis herself has drawn each of the characters to her. Significant characters are also tied together by their stylistic depiction in a drawing for Deeti’s shrine. Ghosh provides information on many subjects: enforced poppy cultivation in India, opium factories and the opium trade with China; opium addiction; the caste system; bore waves; foreign traders in Canton; Chinese pirates. By incorporating it all into this mesmerising tale, he makes it interesting and easy to assimilate. With a cast of characters from such diverse backgrounds, the languages they speak are also varied, ranging from proper English to pidgin and patois, and the Chrestomathy in the appendix is helpful as a glossary for some of the words used, as well as expanding on Neel’s story. Ghosh’s fascination with the migration of words into other languages is apparent, and, with snippets of Bhojpuri language, folk songs, nautical terms and colloquial Anglo-Indian, the dialogue has a truly authentic feel. There is some beautifully descriptive prose and marvellous imagery: “The noise never failed to amaze him: the whiplash crack of the sails, the high-pitched shriek of the wind in the rigging, the groan of the timbers and the surf-like pounding of the bow-waves: it was as if each ship were a moving tempest and he an eagle, circling close behind to hunt in the ruins of her wake.” and “The wind was blowing strong and hard, and the waves and the clouds seemed to be racing each other across a single, vast firmament, with the schooner straining in pursuit, her timbers groaning with the effort of the chase. It was as if the alchemy of the open water had endowed her with her own will, her own life.” The ending leaves the way open for all sorts of developments in the second book of the trilogy. A brilliant read.

A Conspiracy of Friends is the third novel in the Corduroy Mansions series by Alexander McCall Smith. McCall-Smith dispenses gentle philosophy through ordinary people in their everyday lives, commenting on such things as the possibility of friendship between men and women; what sort of promises are not expected to be kept; unexpected declarations of love; taking the advice of others; unfinished business; willed amnesia; human rights and belief in justice; plastic surgery; and the calming qualities of drinking tea. Terence Moongrove’s follies are an ongoing source of humour. My favourite quotes are: “A moral dilemma is equally absorbing whether the stakes are the destiny of nations or the happiness of one or two people…” and “…sharks and other agents of Nemesis pay no attention to the claims of moral desert. A selfless campaigner for social justice tastes much the same to a shark as a ruthless exploiter of others…” I am never disappointed by Alexander McCall Smith’s writing and would have read this book if for no other reason than to find out in what context William considers Hello! magazine a work of theology. Delightful, as always.

The Secret Scripture is the seventh stand-alone novel by Irish author, Sebastian Barry. Against the background of the imminent closure of an Irish mental facility, an aging psychiatrist reviews his remaining patients for suitability to re-enter the community at large. Dr William Grene, Senior Pyschiatrist at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, is particularly concerned about hundred-year-old Roseanne McNulty, suspecting that her sectioning some sixty-plus years ago, like many others of that era, may have been based on social convenience rather than psychiatric need. Barry sets up his story as twin narrations: “Dr Grene’s Commonplace Book” is meant to contain a professional account of the last days of the hospital, but Will includes his personal observations about Roseanne McNulty and the results of his investigations into her admission as well as events, past and present, in his own life; “Roseanne’s Testimony of Herself” is a secret memoir that Roseanne writes and keeps hidden, detailing events in her life leading up to her sectioning, along with present day happenings. This novel has a marvelous cast of characters, credible dialogue and a brilliant plot. Astute readers will have twigged to the who and what of the mystery half-way through the novel, but this in no way reduces the enjoyment or the compulsion to continue reading Barry’s beautiful prose for the how and why. Barry touches on many topics including the chequered history of mental institutions, the Irish Civil War, the power of the Catholic Church in 20th century Ireland and whether there is such a thing as factual truth (or does it all depend on the accuracy of a person’s memory?). This was a great read and I will be looking for the companion works to this one that Barry has written: The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, and Our Lady of Sligo.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is a memoir by Rhoda Janzen. Daughter of the head of the Mennonite church in North America (the Mennonite equivalent of the Pope), Janzen rejected her family’s faith at eighteen to go to college and teach. At forty-four, after a turbulent marriage that ended with her husband leaving her for a man he met on Gay.com, and having survived a serious car accident, Rhoda goes home to her parents’ welcoming arms and quirky lifestyle. She finds her return therapeutic and soothing. Janzen manages to fill this memoir with hilarious anecdotes whilst painting her family as loving and supportive. It is gratifying to learn that the phenomenon of Catholic guilt is not the exclusive domain of victims of the Roman Catholic Church. Very funny.

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood is the second of the Ya-Yas series by Rebecca Wells. Set in two main locations, it tells of Sidalee Walker’s retreat to a remote cabin near Seattle to examine her past life and prospective marriage to Connor McGill, an examination that is facilitated and augmented by a scrap book of memorabilia her mother sends her from Louisiana, “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood”, a book full of photos, letters, newspaper cuttings, tickets and tokens dealing with her mother’s dysfunctional childhood and adolescence, and Sidda’s own. Members of the Ya Ya sisterhood, her mother Viviane and friends Caro, Necie and Teensy, ultimately help Sidda find her way. From reading about the author’s own background, it appears that this novel is semi-autobiographical, as the authenticity from personal experience is apparent. While there are many heart-warming moments, there is also quite a bit of heartbreak, and it is quite slow-moving in places, making me wish she’d just get on with it. Siddalee and Vivi seem to be rather self-indulgent, allowing themselves the neuroses and existential crises that only rich people can afford. This novel touches very briefly and superficially on the subject of The Help. Certainly it did not grab me enough to want to read the companion volume, Little Altars Everywhere.

The Fourth Bear is the second of the Nursery Crime series by popular author Jasper Fforde. Things are not going too well for Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division: a prime NCD case (the escape from custody of the violent psychopath, The Gingerbreadman) has been allocated to another detective; his boss, Superintendent Briggs, doesn’t trust his judgement and has insisted on a psychiatric evaluation of his fitness to function as head of the NCD; and the press, in particular Josh Hatchett of The Toad, constantly trash him. Luckily he has the support of Detective Sergeant Mary Mary and PC Ashley (the blue Rambosian alien). And he needs it, because soon enough, he has been suspended from duty, then asked by John Hatchett to look into the disappearance of his sister Henrietta “Goldy” Hatchett, last seen by the Three Bears in the Anderson woods. And it seems his marriage to the wonderful Madeleine is in trouble. Once again, Fforde’s incredible imagination throws up a feast of ridiculous names: villages, psychiatrists, serial killers, street names for illicit substances, theme parks to name a few. With an abundance of wordplay, puns, plot devices and lame jokes that even the characters themselves comment on, Fforde somehow manages to connect unexplained explosions, porridge, missing scientists, cucumbers, anthropomorphic bears, the technical arm of a multinational corporation, a WWI theme park, a psychopathic biscuit, conspiracy theorists and nuclear fusion. Jack also manages to buy himself a new Austin Allegro Equipe with an unusually useful feature, as well as a less desirable one. And maracas: I had no idea! The definitive reference for it all is the 2004 edition of The Bumper Book of Berkshire Records, without doubt an interesting read. This is probably Fforde’s best yet and will whet the reader’s appetite for The Last Great Tortoise Race.

The Mermaid Chair is the second novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Set on the South Carolina barrier island of Egret, it describes three intense months that change the life of 42-year-old Jessie Sullivan when she returns to her childhood home. Believing she is dealing with a psychiatric emergency with her mother, she finds herself confronted by doubts about her 20-year-old marriage to Hugh when she falls in love with a monk from the island’s monastery; simultaneously, her mother’s behaviour unearths the deeply buried events of her father’s death 33 years previous. The plot is well crafted, the prose is beautiful and the characters are interesting, some are really funny, but I found Jessie rather difficult to like: she struck me as rather selfish and self-indulgent, although perhaps some more detailed earlier description of her relationship with Hugh would have helped understand her actions. Kidd’s descriptions are wonderful, though, very evocative of the South Carolina coastal landscape, and she has obviously researched marine flora and fauna, especially sea birds, as well as tidal marshes, estuaries and creeks, Gullah culture, dementia, Inuit legends, mermaid fables and folklore of the saints. The twist at the end saved it for me. A memorable read.

Boom! is the first book by Mark Haddon and was initially published in 1992 under the title Gridzbi Spudvetch! This edition for 10 and over readers has been updated in 2009. Jim’s life is upside down: his father is out of work and spends his days on the couch watching TV or flying model planes; his mother is the hard-working breadwinner; his sister Becky has stopped washing her armpits and has a biker boyfriend Jim calls Craterface; and Jim is worried he will be expelled from school due to his less-than-stellar academic performance. After they eavesdrop at the teachers staffroom and hear Mr Kidd and Mrs Pearce talking a strange language, Jim’s friend Charlie is convinced that they are spies, robbers or aliens. Soon he and Jim are shadowing teachers, breaking into homes and finding more than they bargained for. Haddon’s updated version of his first book will delight younger readers with secret languages, alien teachers, travel to another planet, rides on stolen motorbikes, thought-controlled food machines, sentient spiders, explosions and quite a bit of biffo. A fun read.

Between The Lines is a young adult novel co-written by Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer. Essentially, it is the story of a young Prince who is stuck in a fairy tale and desperate to stop repeating the same script every time someone reads the book, and the teenage reader who loves the book, hears and understands his plea, and vows to help him (he is pretty hot, after all!). As usual with a Picoult book, there are multiple narratives, in this case, three: the fairy tale itself and the voices of Prince Oliver and of Delilah, and each narrative is printed in a different colour and font. The fairy tale itself is filled with all the classic essentials for such a tale: a King and Queen, a clever and loyal Prince, a faithful dog, a handsome steed, an evil villain bent on revenge, a wizard, mermaids, trolls, pirates, a dragon, a kidnapped Princess, a quest, word puzzles and some bizarre implements to help the Prince save his Princess. Along the way, the dialogue between Delilah and her mother, Oliver and her best friend, Jules, includes some astute observances about being a teenager, what love is, growing up and friendship. The aspect of the life that characters lead when the reader closes the book reminded me of Jasper Fforde’s marvelous Thursday Next series. I may not be a young adult, but I certainly enjoyed this novel.

Sarah Thornhill is the sequel to the award-winning The Secret River by Australian author, Kate Grenville. The story is narrated by Sarah, the youngest daughter of emancipist William Thornhill and starts some years after the events of The Secret River. Sarah is growing up in a fine house on the Hawkesbury River, in a family keeping secrets. Her step-mother, Meg, is a proud and hard woman who will never forget her husband has a taint, has worn the broad arrow. Her father is haunted by the guilt of past acts, and it seems she has a brother that no-one acknowledges. But the eldest son of the neighbouring Langlands family, a half-breed named Jack, makes life worthwhile. Their love will surely transcend any possible challenges. The story moves from the Hawkesbury to parts west and to New Zealand. Grenville’s characters are well developed and the dialogue is authentic and appropriate for the illiterate daughter of an ex-convict. As she slowly builds the story, Grenville touches on the hardness of pioneering life and the range of attitudes to the aborigines of people of the time and she illustrates the importance of keeping stories alive. There is joy, sorrow, heartache, betrayal and understanding, all contained in beautiful prose. I was brought to tears at the end. A wonderful, moving tale.

Criminal is the 7th in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. The story shifts between the early seventies and the present day. The present day is 2 weeks after the events of the 5th book in the series, Fallen (the 6th book being the eShort, Snatched), while the flashback covers several months from mid-1974 to mid-1975 when Will’s boss in the GBI, Amanda Wagner, and Faith’s mother, Evelyn, were rookie cops together at the Atlanta PD. Readers who are eager for more of Will and Sara may be disappointed to find much of the action is with Amanda and Evelyn, but Slaughter manages to make this an engrossing read, all the same. Whilst Slaughter touches on issues of race and gender in mid-70’s Atlanta, the story also reveals much of Amanda and Evelyn’s early careers, and Will’s parentage. She develops these characters, gives the reader a bit of background to Will’s mercurial relationship with Amanda, and shows that even the seemingly hard Amanda has a caring side. Slaughter is an expert at creating atmosphere and building tension and can make the reader feel uncomfortable in just a few skilful paragraphs. These two stories, told in tandem, each have a heart-thumping climax. As always the plot is excellent and includes a few twists, the dialogue realistic and Slaughter gives the reader three strong female leads trying to do a good job under difficult circumstances. Slaughter’s depth of research into 70’s Atlanta is apparent in every sentence. Her main focus in writing this book, according to the Acknowledgements, was to tell a good story, and this she has expertly achieved. I always hesitate to start reading a new Karin Slaughter book because I know that once I do, I won’t be able to put it down and, even at 400 plus pages, the reading pleasure will be over that much sooner. Once again, Slaughter does not disappoint.

The Devil Wears Prada is Lauren Weisberger’s first book, and details the experiences of Brown graduate, Andrea Sachs in her first job as personal assistant to the high-profile, fabulously successful Miranda Priestly, editor of Runway magazine. The book is said to be based on Weisberger’s time at Vogue, working for Anna Wintour. This book is pretty funny and is probably quite an accurate picture of the fashion industry, especially the ostentation and the obscene waste of money. Literature, it isn’t; it is, basically, a litany of the progressively more outrageous demands made on her staff by the editor of a top fashion magazine and a tedious catalogue of brand names. The editor is painted as a cold-hearted, demanding, unreasonable monster; her staff are portrayed as anorexic image-obsessed minions without personality. This book confirms for me why I care nothing for the superficial world of fashion.

The Great Cake Mystery is a children’s story for readers under ten by Alexander McCall Smith. It is a prequel to his popular No 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels in that it describes Precious Ramotswe’s first case, solved when she was still at school. Whilst the mystery is a simple one, Precious doesn’t jump to conclusions, and when she thinks she has solved the case, she sets out to irrefutably prove it. This delightful story includes charming two-color woodcutlike pictures by Iain McIntosh that evoke the African setting, as well as a note from the author, a reader’s guide and even a recipe for Precious’s Sponge Cake Worth Stealing. This is a McCall Smith feel-good tale that young and not-so-young readers will appreciate.

The Big Over Easy is the first in the Nursery Crime series by Jasper Fforde and, while it was not published until 2005, it was actually written in 1994, well before his highly successful Thursday Next series. It is a reworking of his first written novel which was initially titled “Who Killed Humpty Dumpty”, and is set in a similar alternative universe to the Thursday Next novels; the main characters, DI Jack Spratt, DS Mary Mary, Dr. Gladys Singh and others appear in “The Well of Lost Plots”.

With each Jasper Fforde book, I look forward to the smorgasbord of hilarious, occasionally ludicrous names that Fforde’s rich imagination throws up: journalists Joshua Hatchett, Archibald Fatquack, Hector Sleaze and Clifford Sensible; detectives Inspector Moose, Hercule Porridge and Miss Maple from St Michael Mead; Giorgio Porgia, William Winkie, Tom Thomm (the flautist’s son), Incomprehensible Greene (landscaper), Seymour Weevil, DCI Bestbeloved, Mr & Mrs Sittkomm. Winsum & Loosum Pharmaceuticals, and Spongg footcare. Fforde also treats the reader to occasional gems like: “She opened the door…..letting out a stream of cats that ran around with such rapidity and randomness of motion that they assumed a liquid state of furry purringness.” I found this book thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to the second in this series, The Fourth Bear.

The Secret River is the first in the Thornhill family series by Kate Grenville. It tells the story of William Thornhill and his wife Sarah (Sal) from their childhood together in London, through William’s career as a Waterman, his eventual transportation to New South Wales and the life his family made for themselves in the harsh landscape of 19th century Australia. Grenville’s thorough research is apparent in the level of detail about everyday life in the new colony, detail that gives the reader a good idea of how life was for the early settlers. Grenville’s beautiful prose captures well the characters’ hard life and their fleeting glimpses of happiness, as well as the timeless landscape of the Australian continent. The settlers’ ignorance of the indigenous population’s philosophy and lifestyle becomes clear as the story progresses and the white man’s attitude to the blacks is skilfully rendered with a violent climax. In order that he and his family survive, William Thornhill finds himself not only turning a blind eye to injustices, but eventually taking part in atrocities he never dreamed he would encounter. A moving and powerful read.

Black Swan Green is the 4th novel by David Mitchell. It describes a year in the life of Jason Taylor, an intense, thoughtful but stammering thirteen-year-old budding poet living in darkest Worcestershire. Set in 1982, this is a very realistic rendition of the anxieties and challenges faced by teenagers in the early eighties. Each chapter details the events of one or more days in the months of that year. Through the beautiful prose of his narration, we join Jason in boyish adventures and coming-of-age rituals (first cigarette, initiation rites, first kiss), and we learn of his ambitions (poetry, forestry) and his anxieties (stammering, the Falklands war, his parents’ relationship, girls). In that time of life when image is all important and peer pressure is strong, Jason tries to navigate a path that does not betray his values and ambitions but doesn’t damage his credibility of make him look “too gay”. Jason’s relationship with his family and his true friends is heartwarming and the poet hidden inside the young man is apparent in his thoughts and descriptions. Ultimately, he finds the courage he needs to face his demons. His naiveté, observations and occasional ignorance make for many laugh-out-loud moments, but the scariest thing about this novel was that I knew all the songs and artists mentioned from first appearance. This coming-of-age novel is at least as good as Jasper Jones. A dazzling read.

The Bluest Eye is the first novel by American author Toni Morrison. It is set in 1941 in the small town of Lorain, Ohio, and tells the story of an 11-year-old Negro girl, Pecola Breedlove, who becomes pregnant to her father Cholly. Pecola’s family and environment is such that she is certain she is ugly; so convinced of this is she, that she wishes for blue eyes, believing this is the only thing that will relieve her ugliness. Narrated in part by a 9-year-old neighbourhood girl, Claudia, the perspective of young girls in this situation is novel. Some chapters detail the history of Cholly and Mrs Breedlove, giving some clues as to how this crippled and crippling family evolved. This reissue of Morrison’s first novel includes a new Forward by the author wherein she explains what she was trying to achieve. Some of the prose is quite stunning: “Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved.” The prose may be beautiful, but as a Dutch-born Caucasian living in Australia with a limited experience of the Negro, I found it difficult to relate to this book.

“Smut: two unseemly stories” is, as the title suggests, an omnibus of two short stories by English author and actor, Alan Bennett. The first story is The Greening of Mrs Donaldson. Mrs Donaldson, recently widowed, finds herself a little short on cash and decides to take a student couple as lodgers. When they find themselves unable to pay the rent, they come to a novel arrangement with their landlady. Mrs Donaldson’s other source of income is working as a Simulated Patient in medical student training; she becomes so talented at this that the consequences are almost grave. Bennett provides the reader with plenty of laugh out loud moments; the dialogue is oftimes dryly witty and occasionally hilarious. Full of understated British humour.
The second story is The Shielding of Mrs Forbes. When Graham Forbes decides to marry Betty Greene, Muriel Forbes’s objections are manifold: name, age, looks, religion and something else she hasn’t mentioned. Edwards Forbes has no such objections, wondering only if his fastidious son has “done it” with Betty yet. As more of their private lives is revealed (and I found that somewhat reminiscent of Maupin’s Tales of the City), we learn that everyone is intent on shielding Mrs Forbes to safeguard her innocence. According to Alan Bennett, there is a lot more promiscuity in staid British households than you or I were ever aware. Very entertaining.
These two stories are at least as funny as his earlier work, The Uncommon Reader, if in a completely different vein. I really enjoyed them.

The Lake of Dreams is the long awaited second novel by the bestselling author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards. It is 2006, and almost 10 years since Martin Jarrett was drowned in the Finger Lakes town of The Lake of Dreams. His daughter, Lucy, a hydrologist, is living in Japan with her engineer boyfriend, Yoshi, when she gets emails from family telling her of her mother, Evie’s wrist injury. Since her father’s death, she has been constantly on the move between countries, jobs and people, running from the responsibility she feels for the events of that night. When she travels back to The Lake of Dreams, she comes across relics from the past in the house of her childhood, clues to an unknown ancestor. As she searches further, she finds herself drawn to this distant relative, feeling a commonality with her. But what she eventually uncovers has the potential for explosive consequences for everyone in her family. In this beautifully told tale, Edwards touches of a myriad of subjects: glass art and stained glass in particular; genealogy and family history; the suffrage movement; the conservation of land and water, lakes and marshes; comets; women in the bible; dreams; locks, keys and lockcraft; emigrating. The story is absorbing, exciting in places and emotional: love, deception and betrayal, courage, sacrifice, fear, ambition, pride, envy, desire and regret all feature. I loved the tiny cameo that Edwards inserted: describing the cover of her first novel as being read by one of the characters. There were some wonderful passages and sentiments: “…..that evil is a force in the world, a force that seeks, and it finds its way into our lives through anger and loss, through sadness and betrayal, like mold on bread, like rot on an apple, it takes hold.” The message of acting out of love and not out of anger is powerfully conveyed through the narrative. A marvelous read.

Full Dark, No Stars is an omnibus of four dark tales of retribution by Stephen King.
In “1922”, dedicated Nebraska farmer, Wilf James, murders his wife, Arlette, when she threatens to sell her portion of the family farm to buy a dress shop in Omaha. He involves his 14-year-old son, and, though they get away with murder, Arlette never really seems to leave and life goes downhill from that moment on. 4/5
In “Big Driver”, mystery novelist Tessa Jean takes a shortcut home from a book-club engagement with almost fatal consequences. Although frightened of her attacker, Tess refuses to let things lie: the New Tess uses the Old Tess’s skills as a crime-writer to exact revenge. This tale has a very strong female lead character: I really enjoyed her inner monologue and I found it “edge of the seat” reading. 5/5
In “Fair Extension”, cancer-ridden Dave Streeter makes a deal with a man selling all sorts of extensions, George Elvid (that’s right, rearrange the letters) for a life extension. His cancer disappears, but a price has to be paid: it turns out that Elvid wants more than mere money. A reflection on the “fairness” of life. 4/5
In “A Good Marriage” , Darcy Anderson accidentally stumbles on something that has her questioning just how well she really knows her husband of twenty years. Her neat, clean, organised husband, the father of her children, appears to have a dark secret, a terrifying pastime she has never suspected, something that will irrevocably change her life and that of her children if it becomes known. Another strong female character. 5/5
Plot, characters and their interaction are all things in which King is the expert. His characters are ordinary people in extraordinary situations and King explores how they act and react. His natural dialogue has the voices speaking in the reader’s head. Black humour ensures plenty of laughs. Horror is another thing that King excels at, and the horrors in these tales include rats, rape, murder, decaying corpses, disease, torture and madness. Scary too, is how people will justify their actions. In each story, the characters feel a change come over them, as if a stranger inside them has taken over. For Wilf it is the Conniving Man; for Tess, the New Tess; for Dave it is someone inside him who has held a grudge since grammar school; and for Darcy it is the Dark Wife within, for Bob, the ghost of his childhood friend, BD. King skilfully builds the tension so that the stories are real page-turners. These four stories prove, once again, that King is the master of the long dark tale.