Stephen King - Full Dark, No Stars

80. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (2010) 
Length: 560 pages
Genre: Short Story
Started: 20 September 2012
Finished: 24 September 2012
Where did it come from? From Price Chopper
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 September 2012
Why do I have it? I like short stories and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

'I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...' so writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up '1922' - the first of five mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. All these stories have the prevailing theme of retribution. For Wilfred James, that stranger is awakened when his wife Arlette proposes selling the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting into motion a gruesome chain of murder and madness.

In 'Big Driver', a cozy mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home from a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge against her attacker so ruthless that it brings her face-to-face with another stranger; the one inside her soul.

'Fair Extension' involves making a deal with the devil. Dave Streeter is dying from cancer when he meets a traveling salesman by the name of George Elvid along a road in Derry, Maine. When George Elvid sells Dave a 'life extension', Dave is 'miraculously' cured from cancer and is provided a rich recompense for a lifetime lived that is full of resentment.

In 'A Good Marriage', while her husband of twenty years is away on one of his many business trips, Darcy Anderson searches for batteries in their garage. Her toe knocks into a box under her husband's worktable, suddenly revealing the horrifying stranger within his soul and utterly shocking Darcy to her core.

In 'Under the Weather', Brad's wife, Ellen isn't feeling too well one morning. So, being the good husband he is, Brad decides to let her sleep while he goes off to work. His only concern is that the people coming to check on the noxious smell that permeates the apartment building where they live will wake up Ellen when she desperately needs her rest.

I caved, I admit it! I was doing so well, reading books that had been on my bookshelf for an incredibly long time - then one trip to my local grocery store causes me to slip off the bookshelf! :) I am so glad I did, though. This book was much longer than the ones that I usually read, but I found it totally engrossing! It reached out and grabbed me from the first sentence, and wouldn't let me go until I turned the last page. I have said before that although I like Stephen King as an author, I am not always entirely sure whether I will enjoy his books all the time. However, this book is definitely a keeper for me and I give it an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)
   
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight