The No.1 Sunday Times bestseller featuring the story ‘The Life of Chuck’, adapted for film by Mike Flanagan, starring Tom Hiddleston and winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival.
News people have a saying:
‘If it bleeds, it leads’.
Following a horrific explosion at a school, Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency notices something suspicious about the TV reporter who is first on the scene. In this riveting title story, Holly sets out to discover what he is hiding in her first solo crime case.
Dancing alongside this stand-alone sequel to The Outsider are three more irresistible long stories: ‘Mr Harrigan’s Phone’ sees young Craig introduce a curmudgeonly retired businessman to the wonders of the smartphone; ‘The Life of Chuck’ is a three act life-story – told in reverse order – about a man whose face appears on a billboard; and ‘Rat’ sees a struggling author head to a remote cabin in the woods of North Maine, where a deal-making rodent offers him a life-changing pact.
News people have a saying:
‘If it bleeds, it leads’.
Following a horrific explosion at a school, Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency notices something suspicious about the TV reporter who is first on the scene. In this riveting title story, Holly sets out to discover what he is hiding in her first solo crime case.
Dancing alongside this stand-alone sequel to The Outsider are three more irresistible long stories: ‘Mr Harrigan’s Phone’ sees young Craig introduce a curmudgeonly retired businessman to the wonders of the smartphone; ‘The Life of Chuck’ is a three act life-story – told in reverse order – about a man whose face appears on a billboard; and ‘Rat’ sees a struggling author head to a remote cabin in the woods of North Maine, where a deal-making rodent offers him a life-changing pact.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
The straightforward cadences of King's voice, paired with his signature sit-down-and-let-me-tell-you-a-story style, were immediately soothing. And the stories he was telling - about the seductions and corruptions of technology, the extremes of beauty and depravity in even the most ordinary life, the workings of a universe we can never entirely understand - were somehow exactly what I wanted to read right now... As sirens blare outside my Brooklyn window and the headlines grow more apocalyptic by the day, I might start working my way through King's backlist. He's good company in the dark
Four new, exceptionally compelling novellas that reaffirm his mastery of the form... stories that cover a surprising amount of emotional territory but can still be read in a sitting... King's affection for [Holly] is evident on every page... deeply empathetic and compulsively readable
The iconic author will keep you up late at night engrossed in four tales about our dreams and our frailties
King is rightly acclaimed as one of the greatest - and most inventive - storytellers of our time and The Institute is a dazzling achievement
A genuinely intriguing mystery, one that uses many of the tropes of both so-called "grip-lit" thrillers and more conventional forensics-driven crime fiction... The Outsider gives King fans exactly what they want
One of the greatest storytellers of the past century...If you read only one thriller this summer, make it this one
The horror writer is at his familiar best with four suspenseful and sometimes surprisingly tender novellas... If It Bleeds brings together four new stories, all offering vintage King themes with their own particular twist... King, as always, is right on the money
The titular novella is...an impeccably judged whodunnit...the other three [are] readable, engaging studies of male lives at different stages
You may wonder if the great yarn spinner of the supernatural possesses psychic abilities of his own because this collection of short stories is so timely... Spine-chillingly brilliant
You'll fly through IF IT BLEEDS
You are drawn in immediately and kept guessing until the end
Full of vividly drawn characters and unsettling themes, If It Bleeds is another tour de force by a master storyteller
Such glimpses into King's own mind are riveting and satisfyingly terrifying. Read the book for this
Four wonderful stories
full of vividly drawn characters ... another tour de force by a master storyteller
His achievements... are dazzling in scope... immensely enjoyable