If It Bleeds

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Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781529391565

Price: £31.99

ON SALE: 21st April 2020

Genre: Crime & Mystery / Horror & Ghost Stories / Short Stories / Suspense

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News people have a saying: ‘If it bleeds, it leads’. And a bomb at Albert Macready Middle School is guaranteed to lead any bulletin.

Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency is working on the case of a missing dog – and on her own need to be more assertive – when she sees the footage on TV. But when she tunes in again, to the late-night report, she realises there is something not quite right about the correspondent who was first on the scene. So begins ‘If It Bleeds’, a stand-alone sequel to the No. 1 bestselling THE OUTSIDER featuring the incomparable Holly on her first solo case – and also the riveting title story in Stephen King’s brilliant new collection.

Dancing alongside are three more wonderful long stories from this ‘formidably versatile author’ (The Sunday Times)Mr Harrigan’s Phone’, ‘The Life of Chuck’ and ‘Rat’. All four display the richness of King’s storytelling with grace, humour, horror and breathtaking suspense. A fascinating Author’s Note gives us a wonderful insight into the origin of each story and the writer’s unparalleled imagination.

(P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

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
New York Times
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
Washington Post
The iconic author will keep you up late at night engrossed in four tales about our dreams and our frailties
USA Today
King is rightly acclaimed as one of the greatest - and most inventive - storytellers of our time and The Institute is a dazzling achievement
Daily Express (on The Institute)
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
Guardian (on The Outsider)
One of the greatest storytellers of the past century...If you read only one thriller this summer, make it this one
Daily Mail (on The Outsider)
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
Observer
The titular novella is...an impeccably judged whodunnit...the other three [are] readable, engaging studies of male lives at different stages
The Sunday Times
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
The People
You'll fly through IF IT BLEEDS
Daily Telegraph
You are drawn in immediately and kept guessing until the end
the Sun (On the audiobook)
Full of vividly drawn characters and unsettling themes, If It Bleeds is another tour de force by a master storyteller
Daily Express
Such glimpses into King's own mind are riveting and satisfyingly terrifying. Read the book for this
Evening Standard
Four wonderful stories
Press Association
full of vividly drawn characters ... another tour de force by a master storyteller
Daily Mirror
His achievements... are dazzling in scope... immensely enjoyable
London Review of Books