After her baby girl tragically dies, Em begins to run to deal with her devastating loss. Soon after, her marriage dissolves, and in order to deal with the tragedy in her life Em heads to the Florida Gulf, where she moves into a house owned by her father on a lonely stretch in the Vermillion Key. One day, while running on the beach, she looks into the driveway of Pickering, a man who is known to bring women to his house on a regular basis. To her horror, Em soon discovers what Pickering is doing to these women, and before long she has to fight for her life.
This novella is not one of King’s best works. In several parts, the dialogue is suprisingly clunky and at times downright cheesy. The plot also echoes his previous book Misery, so it is not that original. Despite these flaws, however, this is still a half-decent story. Which is pretty impressive when one thinks about it. For even a so-so tale by King is better than the best work of many writers
3 out of 5 stars
