The Colorado Kid

Jennifer Wardrip - Personal Read

I picked up this book, not because I'm a Stephen King fan (although I am), but because it was part of the new Hard Case Crime division of Dorchester Publishing. I'll admit, the variety of authors they've collected to write for them is extensive, and THE COLORADO KID just happened to be the first one in the Hard Case group to make it to the top of my to-be-read pile.

I understand, after reading THE COLORADO KID, why so many people on here posted negative reviews. I understand, because just like the main characters in the story told me, a mystery with no resolution plain and simply pisses people off. People want a happy conclustion to a problem--whether it be why 9/11 happened, why oil prices are so high, why a young woman in Wisconsin was murdered, or how a man from Colorado went to work one morning and ended up dead on a little island off the coast of Maine only hours later.

Not KNOWING, not having Mr. King spell it out for us, angered many a reader of this book. Should it have? Maybe. But I actually felt like there WAS a resolution to this story--that being that not everything in life has such a tidy ending as we want our stories to have. Of all the people who end up dead in the US every year, how many do you think go unsolved as to cause of death, or in the case of murder, capturing a perpetrator? Life--this roller-coaster ride that we get onto daily and hang on to since our very lives depend on it--is not black and white, and it sure as heck doesn't offer us up tidy conclusions at the end of every day.

THE COLORADO KID is, quite simply, a character study of not knowing. We can get the facts, we can extrapolate what we believe happened based on those facts, but in the end, it's all a mystery.

Kudos to Mr. King for taking an idea, running with it, and showing that he just doesn't give a flying fig if we get it or not. This book left me with questions, yes, and I actually thank him for that. A book that makes you think and question will always be worth more than a book that doesn't.

38 out of 39 people found this review helpful.

Pulp Mystery With a Twist

Stephen King pulls a fast one with his Pulp-Mystery, The Colorado Kid, dragging the reader into the tale with an intriguing mystery that begs to be solved. A man that no one seems to know is found dead on an island off the coast of Maine, with no identification and sparse clues as to how he came to be there.

In typical King fashion, he grounds his story with interesting but believable, hometown characters that could easily be the people next door. However, I had a hard time believing that Stephanie McCann, a University of Ohio student, working as in intern at The Weekly Islander, the small newspaper for Moose-Lookit, the town where the tale takes place, would give up on the life she had known and her husband to be just so she could stay in Moose-Lookit and work for the newspaper. I was also disappointed in the way King ended the story. I know why he did it, especially after reading his notes on the subject, and I think he¿s probably right, but I was still disappointed.

The Colorado Kid is a good, fast read that I¿m sure you will enjoy.

¿ Bob Avey, author of Beneath a Buried House

9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

Love it or hate it, readers will always remember it

The two elderly reporters of the Weekly Island and their intern Stephanie are discussing unsolved mysteries with a Boston Globe reporter. Afterward Vince and David tell Stephanie about a case they shared with nobody until now the story of THE COLORADO KID, a man who in 1980 is found dead on a beach on Moose-Look Island off the coast of Maine. An autopsy shows that a piece of meat is wedged in back of his throat and the cause of death is given as asphyxiation. The two reporters know he is not an islander and nobody recognizes him. It is only luck that the intern who was with the police that night remembered a cigarette tax label on the cigarette pack in the shirt the man was wearing and remembers they didn¿t come from Maine. As police find the pack in the evidence room and see that it was bought in Colorado, the reporters send a picture to all the Colorado newspapers and that leads to the victim¿s wife identifying the body but that is not the end of the mystery, only the beginning and is one that has haunted the two reporters for a quarter of a century............. Readers are either going to love this book or hate it but they will always remember it. That is the trademark of a Stephen King story. Like his horror novels, this work is very atmospheric with plenty of descriptions so that readers can see in their minds the events unfolding. The two elderly reporters are likeable old coots with distinctive personalities and an ability to tell a mesmerizing story that keeps Stephanie glued to her seat wanting to hear the whole tale just like the audience................. Harriet Klausner

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Unusual King

I got this because the TV show "Haven" is based on this story and I wanted to find out how it all started. How this became a tv show based on troubled people took a great deal of imagination. Most short stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end with resolution. This one has a beginning, a middle, but no real resolution except for no resolution. It's ok. It was worth the $1 I paid for it. But I certainly would not have paid more. The cover is misleading. My recommendation: Only read it if you are a hard-core King fan or like the TV show "Haven".

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Colorado kid

It was an ok read not nearly as good as haven. I was expecting alot more.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Don't Read If You're Looking for a Connection to SyFy's Haven!

Sometimes you read a book for the wrong reason. I am s fan of the SyFy Channel's series, Haven. Set in Main, full of strange people and occurrences, clearly Haven is a Stephen King product. The credits say Haven is based on _The Colorado Kid_.

Based. What does that mean? I read _The Colorado Kid_ looking for the connections to Haven and some of the unanswered questions, such as "Who was Lucy Ripley?" "Who is Audrey Parker really?" "What causes 'thetroubles' in Haven?" "Howe does Duke Crocker fit into all this?" More questions abound.

What a disappointment to find that the only connections to Haven were the names of some of the characters, the name of the town, and a partially unsolved mystery surrounding the death of a man who came to be known as "The Colorado Kid" because a piece of evidence placed his last known whereabouts prior ro Maine in Colorado.

So, I read _The Colorado Kid_ for the wrong reason. I was looking for ansewers or background information for a TV series I love. Stephen King's story was interesting: a totally improbable death with no apparent resolution other than the wife getting closure, after a year, in knowing that her missing husband was actually dead and the insurance company could pay out on her husband's life insurance, she could get rid of her mounting debt, and most importantly, move on with her life.

I'm going to reread _The Colorado Kid_ for the right reasons -- because I love Stephen King's work and I wnt to read a new, and surely surprising, story.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Worst King book I've ever read

This book was a waste of time. Time I will never get back. There is no ending. No really story either. If you want to waste a portion of your life, go ahead, waste time and money on this book.

2 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

What a great story

The story grabbed me from the first page. I was so excited, and then to find a young journalist investigating the incident, with two older and jaded editors, was enlightening. I also knew that the older generation has great stories, but this is crazy good writing!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Colorado kid

The book was ok not what i was expecting.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not as good ass "Haven" on SyFy.

Its not his best work....but its ok :)

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Liked

Found this short story very interesting. Loved learning where the series Haven got it's start.

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Cheers

I really expected more from a King book--but it's not there

Recommend to all Haven viewers.

I love the TV series Haven and wanted to read the book it was based on. While reading this story , I could visualize the two elderly newspaper men on the show.

Nice read

Great read for spending a day off relaxing with my nook. I enjoyed it.

short

This offering from Stephen King left a lot to be desired as far as I am concerned. It offers a mystery, then leaves the "solution" unsolved. Of course, you are welcome to invent your own theory, but that is not why I read a book. At least not a work of fiction. I actually quite enjoy reading about unsolved mysteries. I just like my novels neat, tidy, and all summed up at the end.

recommended

Nice quick read. The two older newspaper characters are enjoyable.

Loved it!

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Not a fan

Stephen King is my favorite author, but this was a waste of time. No excitment, ghosts, or anything youd expect of SK. Skip this, read sokething else.

If you like thiss, watch "Haven" on SYFY If you like this, watch "Haven" on SYFY

Very good