Review: Storm of the Century by Stephen King

Storm of the Century
by Stephen King
Publication Date: Feb. 1, 1999
Publisher: Gallery
Rating: 4 STARS

SUMMARY

They're calling it the Storm of the Century, and it's coming hard. The residents of Little Tall Island have seen their share of nasty Maine Nor'easters, but this one is different. Not only is it packing hurricane-force winds and up to five feet of snow, it's bringing something worse. Something even the islanders have never seen before. Something no one wants to see.

Just as the first flakes begin to fall, Martha Clarendon, one of Little Tall Island's oldest residents, suffers an unspeakably violent death. While her blood dries, Andre Linoge, the man responsible sits calmly in Martha's easy chair holding his cane topped with a silver wolf's head...waiting.

Linoge knows the townsfolk will come to arrest him. He will let them. For he has come to the island for one reason. And when he meets Constable Mike Anderson, his beautiful wife and child, and the rest of Little Tall's tight-knit community, this stranger will make one simple proposition to them all:

"If you give me what I want, I'll go away." 

REVIEW

Stephen King started writing this book as a novel according to his Introduction to this book. But when he went to sit down and start writing it his idea kept turning towards a movie. So he wrote it just like he would any other novel but instead of using the Word 6 program he used a Final Draft screenwriting program. Granted he wrote it as a TV script because that is how it wanted to be written but with no belief that it would ever be on TV.

Storm of the Century is an intense book. Linoge along with his creepy wolf cane comes to Little Tall Island and he isn't going to leave until they give him what he wants. He is the ultimate bad guy and nothing phases him. He knows everyone secrets and he will kill whoever he needs to until the townspeople hand over just one precious item. But...what does he want??

Mike Anderson is the town constable. He and the townspeople are getting ready for the big storm coming through. They have gotten the emergency shelter stocked and now are just waiting to blow the horn if it gets bad enough. Robbie Beals is the local realtor and also the stories guy you love to hate. He thinks he is a bigwig and there is no love for Mike. These two are always butting heads. 

Robbie has discovered Linoge's first victim and sends the town into hysterics when he gets on the CB screaming for Mike to come over and because the killer is still in the house. They find Linoge sitting in the dead woman's chair eating her cookies and drinking her tea (creepy!) From there everything builds and when they discover what he actually wants, it is horrifying.

Classic King! Once I got use to the screenplay layout I didn't even notice it and the story just flowed.

Book was purchased by me personally. I have received no compensation for my review and my opinions are my own. I am an Amazon Affiliate.
Summary from Amazon
This book was read as part of 2011 Stephen King Challenge