In the preface Stephen King tells us that he used to think this novel was a piece of crap. It is. It should have remained buried in King's unpublished papers. As a crime novel it's barely the equal of those of Edgar Rice Burroughs (e.g., _The Mucker_, or the couple of Tarzan novels that have bumbling criminals as main characters). The few touches King threw in as he rewrote for publication (the possibility that Blaze's dead partner is really a ghost, Blaze's possible telepathic ability, the reference to Castle Rock) or really touches of Stephen King, NOT Richard Bachman, and they ultimately lead nowhere and add nothing to the book. On the other hand, King's story "Memory," part of _Duma Key_ and included in the edition I read, is fantastic. But that just means you should read _Duma Key_ and forget this trash. Nota Bene to Stephen King: Any future piece of Bachman's corpus that is uncovered enough for the possibility of its seeing the light of day should be quietly reburied and a prayer said over it.