I finished this book at 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day; an hour or so too late to be counted for my 2015 goal. Oh well – I already have one book read toward 2016! (My 2016 goal is 52 books; not as lofty as last year’s 80 which I failed to complete.)

I chose this book because it’s on the list of books Stephen King recommends (in fact, it’s #1 on this list!). I want to read through many of the books on this list because I completely trust Stephen King’s taste in books. I also have his book, On Writing, which I intend to read this year.

On to this book. It’s a study in some disturbed minds. There’s Roger, a husband who has discovered he’s been cheated on. Rather than confronting his wife with the accusation, he decides to contact out a recently-paroled criminal to murder his wife. Seems perfectly reasonable. Said criminal, Whitey, is manipulated by the calculating Roger, but he has some disturbed notions about women. Then there’s Ned, part of the cheating duo. Hard to feel bad for him. Francie, Roger’s wife, hard to feel bad for her. That leaves Anne, Ned’s wife. She might be the one character in this story you can really feel bad for.

Because this is a plot driven book with many twists, it’s hard to talk about it without revealing everything. Suffice to say I was definitely surprised by the things that happened, and not to sound like a jerk but that doesn’t often happen to me. I’m the one who pegs the murderer during the prologue. It’s obvious who the murder is going to be, and who the target is, but do things go as planned? Is it truly a “perfect” murder?

I didn’t LOVE this book. It was allright. The Stephen King reco went a long way. It’s not something I’d go back to or even tell a friend to read if they were looking. It was just ok. If you want to read something on King’s list, don’t make it this one.