The Dark Half

Stephen King

Simon and Schuster, Feb 16, 2016 - Fiction - 608 pages

“A chiller” (The New York Times Book Review) and #1 New York Times bestseller about a writer’s horrific and haunting pseudonym that destroys everyone on the path leading to the man who created him.

After thirteen years of international bestseller stardom with his works of violent crime fiction, author George Stark is officially declared dead—revealed by a national magazine to have been killed at the hands of the man who created him: the once well-regarded but now obscure writer Thad Beaumont. Thad’s even gone so far as to stage a mock burial of his wildly successful pseudonym, complete with tombstone and the epitaph “Not a Very Nice Guy.” Although on the surface, it seems that Thad can finally concentrate on his own novels, there’s a certain unease at the prospect of leaving George Stark behind. But that’s nothing compared to the horror about to descend upon Thad’s new life. There are the vicious, out-of-control nightmares, for starters. And how is he able to explain the fact that everyone connected to George Stark’s untimely demise is now meeting a brutal end of their own in a pattern of homicidal savagery…and why each blood-soaked crime scene has Thad’s fingerprints all over it? Thad Beaumont may have once believed that George Stark was running out of things to say, but he’s going to find out just how wrong he is…

Contents

• Section 1: 13
• Section 2: 15
• Section 3: 35
• Section 4: 44
• Section 5: 56
• Section 6: 69
• Section 7: 76
• Section 8: 86
• Section 9: 104
• Section 10: 122
• Section 11: 136
• Section 12: 146
• Section 13: 151
• Section 14: 162
• Section 15: 191
• Section 16: 209
• Section 17: 211
• Section 18: 231
• Section 19: 271
• Section 20: 281
• Section 21: 306
• Section 22: 321
• Section 23: 361
• Section 24: 389
• Section 25: 391
• Section 26: 409
• Section 27: 438
• Section 28: 465
• Section 29: 488
• Section 30: 509
• Section 31: 517

About the author

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, he became a teacher. His spare time was spent writing short stories and novels. King's first novel would never have been published if not for his wife. She removed the first few chapters from the garbage after King had thrown them away in frustration. Three months later, he received a $2,500 advance from Doubleday Publishing for the book that went on to sell a modest 13,000 hardcover copies. That book, Carrie, was about a girl with telekinetic powers who is tormented by bullies at school. She uses her power, in turn, to torment and eventually destroy her mean-spirited classmates. When United Artists released the film version in 1976, it was a critical and commercial success. The paperback version of the book, released after the movie, went on to sell more than two-and-a-half million copies. Many of King's other horror novels have been adapted into movies, including The Shining, Firestarter, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Misery, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers. Under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King has written the books The Running Man, The Regulators, Thinner, The Long Walk, Roadwork, Rage, and It. He is number 2 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. King is one of the world's most successful writers, with more than 100 million copies of his works in print. Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages, and he writes new books at a rate of about one per year. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2012 his title, The Wind Through the Keyhole made The New York Times Best Seller List. King's title's Mr. Mercedes and Revival made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2015 for Best Novel with Mr. Mercedes. King's title Finders Keepers made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015. Sleeping Beauties is his latest 2017 New York Times bestseller.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Dark Half
• Author: Stephen King
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2016
• ISBN: 1501144197, 9781501144196
• Length: 608 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Horror; Fiction / Media Tie-In; Fiction / Thrillers / Supernatural