KEY POINTS:
This is an auspicious year for Stephen King. The master of horror turn 60 in September and is in the awkward yet proud position of perhaps eventually being eclipsed by his son, Joe Hill, whose magnificent debut Heart Shaped Box was probably one of the best reads of the past year.
King's Duma Key - his 50th novel in a total that includes his Dark Tower fantasy series and thrillers he wrote as Richard Bachman - is his first work since 2006's Lisey's Story, which King was so pleased with he embarked on a rare publicity tour.
But Lisey's Story struggled to live up to the inevitable hype. The tale of the widow of mysterious novelist Scott Landon, who turns out to be more than the person she believed him to be, contained many parallels with King's life. He had to examine his own mortality - and the situation Tabitha, his wife of 37 years, would be left to cope with when he dies - when he was injured in a hit-and-run accident in 1999.
Published to much less fanfare, Duma Key (Hodder & Stoughton, $27.99) is not burdened by such great expectations and prospers as a result. Like Lisey's Story, its canvas is heavily drawn from King's personal experience and harks back to many of his past works. It is set in Florida - on the cursed island of the title - where King lives for six months each year.
In a similar way in which Lisey's Story was concerned with the power of words, Duma Key's medium is art. Main character, Edgar Freemantle, who lost his right arm in a freak accident, develops an uncanny talent for painting when he moves to Florida to heal his emotional and physical injuries after the demise of his marriage.
Edgar is rejuvenated when he discovers he can paint the future - even precipitating the death of a child abuser - but slowly comes to realise there is a malevolent force behind his newfound talent and it is connected to the ghostly sisters of Elizabeth Eastlake, an elderly Mafia matriarch who owns most of the island. As with Lisey's Story, King underplays the supernatural elements, which don't even rise to the fore until halfway through the 600 pages of this tome.
But while Boo'ya Moon, the spooky fantasy realm encroaching on reality in Lisey's Story, jarred with the widow's humdrum existence, Duma Key's waterbound evil spirits creep slowly up on Edgar until they strike with sudden devastating effect, leaving the reader haunted by the dreadful price he must pay.
- Detours, HoS
