On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There’s no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues, and it’s more than a year before the man is identified.
With The Colorado Kid we come to the end of the Hard Case stash series.
I saved this one for last for one reason. Its written by Stephen King. He was far and away the biggest name in the batch of books. He’s sold millions of books. Why would he write a little pulp book for Hard Case? I’m guessing because he could.
Before we go any further let me set the record straight. I’m not a Stephen King fan. I’ve read It and The Stand and I just don’t get it. I thought It was a good book until the end. A spider? Really?
Lost me there Steve-O.
So, I guess that’s another reason for me waiting until last for this one.
The good news? No child killing clown spiders or dark cowboys.
The better news? Its a fun book.
More of an homage to the mystery genre than an outright mystery, The Colorado Kid tells the story of Dave Bowie and Vince Teague, a pair of aging Maine newspapermen and their summer intern, Stephanie McCann.
The old men take Stephanie into their confidence and lay out the great unsolved mystery of the Colorado Kid to her.
That’s the crux of the story.
The mystery is laid out piece by piece over the course of 178 pages, making this more of a novella than a novel. Each piece seems to make the facts that came before it more unlikely.
Unlike most mystery books, this one doesn’t come to a tidy conclusion at the end. It leaves the reader wondering which is not a bad thing.
The two old men pass the torch and their most cherished secret to their new found ally. She will continue to try to sort out the mystery of the Colorado Kid long after they are gone.
The Colorado Kid is a quick read. Its fun. Its light.
I’d recommend it to both fans and non-fans of King’s other work.
gonzogeek.wordpress.com 
What a great idea!
I’ll have to check out those reviews to see which Hard Case I pick up next.
Thanks for the comment!
Yeah, I read this one too. It is light and fun. If I were a creative writing professor, I’d ask students to write their own resolutions, because that what I did. I didn’t write them down, but I’ve got a few in my head.
Anyway, you can read my review here:
http://dissidentbooks.com/blog/?p=84 I’ve review a few other Hard Case titles on my blog too.