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Stephen King

Biography

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than 60 books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection YOU LIKE IT DARKER, HOLLY, FAIRY TALE, BILLY SUMMERS, IF IT BLEEDS, THE INSTITUTE, ELEVATION, THE OUTSIDER, SLEEPING BEAUTIES, (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: END OF WATCH, FINDERS KEEPERS and MR. MERCEDES (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock).

His novel 11/22/63 was named a top 10 book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works THE DARK TOWER, IT, PET SEMATARY and DOCTOR SLEEP are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time.

He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Stephen King

Books by Stephen King

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Thriller

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has COVID. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability, but they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Short Stories, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to his new collection of 12 stories (many never-before-published) that delve into the darker part of life --- both metaphorical and literal. For half a century, King has been a master of the form, and these stories --- about fate, mortality, luck and the folds in reality where anything can happen --- are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in YOU LIKE IT DARKER, readers also will feel that exhilaration, again and again.

by Stephen King - Fantasy, Fiction, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, but he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was 10, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself --- and his dad. When Charlie is 17, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Readers adore Stephen King’s novels, and his novellas are their own dark treat, briefer but just as impactful and enduring as his longer fiction. Many of his novellas have been made into iconic films, including “The Body” (Stand By Me) and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Shawshank Redemption). The four new tales in IF IT BLEEDS are sure to prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and THE OUTSIDER) must face her fears, and possibly another outsider --- this time on her own. In “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. “The Life of Chuck” explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in “Rat,” a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Suspense, Thriller

The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability that his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine --- as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In the middle of the night, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’ parents and load him into a black SUV. Luke wakes up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents --- telekinesis and telepathy --- who got to this place the same way Luke did. They are all in Front Half, while others graduated to Back Half. In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

by Stephen King - Fiction

Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis. In the small town of Castle Rock, Scott is engaged in a low-grade --- but escalating --- battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. They are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face --- including his own --- he tries to help.

written by Stephen King, read by Santino Fontana - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In the middle of the night, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’ parents and load him into a black SUV. Luke wakes up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents --- telekinesis and telepathy --- who got to this place the same way Luke did. They are all in Front Half, while others graduated to Back Half. In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

by Stephen King and Owen King - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious “Eve Black,” is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned and left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world.

written by Stephen King, read by Will Patton - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

An 11-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens: Terry Maitland, a Little League coach, an English teacher, a husband, and the father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, THE OUTSIDER kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face?

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

An 11-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens: Terry Maitland, a Little League coach, an English teacher, a husband, and the father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, THE OUTSIDER kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face?

written by Stephen King and Owen King, read by Marin Ireland - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent. And while they sleep they go to another place, a better place, where harmony prevails and conflict is rare. One woman, the mysterious “Eve Black,” is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Eve a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Abandoned and left to their increasingly primal urges, the men divide into warring factions. All turn to violence in a suddenly all-male world.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

For nearly six years, Brady Hartsfield has been in a persistent vegetative state. A complete recovery seems unlikely for the insane perpetrator of the “Mercedes Massacre,” in which eight people were killed and many more maimed for life. But behind the vacant stare, Brady is scheming, biding his time as he trains himself to take full advantage of the deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Brady Hartsfield is about to embark on a new reign of terror against thousands of innocents, hell-bent on taking revenge against anyone who crossed his path --- with retired police detective Bill Hodges at the very top of that long list.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Short Stories, Suspense, Thriller

Since his first collection, NIGHTSHIFT, published 35 years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection, he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are thrilling connections between stories: themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

John Rothstein is an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel. Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then is locked away for another crime. Decades later, Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson must rescue Pete and his family from Morris when he’s released from prison after 35 years.

written by Stephen King; read by Stephen King, Dylan Baker, Brooke Bloom, Hope Davis, Kathleen Chalfant, Santino Fontana, Peter Friedman, Cotter Smith, Will Patton, Edward Herrmann, Frederick Weller, Mare Winningham, Craig Wasson, Thomas Sadoski and Tim Sample - Fiction, Short Stories, Suspense, Thriller

Since his first collection, NIGHTSHIFT, published 35 years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection, he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are thrilling connections between stories: themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past.

written by Stephen King, read by Tim Sample - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Read by beloved Down East storyteller Tim Sample --- praised by Stephen King for his “wit and talent and good-heartedness” --- DRUNKEN FIREWORKS makes for explosive audio listening.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a new minister named Charles Jacobs will transform the local church. However, when tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief and is banished from the shocked town. Years later, a grownup Jamie Morton meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved case of a lone driver who plowed through a crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up and charging again. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

written by Stephen King, read by Will Patton - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved case of a lone driver who plowed through a crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up and charging again. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Thriller

Stephen King returns to the character and territory of one of his most popular books ever, THE SHINING, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, JOYLAND  tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and Mike Perkins

The Night Has Come collects the final six issues of Marvel’s adaptation of The Stand and the result is, as with its predecessors, a darkly beautiful rendition that is faithful to the original yet is capable and worthy of standing on its own.

by Stephen King and Peter Straub - Fiction, Thriller

Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her “Twinner” from an agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world. Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the  hamlet of Tamarack, Wisconsin. When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades earlier, Jack’s buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help find the killer. But are these new killings merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleashed in this quiet town?

by Stephen King - Fantasy, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet --- Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler --- encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two...and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past.

written and read by Stephen King - Fantasy, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet --- Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler --- encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two...and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas. President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this tour de force, Stephen King takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

written by Stephen King and Robin Furth; illustrated by Peter David, Sean Phillips and Richard Isanove - Graphic Novel

After escaping death at the Battle of Jericho Hill, Roland Deschain helps a dying gunslinger return to the crypts of Gilead. He finds the fallen city haunted by both the memories of his past life there and the ghost of a long-dead traitor. Inspired by Stephen King's momentous saga, THE JOURNEY BEGINS is a haunting psychological examination of Mid-World's last gunslinger as he begins his search for the Dark Tower and the evil that lurks within.

written by Stephen King, read by Edward Herrmann - Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction

Something was happening in Bobbi Anderson’s idyllic small town of Haven, Maine. Something that gave every man, woman and child in town powers far beyond ordinary mortals. Something that turned the town into a death trap for all outsiders. Something that came from a metal object, buried for millennia, that Bobbi stumbled across. It wasn’t that Bobbi and the other good folks of Haven had sold their souls to reap the rewards of the most deadly evil this side of hell. It was more like a diabolical takeover…and invasion of body and soul --- and mind.

by Stephen King - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when---or if---it will go away.

Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King - History, Nonfiction, Sports

Early in 2004, two writers and Red Sox fans, Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, decided to chronicle the upcoming season, one of the most hotly anticipated in baseball history. They would sit together at Fenway. They would exchange emails. They would write about the games. And, as it happened, they would witness the greatest comeback ever in sports, and the first Red Sox championship in 86 years. What began as a Sox-filled summer like any other is now a fan's notes for the ages.

by Stephen King - Thriller

Set in the 1930s at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death-row facility, The Green Mile is the riveting and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin nine-year-old girls. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent compelled to help every prisoner spend his last days peacefully and every man walk the green mile to execution with his humanity intact.

written by Stephen King, read by Frank Muller - Fiction, Horror

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, is condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, prison guard Paul Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs...and yours.

by Stephen King - Horror

Master of horror Stephen King spins a story about seven kids who stumbled upon a hidden terror in their hometown. Now, as adults, they are summoned together when the cycle of evil begins again. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them all back to Derry, Maine, to face the nightmare without end, and the evil without a name.