詹姆斯·斯迈思

The master of horror hits a home run1， with this mystery of a baseball youth team coach accused of murder.  恐怖大師再度出手，大获成功;棒球教练被控谋杀，迷雾重重。

Stephen King finds himself in a unique situation： every book he releases is charting， his backlist is selling enviable amounts and a devout fanbase want more of the stories he is famous for telling. So how does he surprise his readers and draw new ones in？ How does he， as the writer， surprise himself？

Over the past few years， King has experimented. There was a sequel to what is arguably his most famous novel， The Shining; 2013s Doctor Sleep eschewed the snowed-in torpor of the original in favour of a story that never took its foot off the pedal. He has written the Bill Hodges trilogy of crime novels—Mr Mercedes， Finders Keepers， End of Watch—in which he intended to shun the supernatural element （and stuck to this promise for nearly two of them）. And Sleeping Beauties， written with his son Owen， was a more literary endeavour than his books usually are.

From description alone， The Outsider sounds as though it could be King by numbers. When Terry Maitland—baseball youth coach， family man， all-round good guy—is accused of the horrific murder of a young boy， he is arrested and the town turns against him. （As seemingly every character says at one point： “He coached my son/grandson！”） The case is driven by Detective Ralph Anderson， a man who liked Terry and cant believe that he would commit such an atrocity， but who also knows that all the evidence points to him being guilty.

The story switches from Kings graceful head-hopping third-person narrative to a transcript of official statements from key personnel in the prosecutions case， a formal change that nods to the statements and newspaper extracts King used throughout his debut， Carrie.

A well-researched， finely tuned crime-cum-legal case novel forms a good chunk of the book， as Detective Anderson and the state prosecutor amass their evidence. They are then presented with a curveball： Terry doesnt just have an alibi， he has been caught on video at a talk by Harlan Coben in another town at the exact time the murder took place. Unnecessary cameo aside， its a genuinely intriguing mystery， one that uses many of the tropes of both so-called “grip-lit” thrillers2 and more conventional forensics-driven crime fiction.

Then， as so often in King novels， the rug is pulled out from beneath the readers feet： the airtight case remains airtight， but so too does the alibi， until Anderson， with the help of Holly Gibney， on loan from the Bill Hodges trilogy， starts to unpick Terrys story.

From that point on， the novel visits some very odd places—and I mean that as a compliment. The supernatural elements have more than a little in common with some of Kings most beloved creations， especially in the vague way he conveys what they actually are. He has always understood that the mystery—the question—is scarier than finding out the truth.

But even then， the titular Outsider is not the strongest presence of evil in this book. There is an intriguing political undercurrent throughout： from mentions of the Black Lives Matter movement to the shadowy presence of Donald Trump， evoked by a crowd wearing Make America Great Again hats and baying for Terrys blood. King also examines how society treats sex offenders. （As one of his constant readers， I find that the thought of Trump inhabiting the same fictional universe as Greg Stillson， The Dead Zones horrifying presidential candidate， is not a comforting one.）

You could see The Outsider as Kings take on fake news， moving it from the political realm to something more personal. Lies being sold as truth： what form could that concept take？

Thats not to say the whole novel works. It takes a couple of hundred pages for the weirdness to get started， and the sense of the uncanny pervading the entire novel means that the more horrifying elements fail to surprise when they eventually arrive. But The Outsider gives King fans exactly what they want at the same time as cramming in new ideas， proving the least surprising thing of all： that his novels are as strong as they ever were.

斯蒂芬·金的情况与众不同：他发布的每一本书都在畅销榜上赫赫有名，就连他在出版社的存书销售也是异常火爆，令人艳羡。那些令他声名鹊起的故事为他吸引了一大批忠实粉丝，急不可耐地等他后续更新。那么他是如何惊艳读者、吸粉无数的呢？作为作者，他又是如何做到灵感不断的呢？

过去几年，金不断尝试。《闪灵》可以称得上他最知名的作品。2013年他又推出了续集《睡梦医生》，为了让故事跌宕起伏、不断推进，金刻意回避了前者在大雪冰封下死寂沉沉的基调。金还完成了比尔·霍奇斯犯罪小说三部曲——《梅赛德斯先生》《捡到归我》与《警戒解除》，在这个系列中他有意避开超自然元素（其中差不多有两部做到了这一点）。他又与儿子欧文合著了《睡美人》，较之他以往的作品，这次更倾向于一种文学性尝试。

单从内容描述来看，《局外人》这几字一听就感觉是金的作品。男主特里·梅特兰，青少年棒球队教练，已婚顾家，一个完美好男人，却卷入了一场恐怖的凶杀案，涉嫌杀害一个小男孩而被起诉﹑逮捕，随后整个小镇都开始敌对他。（似乎每个角色都在某个场合义愤填膺：“这个杀人犯还当过我儿子/孙子的教练！”）这个案子由警探拉尔夫·安德森负责，他曾对特里很是欣赏，不相信特里会犯下如此残暴的罪行，但同时他也明白，当下所有的证据都指向特里有罪。

这个故事中，金一改以往从容又烧脑的第三人称叙事模式，转而对这个控诉案件中关键部门的官方声明进行转述。这种形式上的改变与他在处女作《魔女嘉莉》中所运用的摘錄声明和新闻的方式相同。

小说中大部分都是对这个犯罪与违法案件细致入微的描述，因为安德森警探和州检察官搜集了大量证据。接着他们就遇到了棘手难题：特里不只是拥有不在场证明那么简单，就在案发时他还被哈伦·科本拍到出现在另一个镇的会议上。除开不必要的配角，这才是真正有趣的悬疑故事！当中不仅多次运用了所谓的“扣心式”悬疑小说元素，还融入了更传统的以法医推动情节发展的犯罪小说成分。

然后就是金式小说中的常见套路了，让读者突然失去线索，案件依然无懈可击，不在场证明同样毫无漏洞。此时霍利·吉布尼出现了，一个从比尔·霍奇斯犯罪小说三部曲中借用的角色。在她的帮助下安德森才开始对特里的案件抽丝剥茧，逐渐靠近真相。

从那刻起，小说呈现了许多非常诡异的场景——我这么说其实是一种赞誉。这些超自然元素与出现在金最受欢迎的作品中的超自然元素极为相似，尤其是他在揭示这些超自然元素的真相时所用的朦胧手法。他深知悬疑，也就是困扰读者的疑惑，要比最后的真相恐怖得多。

但即便如此，书名上的“局外人”却并非整本书中最邪恶的存在。从多次提及“黑人的命也是命”运动到隐约出现的唐纳德·特朗普的身影，一股奇异的政治暗流始终贯穿在故事之中。当一群戴着印有“让美国再次伟大”字样帽子的人怒吼着要特里偿命时，这股暗流便喷涌而出。金的小说里也审视了社会是如何对待性犯罪者的。（作为金长期的忠实读者，我发现活在这个相同虚幻世界里的特朗普，也就是《死亡地带》中恐怖的总统候选人格雷格·斯蒂尔森，在对待性犯罪者方面的理念并没有令人感到欣慰。）

你可以把《局外人》视为金对虚假新闻的看法，只不过把它从政治领域挪到了更为私人的空间。谎言被当作真相出售：这样的观念又能采用何种形式来表达呢？

这并不是说整部小说就毫无瑕疵。小说中有两百多页都是在渲染诡异离奇的氛围以推动故事的开展，这种弥漫在整部小说中的离奇感却意味着，当更恐怖的元素最终出现时读者其实很难被惊艳到。不过《局外人》在注入新观念的同时也的确满足了广大粉丝的需要，果然不出所料：那便是一如既往的大师水准。