I bumped in to the first review I've seen of Full Dark, No Stars. It was by Stephen McGinty writing for The Scottsman. McGinty spoke very highly of the stories.
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We are first given this quick summery, "1922" and "A Fair Extension", the first and third stories, are average entertainments. "Big D, River" is a brutal story of rape and revenge, which has the feel of an old-school pulp, but elevated by stark insights and a relentless momentum. The story of a mystery writer served up as a treat to a psychotic son by his mother is genuinely disturbing, but nowhere near as chilling as "A Good Marriage", the final tale..
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McGinty compares King's Story, A Good Marriage, to the disturbing feelings encountered first reading Red Dragon. I remember having those same terrified feelings reading Red Dragon! A Good Marriage is about a mother with two grown children, who decides to clean out the garage while her husband is away. She discovers evidence that he is a serial killer. Now that is seriously messed up, gang! Of course, it's also why we read Stephen King.
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This final, energetic endorsement is offered: "The genius of King is not the fecundity of his imagination, great though it is, but the empathy he can create between the reader and a character, and for all their horrors his books are accurate portraits of blue collar life. He is, I believe, our Dickens, and not a national, but global treasure."
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