The Colorado Kid

Title: The Colorado Kid

Author: Stephen King

Published in: 2005

Date read: 23rd July 2020

Score: 3/5

Genre: Mystery, Crime

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
"The Colorado Kid" by Stephen King, published in 2005, is a crime novella that deviates significantly from King's typical horror fare, offering a deliberately ambiguous and philosophical mystery rather than a clear resolution. It is part of King's "Hard Case Crime" series.

The story is framed as a narrative told by two veteran newspaper editors, Dave Bowie and Vince Teague, to a young journalism intern, Stephanie McCann, on a small, isolated island off the coast of Maine. They work for the Weekly Island Reader, a local paper specializing in strange and unexplained phenomena.

Their "mystery" is a cold case from 1980 that has fascinated them for years: the discovery of a dead man on a secluded beach. The man was found propped against a trash can, with no identification, two quarters in his pocket, and a pack of Russian cigarettes (which were not common in the US at the time). There were no signs of a struggle or foul play that conventional forensics could discern.

Through extensive investigation over decades, the local police, and later Dave and Vince, managed to identify the man as James Coggins, also known as "The Colorado Kid," from a small town in Colorado. They uncovered that he had simply vanished from his life there, seemingly without a trace or any known reason, only to reappear dead on a distant Maine beach.

The core of the novella is the unsolved nature of the case. Dave and Vince meticulously recount every detail they've unearthed about Coggins's life, his movements, the anomalies of the scene, and the various theories they've considered: Was he murdered? Did he commit suicide? Was it a bizarre accident? How did he travel thousands of miles without a car, train ticket, or any record of movement? Why did he have Russian cigarettes?

As they tell the story to Stephanie, they emphasize that despite all the information, the central questions remain unanswered. The point of the mystery, for them, is not finding a definitive solution, but embracing the mystery itself. It's about the inexplicable, the frustrating lack of closure, and the realization that sometimes, the universe doesn't provide neat answers.

"The Colorado Kid" is a contemplation on the nature of truth, memory, and storytelling. It challenges the reader's expectation for a resolution, celebrating the enigma rather than solving it, making it a unique entry in King's bibliography and a pure, hard-boiled mystery that resists easy answers.

Comments:
I started off confused then I had to find out the ending. When I could not, I have been more than happy to have made it up for myself, nobody (other than SK himself) can tell me that I am wrong.

Books that we've read by Stephen King (68):
Carrie (1974), 'Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (The Shining, #1) (1977), The Stand (1978), Night Shift (1978), The Dead Zone (1979), Firestarter (1980), Cujo (1981), The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) (1982), Different Seasons (1982), Christine (1983), Cycle of the Werewolf (1983), Pet Sematary (1983), The Talisman (The Talisman, #1) (1984), Skeleton Crew (1985), It (1986), The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2) (1987), The Eyes of the Dragon (1987), The Tommyknockers (1987), Misery (1987), The Dark Half (1989), Four Past Midnight (1990), The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3) (1991), Needful Things (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1992), Gerald's Game (1992), Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993), Insomnia (1994), Rose Madder (1995), The Green Mile (1996), Desperation (1996), Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4) (1997), Bag of Bones (1998), The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999), Hearts in Atlantis (1999), On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), Black House (The Talisman, #2) (2001), Dreamcatcher (2001), Everything's Eventual (2002), From a Buick 8 (2002), Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5) (2003), Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6) (2004), The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7) (2004), The Colorado Kid (2005), Cell (2006), Lisey's Story (2006), Duma Key (2008), Just After Sunset (2008), Under the Dome (2009), 11/22/63 (2011), Full Dark, No Stars (2011), The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5) (2012), Dr. Sleep (The Shining, #2) (2013), Joyland (2013), Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1) (2014), Revival (2014), The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015), Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #2) (2015), End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #3) (2016), Elevation (2018), The Outsider (2018), The Institute (2019), If It Bleeds (2020), Billy Summers (2021), Later (2021), Fairy Tale (2022), Holly (2023), You Like It Darker (2024)