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Title details for Mile 81 by Stephen King - Available

Mile 81

by Stephen King
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available
Mile 81 is Stand by Me meets Christine—the story of an insatiable car and a heroic kid.
At Mile 81 on the Maine turnpike is a boarded up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door – and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids – Rachel and Blake Lussier – and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 1, 2011

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781451665604

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781451665604
      • File size: 9285 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 26, 2012
      In King’s short story, just off the highway in Maine a mud-covered car sits quietly at an abandoned rest stop where a young boy named Pete Simmons is exploring a boarded-up burger joint. But his innocent excursion becomes a nightmare when the car reveals itself to be an unearthly predator, luring unsuspecting passersby to a hideous fate. Thomas Sadoski provides smooth, matter-of-fact narration that acts as a counterpoint to the chilling and unnerving story line. In the bonus story, “The Dune,” former judge Harvey Beecher is addicted to visiting a certain sand dune located on a small island just off the coast of his old family estate on Pelican Point, Fla. Knowing his time is short, the 90-year-old reveals to his lawyer the preternatural messages he finds written in the sand during his visits. Edward Herrmann brings Beecher to life in what is essentially a monologue with a soft, craggy, Southern accent that acknowledges the character’s age, but shows an underlying strength fitting for a former judge. And that voice is a perfect match for the story’s spine-tingling conclusion.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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