I love the Haven series. I bought this hoping it would give me more of a backstory and details of the town and the characters but I was so wrong. I normally like King's work, but this failed me in every way. The show's disclaimer should state, instead of "Based on The Colorado Kid," "This novel contains two of the characters and a reference to the title character, but otherwise has nothing to do with the TV series."Now I understand why, in spite of a successful TV show, the book was not reprinted. The owner did not want to field complaints from hundreds of thousands of disappointed buyers.If you have never seen "Haven," and are a Stephen King completist, then this is a worthy addition. But do not in any way assume that the two complement each other. If I could resell an E-book I would sell this one. Or donate it to the Goodwill.

it was a total disappointment all the way around...BORING <IMHO > not worth the time it took to read...if any one watches the TV spin-off, of this book < HAVEN> watch that...it is more entertaining/ interisting ! I AM TOTALLY DISAPPOINTED IN THIS BOOK...a total low for SK..

If anyone else but Stephen King wrote this book, it never would have seen print. It moves at a painfully slow pace, its characters are cardboard cutouts with no plausibility at all, and, worst of all, its "big surprise" is that it gives NO solution to the mystery it proposes. The cover has nothing to do with the book, and sadly the cover is by far the best part.I will try another volume in this publisher's series, but Stephen King should be ashamed of himself. And his lame and badly-written "Afterword" does nothing to justify this book's existence at all.

I have read other books in this series and simply put this novel does not fit in with the rest - or with the cover image the publishers have given it. King may be a great author (as the four pages of quotes in the front claim) but this is not a Hard Case Crime story.From the cover one would expect a fast paced, noir thriller, with a femme fatal, and probably some sex, maybe gun play or conflict of some sort. If this is want you want look elsewhere because you won't find them here. The pace is glacial, the characters dull, and the conflict non-existent. You might as well be reading a book about three people watching paint dry. Furthermore mystery fans will find the story structure very unsatisfying.As a experimental novel it might be interesting or even genius, as a noir pulp thriller it's a dud.

As an avid King fan for over 25 years, with the exception of the Dark Tower saga, I have read every book he had ever written. Naturally, I couldn't pass up a Stephen King pulp fiction stint. Uncharacteristically, this one bored me to death and finally knocked me unconscious with the abrupt, non-existent ending.This one succeeds in pulling you in with an enticing back cover quip that you'll see in a different light once you're finished with the book. I couldn't help feeling I'd been baited visciously.Stephen, how could you?

Don't get me wrong ... I'm a long-time fan of both crime fiction and Stephen King, so this novel looked like a sure thing to me! After reading it, however, I feel less like a fan and more like a victim of a practical joke. In my opinion, this is not a novel -- it's a piece of a manuscript that King should have kept in his desk drawer until he was ready to finish it.He sets up a nifty puzzle, then writes, apparently, until he reaches the minimum word count required by contract, then simply stops. After that, he has the gall to justify it in an afterword, explaining that an unsolved mystery is a metaphor for The Great Mystery of Life.That's all very well, if it's what King wants to do. But it should never have been published under the Hard Case imprint, which leads bookbuyers to expect a tale that adheres to the conventions of the pulp crime genre.