The Library Policeman (Stephen King)

The Library Policeman
The Four Past Midnight series, Story 3
Stephen King
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, Horror
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: It was all the acrobat's fault. If the man scheduled to perform at the Junction City Rotary Club on Friday night hadn't fallen and injured his neck so bad, insurance salesman Sam Peebles never would've been recruited at the last minute to give a speech. And if he hadn't needed to write a speech, he never would've gone to the city library for books on public speaking. He hasn't liked libraries since he was a kid, and the moment he steps into the Junction City library building, he feels something wrong, off-putting, even malevolent - especially when he sees the creepy posters in the children's area, threatening children with bodily harm and promising a scary visit from the "Library Policeman" if they returned books late. Something about that poster catches in Sam's mind, which may explain why he's a little short with the old woman librarian who so kindly lends him two books from the library's "special collection".
The speech is a rousing success, and soon Sam's insurance business is booming... but he almost forgets about the books that helped him until he gets a phone call from Ardelia Lortz, the librarian. Only the books have gone missing. Stranger still, when he goes down to the library to take his lumps, the building he walks into looks nothing like the place he visited before - and there's no sign of the old woman ever having worked there at all. Yet still, Ardelia calls... and still, she threatens him with the "Library Policeman" if he fails to return the missing books.

REVIEW: A creepy premise, intriguing characters, and plenty of chills and unsettling action... this is what one usually wants from Stephen King, and what this story delivers. Sam is an ordinary man who starts with a very small and ordinary problem: writing a last-minute speech. Even the guy who ropes him into it tells him he can say pretty much anything so long as it fills half an hour, as odds are half the crowd will be drunk anyway, but Sam can't bring himself to half-bake any project. Besides, the Rotary Club is a good place to make business contacts and network, and some of the city's real movers and shakers are sure to be there; isn't it worth a little extra effort to make a good impression? Thus, when his part-time secretary Naomi tells him that his practice speech seems too dry and suggests a visit to the library to find material to help, Sam overcomes his nearly-bone-deep aversion to libraries to go... only, from the start, there's something not right about the building, or with the librarian Lortz. Even before he clashes with her over the gruesome posters in the children's area, he has an instinctive revulsion to the woman, even when she's saying and doing all the right, nice things. Still, he might have written it all off to nerves... but, of course, things escalate, even before he realizes the books have been irretrievably lost. Worse, when he mentions the name of Ardelia Lortz to anyone in Junction City, he gets a cold shoulder worthy of a blizzard. As more things go wrong and more terrifying incidents occur, Sam must not only unravel the secret of Lortz, but delve into his own past and the reason why he, of all people, has been targeted by her wrath.
There are a few times where King nearly loses the story in the weeds of backstory and details, but he keeps things interesting and the tension high. It may not be top-notch King, and not nearly as memorable as some of his other creations, but it's reasonably solid.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Ink and Bone (Rachel Caine) - My Review
Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill) - My Review
The Langoliers (Stephen King) - My Review