The Dark Half
Stephen King

When Thad Beaumont wakes to the nightmare of George Stark, he hears birds, thousands of them, all cheeping and twittering at the same time, and with the sound comes a presentiment full of memory and foreboding: The sparrows are flying again.
That Beaumont is a writer, and for a dozen years he secretly published novels under the name of "George Stark" because he was no longer able to write under his own name. He even invented a slightly sinister author biography to satisfy the many fans of Stark's violent bestsellers. But Thad is a healthier and happier man now, the father of infant twins, and starting to write as himself again. He no longer needs George Stark, and in fact has a good reason to lay Stark to rest. So, with nationwide publicity, a bit of guilt, and a good deal of relief, the pseudonym is retired.
In the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, where Thad and his wife Liz keep a summer home, Sheriff Alan Pangborn ponders the brutal roadside murder of a man named Homer Gamache. When Homer's pick up truck is found, the bloody fingerprints of the perpetrator are all over it. They match Thad Beaumont's exactly. Armed with hard evidence, Pangborn pays the Beaumont's a visit, and suddenly he too is thrust into a dream so bizarre that neither criminal science nor his own sharp mind can make sense of it.
At the center of the nightmare is the devastating figure of George Stark, That Beaumont's dark half - impossibly alive and relentlessly on the loose - a killing machine that destroys everyone on the path that leads to the man who created him. As Stark approaches, as Thad and Liz contend with the escalating horror and implacable threat of his existence and Thad reaches deep inside his own mind to mount a defense, forces gather in the air above Castle Lake, outriders of the dead to the land of the living...to whom do they belong?

This is an absolutely fascinating and very original novel. A writer who takes on a pen name (as many do), then decides to retire it and write as himself again - only the pen name becomes very real and alive and takes bloody vengeance on those that tried to "kill" him.

All of the crimes that Stark commits leads the authorities back to Beaumont, however, Beaumont has air tight alibis for most of the crimes. This confuses police - especially when the fingerprints and the voice prints of Beaumont and Stark are exactly the same.

It is also found out that Beaumont had an identical twin that was "absorbed" by him when he was still in the womb of his mother. So perhaps there are two sides to him, one light and one dark, and for the dark one to survive and stay real, the light one must fade.

This is a novel I would highly recommend. Not only is it groundbreakingly original, but as with all of King's novels, the characters are well fleshed out, and the reader feels pulled into the world of Thad Beaumont. It's a book that's difficult to put down. You keep wanting to read just one more chapter.

The plot impressed me the most, seeing as how many plots out there can be compared with something else. If you're a fan of King, or if you like this type of book, definitely read it.

My rating: Four and a half out of five snails.