Blaze
Richard Bachman (Stephen King)

At 6'7" and just under 300 pounds, Clay Blaisdell is one big mother, but his capers were just small time until he met George Rackley. George introduced him to a hundred cons and one big idea: kidnapping the child of rich parents. The Gerards are filthy rich, and the last twig on the family tree could be worth millions. There's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, the brains of the partnership is dead.
Or is he?
Now Blaze is running into the teeth of a howling storm and the cops are closing in. He's got a baby as a hostage, and the Crime of the Century just turned into a race against time in the white hell of the Maine woods.

I have no idea why King wanted to write this book under his pseudonym when it fully lives up to his other works. It's amazingly well written, the characters are beyond well fleshed out, and there's an almost supernatural element to it (for awhile, it seems George is still with Blaze as a ghost - but in reality he's now just a fragment of Blaze's mind... or is he).

The lead character, Blaze, is both the villain of the book (you can't be a hero when you're kidnapping a six month old child), but he's a sympathetic villain. From knowing his origins of having been thrown down a flight of stairs three times in a row by his father (which left him mentally handicapped) to his growing up in an boy's home because his father was unfit, there are reasons he turned out the way he did. And even after the kidnapping, he tries to protect the baby, even with his own life, at all costs. He asks for one million in ransom (trying not to be too greedy), but wishes he could keep the child for himself, so that he could have a companion and no longer be alone.

Yet you also have to be sympathetic to the parents who have lost their child and to the police when Blaze accidentally kills some of them merely due to not knowing his own strength.

This book is engaging, heartfelt, and action packed. I would highly recommend it. Even if you're not a fan of Stephen King's regular novels, chances are you will like Blaze.

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