King of the Dark Episode 10: Dolores Claiborne

Welcome back to King of the Dark, our special summer series on the B&N Podcast, a journey across the incredible spectrum of Stephen King's fictional creations. Every week this summer, the writers Liz Braswell and Louis Peitzman join B&N's BIll Tipper in a quest to take on as many of Stephen King's most intriguing books as we can fit into a single thrill-packed season. Last week we talked about 1992's trapped-in-handcuffs fever dream, Gerald's Game. The same year, King published a very different story in the novel Dolores Claiborne, but one that maintained some peculiar connections with the story told in Gerald's Game. Dolores Claiborne was a formal departure by King — a long monologue told in the unique voice of the title character. Dolores is a 65-year-old widow, a resident of a tiny island community off the coast of Maine, and she's the suspect in the death of her employer. The story she unfolds is part crime thriller and part family mystery, and intersects unexpectedly with a solar eclipse that has some... extra effects. Dolores is one of Stephen King's most arresting and completely drawn characters, and one thing Liz, Louis and Bill agreed on — her narrative makes for a work of undeniable power.

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We're no longer producing new episodes of this show, but you can find us now at Poured Over on Apple Podcasts. Every author has a story beyond the one that they put down on paper. The Barnes & Noble Podcast goes between the lines with today's most interesting writers, exploring what inspires them, what confounds them, and what they were thinking when they wrote the books we’re talking about.