Customer Reviews

Umney's Last Case (Penguin 60s)

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A private eye from the `30s walks around his town one morning and notices things are a bit... off. Things seem vague and people act differently to him. When he reaches his office he finds out that the man waiting for him holds the answers to all of these questions and more - the meaning of his life!

This edition is one of Penguin's small paperbacks they do every now and then, often taking short stories or novellas and putting them out like this. "Umney's Last Case" is a long-ish short story/novella (I never know the cutoff page limit is between terms) originally published in "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" so if you've got that, you've got this (and probably read it too).

I liked Stephen King's writing in this story. He captures the era nicely and there are a number of homages to writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett throughout. Mostly though, King doesn't ramble like he sometimes does with his more recent works. This is a well paced story that reads very well and goes into unexpected and dark places that fans of King's look forward to.

An interesting story and a good read - if you liked this I'd suggest buying his collection of stories that this book came from, "Nightmares and Dreamscapes".

I had looked for this book for quite a long time without any success. I found the book through Amazon.com, received it recently (haven't had a chance to read it yet), and will read it as soon as I have time. The book is in good shape and I look forward to reading it soon. I'd definitely buy from this seller again!