Duma Key

Duma Key by Stephen King book was recommended to me by an old coworker. We had been sitting around the breakroom table talking about books, I mentioned that I love Bag of Bones by Stephen King and he said if I hadn’t read Duma Key yet, I didn’t know what I was missing. So, upon finding a used copy for relatively cheap, I decided I should read it. And what better time than on a 14 hour flight to Dublin, Ireland?

A synopsis of the plot:

Edgar Freemantle, a once very successful contractor, survives a horrific accident on a construction site one day. He is nearly crushed inside his truck by a crane. He loses his right arm, has a major head injury, and his legs/hips are broken. 

His wife leaves him. 

He moves to Florida looking to reinvent himself, or if nothing else, kill himself and make it look like an accident so his daughters don’t find out. 

Edgar rents a house which he affectionately names Big Pink because of its salmon color. While he is staying at Big Pink he begins to draw. His talent starts to develop at a raging speed, and it always seems to happen when his phantom right arm begins to itch like crazy.

Down the way from Big Pink is another large house which is occupied by Elizabeth Eastlake, a very wealthy old woman who is beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s, and her caretaker Wireman. Edgar and Wireman befriend one another and the mystery of Miss Eastlake’s family begins to emerge, as well as the reason for why Edgar’s talent for art is becoming so … supernatural. 

Anyway, it was a pretty good book. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Bag of Bones - what with the interesting back story and everything - but it was lacking something to make me enthralled with it like I get with Bag of Bones.

It’s not my favorite, but it’s definitely not bad. It is an interesting, relatively easy book to get through. If you are looking for something entertaining for a 14 hour flight, then it’s a pretty good choice. It’s just lengthy enough to last the whole time (in between tiny, adorable little airplane meals) and compelling enough to make you want to keep reading.

On to reading!