Stephen King is a specialist at getting inside your head and then re-arranging the neurons, and with the Green Mile he does it again.

My first and most regular contact with him as a writer was through Carrie, The Shining, Christine and the like, where the suspense and the horror were kind of waiting around every corner, but masked by the normality of U.S Hot Rod culture.

This book, like Dolores Claiborne and Geralds Game, hits you from a totally different direction.

After a few pages, I didnt think I would like it, in fact I didnt want to like it.

The characters, all from an age I didnt recognise, were flawed as usual but in a decaying pungent sort of way, and the plot seemingly centred on a two dimensional relationship against a one dimensional backdrop.

That though is where he worked his craft, because I stayed with it and enjoyed the read as he built theses decaying characters and depressed backdrop into people you could recognise and support or vilify.

The strength of the book is in the richness of the character building and of the evocation of a time and place which will be unfamilar to all of us.

The only weakness is that in common with many of Kings later books he does such a great job over many chapters building the characters and complex relationships that the actual final act seems somehow rushed and an after thought.

There is always a slight feeling of "well is that it then?" and a question mark over some of the information which King imparts in great detail during the character building.

This is not for "horror" novel fans who like their blood by the bucket load, and zombies with staring eyes and rotting limbs, but it again proves that King is one step ahead of our imaginations.

Read it without being afraid to turn out the light.