Blood & Smoke

Stephen King as the new Marlboro Man? Sure, why not. The man can do anything, it seems, as he blazes trails on the page, at the movies, and in the e-book trade. In this case, he validates the audio book market by releasing Blood & Smoke exclusively on cassette (or CD).

The collection is Virginia-slim, offering up only three stories, but they are unfiltered, full-flavor horror stories linked by the smoke-ring theme of cigarettes. Smoking is a nasty habit with severe consequences, as King’s cancer-stick sucking characters soon find out.

In the first story, “Lunch at the Gotham Café,” downtrodden Steve Davis decides to shuck smoking just days after his wife leaves him. King expertly equates the two kinds of addiction and withdrawal. Steve’s obsessive mind is seriously tweaking by the time meets with his wife and her lawyer at a trendy Manhattan bistro, where the real horror begins. Between Steve, the maniacal maitre d’ and the cleaver-clutching cook, the term “smoker’s hack” takes on a whole new meaning.

The next tale, “1408,” introduces us to Mike Enslin, bestselling author of paranormal pabulum. Mike once worked for the Village Voice and dreamed of being a Yale Younger Poet… but he’s ended up a hack, writing horror. Horror that keeps him very well, but doesn’t feed his soul. In 1408, he’s doing research for his next book, spending the night in New York City’s most haunted hotel room. The proprietor does everything he can to talk the writer out of staying in Room 1408. He recounts the grisly tales of the 12 suicides that took place in that room, and how maids over the years have been terrorized by some malevolent, unseen spirit. Mike, a newly-nonsmoking, nonbeliever who has never actually encountered any of the ghosts he’s written about, is steadfast. He insists, and is given the key. The key to his own doom. This is one foul phantom, but Mike escapes with his sanity just in the nicotine — er, nick of time. Or does he?

The final tale in this trilogy of terror is entitled, “In the Deathroom.” The deathroom is the bloodstained basement of the Ministry of Information in South America in which Fletcher, a reporter who dropped the habit long ago, is being held for questioning. His captors will use any tortuous means necessary to extract the information they want from him. His only hope lies with his final request — one last Lucky Strike.

King is the reader, and while I worship his writing, I must say his nasal, sarcastic delivery and fake accents became a bit of a drag (particularly in “Deathroom” which was definitely the weakest in the pack). The music was also overbearing and intrusive at times. But King’s stellar storytelling skills filter out any of my trivial criticisms — he throws you headlong into the blood and smoke with his horrified protagonists, and you can feel their painful withdrawal, paranoia, desperation and fear. The fliptop cigarette-box packaging is a cleverly Kool nice touch, too.

Even if you’re an audio book virgin, give in to your King habit and pick up this carton of chills and thrills that really kill.

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson