Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Stephen Kingcast, one man's musings on the works of Stephen King.

Each week, I'll review one entry in the bibliography of Stephen King in the chronological order of publication.

And just a note on this particular episode, if you're listening to this, please note that this is the second part of a two-part episode, the first episode being the first half of my review of Stephen King's Needful Things.

It was such a long episode.

I had to split it into two parts, of which you are listening now to the second part.

So without further enjoyment, without further ado, let's try it again.

Without further ado, please enjoy.

Like I said, King teases the events yet to come in the final pages of part one.

When Gaunt acknowledges to himself that business is so good, it's time to take on an assistant.

The reader immediately sits up at that.

Who would an assistant to Leland Gaunt even look like?

Would that assistant be even human?

King gives us the answer to these questions nearly right away.

He provides a great introduction, or reintroduction, rather,

to an iconic King character, if you count the movies.

Played with the snake-like charm and the classic Stand By Me,

by Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland,

the villainous Ace Merrill, has returned.

If it's the last Castle Rock story, then it's necessary to include its bully, and King acknowledges that he acknowledges the body with the names of the characters from the novella.

Despite the fact that Castle Rock is a town that has existed since the early days of King's career, there aren't many characters who we've seen bounce from story to story.

Buster, Polly, Norris, Allen, all of these characters are characters that were first introduced

or mentioned only two books ago with the dark half.

...