The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King, book review

Stephen King may have caused more sleepless nights than any other writer in history, but his other work – such as the stirring novella that inspired The Shawshank Redemption – shows that his talents go far beyond just horror.

Here, he brings our attention back to another of his overlooked endeavours: the short story. "Please be careful," he advises. "The best of them have teeth." From King, one would expect nothing less.

The collection begins with a speed bump in the night, the story of an unmanned car, parked at a lonely spot on an American freeway. But inevitably, not all is what it seems: the vehicle has a mind of its own, and bloodily devours every curious passer-by who comes too close. Absurd, yes, but an effective scene-setter for what proves to be a tense inventory of stories.

Among them "The Dune", which follows a man given a glimpse into the future by mysterious writing in the sand; "That Bus in Another World", about a murder witnessed through the window of a cab; and "Bad Little Kid", which documents the life of a man whose every happiness has been destroyed by a cruel and creepily immortal little boy. They are classic King: simple, haunting and with a sting in the tail, but amid the scares, there are other stories that display King's more sensitive side.

"Under the Weather" explains the emotional pressures put on a husband nursing an apparently sick wife; "Mister Yummy" sees an elderly man come to terms with his impending death; and "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation" presents a grown-up son's regular trip to a diner with his dementia-plagued father.

They are effective stories: King manages to portray a remarkable depth of character within the swiftness of a short story and manoeuvres a vast range of plots.

But there is a distracting imbalance: "Mile 81", closing with a high death count and the echo of screams, is followed by an understated portrait of an unremarkable couple's ill-fated trip to the supermarket.

The inconsistency is made all the more evident by the sheer volume of the work: the collection weighs in at almost five hundred pages, hindered by individual introductions which add little to the reading experience.

There are treasures to be found in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams and those who love King – for his drama, his horror or even his mediocre poetry – will find much to savour. But the anthology runs out of steam before the close, perhaps due to a lack of thematic coherence.

King is a versatile author whose straddling of theme is impressive, but this lengthy anthology is unlikely to keep more casually acquainted readers up at night in fear. In fact, it might just send them to sleep.

Hodder & Stoughton, £20. Order £16 inc. p&p from the Independent Bookshop