Joyland by Stephen King

Joyland by Stephen King
Audiobook Review
Narrated by Michael Kelly
7 Hours and 33 Minutes
Crime Noir.

Joyland is a amusement park in North Carolina near the ocean.  Devon Jones is a college student in need of a summer job and he gets one working at Joyland.  The year is 1973 and Devon arrives with a broken heart, in need of a distraction.  He learns of the rules of the park from the true carnys.  He makes new friends, wears the fur and learns of the legend the ghost who still haunts the funhouse.  This promises to be one interesting summer.

When the summer ends, Devon decides to stay in North Carolina and work at Joyland instead of returning to college.   He decides to launch his own investigation, along with a friend, to try and figure out who killed the woman in the funhouse of fear.  He makes a visit to the fortune teller who tells him his "future", a future that includes saving lives.  What ensues is an absolutely wonderful story, page-turning story.

The narrator of Joyland is awesome and I absolutely loved his voice and his telling of the story.  Joyland is part mystery, part ghost story, part love story and one damn good audio book.  The characters are colorful, and unique and the setting is perfect.  Stephen King has a reputation for scary and this book was not scary (which is good, I hate scary).  There is a definite softer side to this story that propelled me to keep listening.  Listening to the audio of Joyland was a great experience.  I didn't want to get out of my car.

King is a master storyteller.  I have now read two books by King.  The Green Mile (amazing) and Joyland (really good).  Hmmm, which King book should I read/listen to next??