"A Good Marriage" from Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

Okay, here’s the final review on the fourth novella in Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. The story is “A Good Marriage” and if this doesn’t have the married female readers out there thinking, then the Maestro has lost his touch, and that definitely hasn’t happened in my opinion.

Imagine being married to a loving husband for twenty or more years. He’s a great guy who treats you the way a man should, and he’s been a wonderful father to your two kids. Now, let’s take this a step further. Suppose your husband is out of town for a few days and you happen to go into the garage to look for some batteries. You accidentally stub your toe on a box that’s sticking out from underneath the garage counter. When you search through the box to see what’s in it, you discover old catalogues and something else at the bottom—a magazine about men torturing bound women. Okay, you think. Maybe my husband has a secret fetish and bought a couple of mags to satisfy those inner cravings he’s never mentioned to you. But, when you push the box back under the counter, you discover a hidden niche that contains a wooden box you gave to your husband as a gift. In the box are the blood donor card, library card, and driver’s license of a woman who was recently murdered. You know because you saw her picture on the television news. Now, you’re thinking something else, and it scares you because your wonderful, loving husband can’t be the man who murdered the woman in the pictures. Besides, she was murdered by a serial killer who has been in business for the last two decades. You know your husband, and there’s no way he could be a serial killer who has been performing gruesome acts on unsuspecting females for over twenty years. Because your husband is an accountant and has kept his records of his business travels for two decades, you decide to check the dates and locations of the killings to see if they match when your husband was out of town. After all, you have to be sure. But, then, oh, my God, they do match! What do you now do now? Who’s going to believe you? If it’s proven that your husband is the killer, who’s going to believe you didn’t know about it all from the beginning and maybe even helped him? What’s going to happen to your children with the stigma of having a serial killer for a father lands on their shoulders? Well, at least you have a day or two to come up with an answer. So what if your husband called to see how things were going, and you stayed calm and didn’t let on that you knew about his secret proclivities. You do have time to work on a solution, but first you need some sleep. It has been a stressful evening. When you wake up during the night, you suddenly find your husband sitting on the edge of the bed beside you. He knows that you know and the shit is getting ready to hit the fan!

That's the premise for “A Good Marriage” and it doesn’t stop there. There are more twists and turns ahead as Darcy Anderson attempts to figure out what to do to protect herself and her children. You see it’s not easy being married to someone like Hannibal Lector…someone who may make you his next victim if the wrong word is spoken or the wrong look given.

The final novella will have you thinking about what you would do in a similar situation, ladies. And make no mistake, you could be married to a serial killer and not even know it. Heh, heh, heh! The author captures the stark realization and absolute fear that can overcome an individual when she suddenly finds out that her spouse is not the man she thought she married…that he’s actually a very dangerous and cunning creature who loves to torture and kill for the sheer pleasure of it.

This story, like the first two, is Stephen King at his best. He pulls no punches in the development of his characters, showing that serial killers can have their good moments, too. The Maestro lures you into this tale of deception and horror with a few simple sentences, but by then you’re caught inside the dark journey of one woman’s search for the understanding of how her life could change so drastically in just a few moments. Even more is the unexpected realization that you never truly know anyone, no matter how close you think you are to them. Everyone has their secrets, but some secrets are more terrible than others.

Full Dark, No Stars is an anthology that will leave you with a deeper understanding of humanity’s dark side. It’s harsh, brutal, and terrifying in every sense of the word. These stories will compel you to think about yourself and what you would do if caught in a similar situation. There are no right answers…only an understanding that when push comes to shove, we will do whatever it takes to survive. I believe that’s a part of our genetic makeup. There are a lot of good, decent people out there in the world today who try to live a life filled with hope, honesty, fairness, doing good deeds for others, and seeing the positive in everything. Of course, there are also others in the world who have an innate personality that’s filled with nothing evil in its purest sense and feeds off the suffering and pain of others. For those who are like that, they must be fought and destroyed so the rest of humanity can survive. Sometimes that means we have to be like them in order to win and to live through the ordeal.

Stephen King touches on all of this in his four stories. You won’t be able to come away unshaken and without a sense of having lost something precious like your innocence and naivete. This is profound stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Though written as horror fiction and entertainment, there are some lessons to be learned here. Anyway, read this anthology at your own risk and don’t say I didn’t warn you!