“The Outsider” follows the story of a detective, Ralph Anderson, who arrests Terry Maitland, the coach of a junior boy’s football team, after a heinous crime occurs in Flint City. Though vehemently stating his innocence, Terry’s defense falls on deaf ears, and Ralph pushes through on calling him a criminal. Eventually, the entire investigation leads to tragic events that force Ralph to regret not digging into the details of the crime.
The story begins when a tragic day unfolds in Flint City as a man walking his dog discovers the remains of a mutilated and sexually assaulted boy, Frankie Peterson. After an investigation by Detective Ralph Anderson, a murder suspect emerges, Terry Maitland, the coach of the Little Boys League.
“The Outsider” follows a popular Stephen King writing style. Stephen is fond of starting his novels with brutal scenes that set a mysteriously horrific undertone for what is to come in the story; this one is no different as it begins with the death of a young and sweet child. Stephen using children’s deaths enhances the fear and disgust factor, as many people are irked by the idea of an innocent child murdered in cold blood.
With multiple witnesses seeing Terry with Frankie, Ralph is sure the coach committed the crime. After a consultation with a judge, he gets permission to lead the early arrest of Terry to prevent another crime from occurring.
After publicly arresting Terry in a crowd of 1600 spectators, Ralph brings Terry in for questioning but begins doubting himself when he notices the lack of guilt or fear in Terry’s eyes. With the arrival of Howie Gold, Terry’s lawyer, Ralph, and Bill Samuels, the Defense Attorney of Flint City, are shocked after Terry tells them of his strong alibi, which places him in Cap City, far from the crime scene. After the public TV footage shows Terry and his colleagues in Cap City, Ralph is in disbelief.
The rising action begins when Arlene Peterson, Frankie’s mother, dies of a heart attack because she cannot handle the sadness that comes with her lovely boy’s death. Terry is taken to court for his arraignment to begin. He refuses a bulletproof vest to the court, and on arrival, panic ensues as Ollie, Frankie’s brother, fires a gun at him twice, hitting him lethally. Ralph kills Ollie and rushes to a dying Terry. Terry states he is innocent when Ralph asks for the truth; this confuses him further.
The sheer tragedy in the first part of “The Outsider” is almost unfathomable. Most novels ease readers into the details, but this story places bombshell after bombshell without giving readers time to digest everything occurring. It is as if Stephen intends to exert pressure and force everyone into a horror they are unwilling to face.
Ralph goes on administrative leave after Terry’s death. The coach’s case is eventually closed, but the detective decides to investigate further. Meanwhile, Grace, Terry’s youngest daughter, sees a man with a Play-Doh face and straw eyes.
Ralph continues investigating Terry’s case and digs up evidence proving Terry was indeed in Cap City. He begins doubting his initial arrest, as most witnesses claimed Terry ignored them even though he had spent all his life in Flint City and would have recognized them instantaneously.
During his investigation, Ralph discovers the van used to abduct Frankie was first stolen by a 12-year-old in Dayton, Ohio, around the same time Terry and his family were in Dayton. Ralph tries to meet Marcy, Terry’s wife, to talk to her about their visit to Ohio, but she turns him away. She later agrees to his demand but invites Howie and Alec Pelly, a retired detective working for Howie, to be present.
At the meeting, Sarah, Terry’s eldest daughter, tells Ralph that her father got injured after bumping into a male nurse at the hospital when he visited his father.
The first break occurs here. Ralph starts realizing he might have made a mistake; this realization forces him into a weird state of mind as his agreeing that Terry is innocent means he has to face the guilt of sending an innocent family man to an early grave.
The turning point occurs when Detective Jack Hoskins is called back from his vacation and asked to check out a barn where a call concerning Terry’s case occurred. On reaching the barn, Jack encounters a strange entity who touches him and disappears. He wakes up to discover a burn on his neck, and while in the bathroom, he sees the entity who tells him he is infected with cancer and must fulfill his wish.
Meanwhile, the entity Grace saw earlier visits her. He gives her a message, warning Ralph to back off to prevent him from harming anyone. Ralph’s wife, Jeanie, encounters the same entity Grace did and sees an inscription on his hands that says “CAN’T” and “MUST.”
At the same time, Alec hires Holly Gibson to help investigate Dayton for him, and she discovers that everything that had occurred was beyond the ordinary. Holly flies to Flint City to meet Alec, Howie, Marcy, Jeanie, Ralph, and Sablo. She tells them of the legend of El Cuco, an ancient shape-shifting monster who derived pleasure in killing and smearing the fat of his victims all over his body.
Creating monsters for horror stories can be challenging because one has to give the creatures some realism to their existence. Holly narrating the legend of El Cuco is Stephen King trying to inject some authenticity into the dreadfulness of his monster. He wants to show that something like this could exist in real life; this would likely induce fear in readers and bolster the horror factor of “The Outsider.”
Holly tells them of a similar incident that involved a nurse, Heath Holmes, arrested for killing two girls. Soon, the group deduces that a fake Heath Holmes was in the hospital when Terry was there. The group figures Heath had gotten a hold of Terry’s blood by injuring him.
The conflict begins when the group flies to Texas to prevent the next tragedy from occurring because they deduce the next victim of El Cuco was Claude Bolton due to a similar tattoo to the one on the hands of the entity that visited both Jeanie and Grace.
The climax begins when The Outsider tells Jack to travel to Texas and wait for the group so he can kill them all. On visiting Texas, the group meets Claude’s mother, who tells them of the Marysville hole, which was a site of death, and soon the group heads there, knowing El Cuco loved places of death and sadness.
It seems weird how terrible monsters in horror stories always employ people to aid in their nefarious activities. The Outsider (El Cuco) used fear to make Jack become his minion and to help destroy Ralph’s group. A question that forms in my mind is: Why are monsters even evil? Why go to great lengths just to kill others? Is The Outsider evil solely because he is cruel, or is he just following the laws of nature and trying to feed?
On their way to the cave, Jack assumes a sniper position and fires three shots, killing Howie and Alec and injuring Sablo by causing their car to explode. Ralph and Holly enter the cave after taking Sablo to safety to divert Jack from him.
The Outsider is pure evil, even worse than Pennywise (IT) because he premeditates on his actions before taking them. A creature that commits violent acts to feed may wiggle around the word evil, but one that stalks, conspires, schemes, and sexually assaults children is nothing but pure vileness.
After a brief standoff between Jack and Ralph, Jack dies from a gunshot. Ralph then encounters The Outsider, who warns him to resist firing inside the cave due to its fragility. The falling action occurs when Holly hits him with a sock stuffed with ball bearings after he tries to attack her in the final stance. He disintegrates, dying from her attack.
The resolution occurs after defeating The Outsider. Ralph and Holly return to living their lives, and Terry gets exonerated.
“The Outsider” is a harrowing tale of evil. It tries to quantify the vileness of monsters and digs into their psychics. Every aspect of the novel shows how evil can spread into society and destroy innocent people’s lives.
