Rose Madder

Amazon.com Review After 14 years of being beaten, Rose Daniels wakes up one morning and leaves her husband -- but she keeps looking over her shoulder, because Norman has the instincts of a predator. And what is the strange work of art that has Rose in a kind of spell? In this brilliant dark-hued fable of the gender wars, Stephen King has fashioned yet another suspense thriller to keep readers right at the edge. From Publishers Weekly Relentlessly paced and brilliantly orchestrated, this cat-and-mouse game of a novel is one of King's most engrossing and topical horror stories. At the center of the action is heroine Rose McClendon, a battered wife who starts life anew by leaving her police officer husband, a consummately cruel man depicted by King as a paragon of evil. Crowded with character and incident, the novel builds to a nearly apocalyptic conclusion that combines the best of King's long novels?the breadth of vision of The Stand, for example?with the focused plot and careful psychological portraiture of Dolores Claiborne. The story of Rose's joyous growth from tortured wife (her persecution gruesomely but realistically portrayed) to independent woman alternates with the terrifying details of her husband's deliberate pursuit to create unflagging tension. The book is a phantasmagorical roller-coaster ride, peopled by a broad array of indelibly characterized men and women and fueled by an air of danger that is immediate and overwhelming. 1.75 million first printing; BOMC main selection; simultaneous Penguin Audio; paperback sale to Signet. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Ready Upoad : ? Rose Daniels saw the single drop of blood on the bed sheet--and knew she must escape from her macabre marriage before it was too late. But escape was not as easy as fleeing to a new city, picking a new name, finding a new job, lucking out with a new man. Her husband, Norman, was a cop, with a cop's training, a cop's technology, a cop's bloodhound instincts. And even worse, Norman was--well, Norman. Rose knew she had been married to a savage brute. Now she realized she was being tracked down by a terrifying monster--but the only place she found to hide could be the most dangerous one. --back cover

This is the story of Rose Daniels, "the most richly portrayed female King's ever created" (Detroit Free Press). Escape from her macabre marriage is not as easy as fleeing to a new city, picking a new name, finding a new job, and lucking out with a new man. Not with a husband like Norman...

New York Times - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Rose Madder is rarely dull. It builds to a vivid climax. . . . In Rose Madder Mr. King has a rousing story when he needs one and when he doesn't.

Rosie Daniels flees from her husband, Norman after fourteen years in an abusive marriage. During one bout of violence, Norman caused Rosie to miscarry their only child. Escaping to a distant city, Rosie establishes a new life and forges new relationships. Norman Daniels, a police officer with a reputation for cruelty, uses his law-enforcement connections to track his wayward wife. ([source][1]) [1]: https://stephenking.com/library/novel/rose_madder.html After suffering a miscarriage brought on by a beating, an abused wife leaves her husband, using his ATM card to buy a bus ticket out of town. The novel describes her struggle to begin a new life, then her husband, a sadistic police officer, comes looking for her. After fourteen years of beatings and abuse, Rose runs away from her husband. Unfortunately, he is a detective, and he has ways of finding her A grimmer than Grimm fairy tale for our times--from the master of the macabre, Stephen King. Fleeing a nightmare marriage, Rosie Daniels tries to lose herself in a place where Norman can't find her. But Norman is a cop--and very good at finding people. For Rosie to survive, she must enter her own myth--and become someone she never knew she could be