The Green Mile, a colloquial name for Death Row in a 1930's US county jail, has seen many criminals pass through - spending a little while there before their final walk to the electric chair, they have time to contemplate, regret or simply raise havoc!

We join the staff at Cold Mountain prison, and hear strange tales from the hand of one of those employees, who describes several months of activity on the Mile in 1932 - in particular, the arrival of one John Coffey, who causes more than the normal amount of trouble, but in ways nobody expects.

My Thoughts

The Green Mile started off as an experiment by King and his publishers - it was published in six monthly episodes (which didn't affect me, since I didn't start reading them until they were all released!). This idea was inspired by writers of yesteryear, who often used to publish their stories in parts, through the media of monthly magazines. It's an idea that works well - although I read all six in one go, I could imagine how the suspense could work.

Of course, this is in a completely different vein from King's Dark Tower series, the fourth instalment of which has only just been published, after a gap of several years since the third one! Poor old Stephen still receives a lot of angry mail about this...

The Green Mile does not have the intensity of many of King's more conventional novels, but has a great deal of emotional content, as we follow the last days of several condemned prisoners on 'E Block' at Cold Mountain. It will probably be no great surprise to you to hear that there are supernatural forces involved somewhere along the road, but they are cleverly and naturally written in to the rest of the plot.

An entertaining (if short-lived) read...

Another novelty with The Green Mile is that a WWW site was created to follow the series, and this is still around - a nice screen saver is available from there.