A child's violated corpse is found in the park. Eyewitnesses and DNA evidence quickly point to Terry Maitland, Little League coach, who is promptly arrested. As the case unfolds, Maitland insists he was out of town, something that is backed up by video footage. Could Maitland have been at two places at once, or is something more sinister at work?
It is the fourth instalment in the Holly Gibney series, preceded by the Bill Hodges Trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch) and followed by If It Bleeds, and Holly.
If you are looking for the acclaimed work of literary philosophy by Colin Wilson, that's a different book entirely. Also no relation to the H. P. Lovecraft short story or the sci-fi Webcomic Outsider.
Beware of unmarked spoilers.
Adapted into an HBO miniseries in 2020, also called The Outsider.
The novel provides examples of:
- Acoustic License: Averted. When Ollie Peterson starts shooting at Terry, he fires over a television anchor's shoulder, and the narration notes she was "no doubt deafened". When Jack Hoskins starts shooting at Ralph and friends with a .300 rifle, the narration notes he had neglected to pack shooter's plugs or cotton, and his ears ring so much he doesn't notice the warning rattle of a rattlesnake, which subsequently bites him. When Ralph shoots him three times with a pistol, the sound is noted to be "deafening".
- Agent Mulder: Ralph Anderson's wife, Jeannie, is very quick to conclude they must be dealing with something supernatural, since no natural explanation can be given for how Maitland could be in two places at once. Due to her experiences with Brady Hartsfield, Holly also has no trouble believing that something supernatural might be at work.
- Agent Scully: In contrast to his wife and Holly, Anderson is quite skeptical, and keeps trying to find a logical explanation before finally realizing Jeannie is right.
- Almost Dead Guy: Between Anderson and Maitland after the latter gets shot. Ralph tells Maitland he won't make it, and urges him to confess now while he still can. Maitland, however, uses his last breath to once again state his innocence, and ask Anderson how he's going to clear his conscience.
- And This Is for...: When Ralph finally shoots Hoskins, he fires three times, once each for Howard, Alec, and Yune. Interesting in that the last of these isn't dead by Jack's hand, but merely severely injured.
- Anti-Hero: Detective Anderson starts the story off this way, presented as something of a gung-ho Cowboy Cop whose ethically questionable arrest of Terry Maitland causes catastrophic damage to the lives of almost everyone involved in the Frank Peterson case. At the same time, he's also a loving and devoted family man, and the aftermath of the colossal fuckup in question is what pushes him to become The Atoner, as described below.
- The Atoner: Anderson becomes this after Maitland's death, as it very likely could've been avoided (or at least not been such a fiasco) if he hadn't made Maitland's arrest such a public affair to begin with. When Gold and Pelley are killed by a crazed Jack, he feels partially responsible because the chain of events that lead to their presence at Marysville lead back to Maitland's arrest; the only reason he doesn't feel more so is because of the involvement of the Outsider in the whole thing.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Outsider has almost certainly been killed, but the horror it wrought during its lifetime will be felt for years to come, and there may be others like it. Terry Maitland's name is posthumously cleared, and people are starting to come around to the idea of his innocence, but there will always be people who refuse to change their minds.
- Blackmail: The Outsider seems to give officer Jack Hoskins skin cancer when he investigates a barn the former had been using as a hideout, and orders him to kill Ralph Anderson and the others for him in return for getting cured. In reality, it's not cancer but a skin rash, which the Outsider says is temporary and similar to poison ivy.
- Call-Back: Due to Holly's presence, the events and characters of the Bill Hodges trilogy are brought up. Most notably, the Happy Slapper is utilized to great effect.
- Canon Welding: Possibly. The Outsider mentions ka from King's Dark Tower series. As mentioned in The Unreveal below, however, it's still unclear what exactly it is or how it knows about ka. Holly also describes "some force that tries to restore the balance" when discussing the serendipity of the Tommy & Tuppence flyer, but it's unclear if this force is Gan, her own wishful thinking, or something else entirely.
- Catapult Nightmare: Ralph has one near the end of the book, in which he sees the worms that were in the Outsider's head come out from under a fingernail and then flood out of his mouth.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: There is no cell phone reception at the Marysville Hole, or miles around it. Hence why the protagonists can't call for help when they are under attack by Hoskins. The Outsider knows about this, and thus doesn't believe Anderson when he claims that they called for backup.
- Cool Old Lady:
- June Gibson, the Peterson's elderly neighbor, who saves Fred Peterson after his Bungled Suicide by performing mouth-on-mouth resuscitation.
- Claude Bolton's mother Lovie Ann, who provides Ralph, Holly, and their other cohorts food and company, proves key to them finding the Outsider's hideout, and makes sure their plan works by sending Claude off for an errand, which makes it impossible for the Outsider to exploit their psychic link.
- Creepy Cave: The climax takes place in the Marysville Hole, a network of caves that are vast, dark, confusing and prone to collapse. Even before the Outsider made the caves its home, they were still dangerous. An entire rescue party who had been looking for two children lost in the caves became trapped by a cave-in and slowly perished in the dark.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While Frankie Peterson's murder is not shown on-page, police interviews and autopsy reports make it horrifically clear that his death was a brutal, gory mess. Later on, another case that is eventually connected to the Outsider comes to light, involving twin girls who may have had it worse than Frankie.
- Death by Adaptation: Ralph's son Derek has been dead for years in the HBO miniseries.
- Decoy Protagonist: In amazingly similar fashion to Janey in Mr. Mercedes, Terry Maitland is shot and killed halfway through the novel. Just as it happened all those books ago, his place as Deuteragonist is taken by Holly.
- Destroy the Evidence: When Anderson finds a book in Cap City that has Maitland's fingerprints on it, DA Samuels tries to coax him into destroying it (which would be easy since Anderson examined the book at home, and hasn't filed it as evidence yet). However, despite this new evidence even further undermining their case against Maitland, Anderson refuses and officially files the book as evidence.
- Dirty Coward: Minor character ADA Vernon Gilstrap, who tells Ralph and Sheriff Doolin to draw their guns to clear the almost-mob as Terry is walked into the courthouse - the narration notes that this order "was not only against protocol but insane". He also runs away down the street when Ollie Peterson starts shooting.
- Dissonant Serenity: The Outsider is initially perfectly calm when confronted by Ralph and Holly. He begins to panic when Ralph informs him that Jack's shooting out the fuel tank of the vehicle they came in means that there is smoke marking their presence. He completely loses it when Holly calls him a sexual sadist and common pedophile.
- Due to the Dead: Ralph is a believer in it: he drapes Terry's coat over his head after the latter is shot on the courthouse steps. He also drags Alec Pelley and Howard Gold's bodies into the shade and covers their faces after the confrontation with the Outsider, despite Yune's protests that this technically constitutes meddling with a crime scene. Later, Ralph, Holly, and Yune get a second hearse to transport Jack's body because "Yune spoke for all of them when he said there was no way the sonofabitch was going home with the men he had murdered".
- Eldritch Abomination: Even in the context of the universe of the Mercedes Trilogy, the Outsider is freakish, monstrous, and unknowable.
- Emotion Eater: In addition to eating flesh, the Outsider gains sustenance on negative emotions.
- Evil Twin: The Outsider effectively functions as this to whoever he is impersonating.
- Eye Scream: When Anderson is forced to shoot Ollie Peterson, his first shot misses because someone bumps into him at the last moment. The bullet instead strikes a shoulder-mounted camera, resulting in the lens exploding and glass shards ending up in the eye of the cameraman.
- Facial Horror: The Outsider does this in different ways. Its face resembles something like putty with straws for eyes before it starts taking on the form of its next target, which is how it first shows itself to Terry’s younger daughter. Earlier, when Ralph sees it at the courthouse before Terry’s arraignment, it appears to be someone with a badly burned face.]]
- Faux Affably Evil: The Outsider is superficially polite, but drops the act very quickly if it's not getting him what he wants. Notable examples include him mocking Grace Maitland in her dream and his extreme anger when Holly calls him out as the child rapist he is.
- Fate Worse than Death: Although she saved him, June Gibson quickly comes to regret her heroic deed and believes it would be better if she had let Fred Peterson die. He already lost his entire family, and now he's in a coma from which he might never wake up, and if he does his life will never be the same again due to the brain damage he suffered from near-suffocating.
- Friendship Moment: Ralph is at odds with Holly because he can't bring himself to believe in her theories, but eventually warms up to her, and he puts his arm around her and reassures her when she starts crying.
- Genre Shift: Within the novel, the story starts as a detective story, then gradually shifts towards a horror story involving a monster. For the Mercedes Saga as a whole, this story completes the gradual shift from hard-boiled detective stories set in a realistic world to more paranormal stories, by introducing the first Eldritch Abomination whereas the previous books all had human villains.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Jeannie brings Marcy up to speed about everything that happened in Marysville, Marcy is shocked and about to cry. Jeannie gives her a speech to this effect and tells her to pull herself together, because they all need to stick to the same (non-supernatural) story if they're to clear Terry's name.
- Hate Sink: The Outsider is a vile Serial Killer and pedophile who sadistically rapes, tortures, and even devours children. Beyond that, he's also just a massive dick who taunts Ralph and Holly and treats humans like animals.
- History Repeats: Holly once again bashes a terrible villain's brains out with the Happy Slapper. The Outsider is not so lucky as Brady Hartsfield, though; Holly dead-out beats the former to death with it.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Outsider is a shapeshifting monstrosity that can mimic a human right down to their DNA but wields a variety of outright supernatural powers, and between transformations looks human only in general shape, with poisonous, burned-looking skin and "eyes" that look more like bundles of straw than anything.
- Identical Stranger: Discussed: Ralph Anderson's wife, who loves detective novels, suggests they might be dealing with one of these, hence why Terry Maitland could seemingly be in two places at once. Ralph's counter to her argument is that a lookalike would still have different fingerprints and DNA, to which she offers the theory that maybe it was the double who went to the writer's conference in Cap City while Terry stayed in Flint City and committed the murder. Ralph also dismisses this since that would mean the double successfully fooled three of Terry's colleagues who went to the same conference.
- Ignored Epiphany: After a Sanity Slippage-undergoing Jack destroys some pictographs at the Marysville Hole out of anger that they will last longer than him, he wonders if he's crazy or heading there and questions the Outsider's honesty, but pushes the thoughts away.
- Improbable Age: Minor character Merlin "Merl" Cassidy has been on the run from his abusive stepfather for three months, stealing four cars in the process and making it from New York to Texas, at the tender age of 12. The cop that finds him lampshades this, saying that "[he] will be dipped in shit and spun backwards" at the revelation.
- Insane Troll Logic: Jack Hoskins spirals into this after his encounter with the Outsider and subsequent Sanity Slippage. For instance, he ends up at the conclusion that Ralph is out to ruin his life because the chief wants one detective on active duty, so pulled him off his fishing vacation: Ralph is on administrative leave and the other detective in the department is currently giving birth.
- Irony: While the main characters are crafting a non-supernatural story to explain their activities, Ralph notes to himself that people are unwilling to question apparent reality and that this unwillingness, which protected the Outsider, will also protect them. He even notes that "the irony was inescapable".
- While staking out a vantage point to shoot the protagonists from, Jack specifically appropriates a pitchfork to ward off rattlesnakes with, but leaves it there overnight; when he returns, a "real monster" of a rattlesnake is resting on it and he has to get it off with his rifle, and he notes the irony.
- Knuckle Tattoos: While in prison, Claude Bolton gave himself "CANT" and "MUST" finger tattoos as a self-enforcement of his vow to stay clean. As the Outsider takes on his form, it also manifests the tattoos but uses them for intimidation, especially to Jack Hoskins.
- Laughing Mad: Arlene Peterson, Frankie's mother, finally loses it after a busy day of people coming to their house to remember her son, console her, and celebrate that the killer has been caught. She goes into frenzied, hysterical laughter, starts throwing leftovers around, and dumps a tray of lasagna one of the visitors brought on her head while laughing how Frankie may be gone, but she won't have to cook for months. She finally stops when the excitement gives her a heart attack and is able to apologize to her husband before passing out.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you haven't read all three novels of the Bill Hodges trilogy, you will be spoiled on nearly everything of importance.
- Locked Out of the Loop: When the protagonists track the Outsider to Marysville and learn he has chosen Claude Bolton as his new appearance, they are forced to keep Claude in the dark about their plans since everything Claude knows, the Outsider knows. Claude realizes this danger and willingly allows himself to be locked out of the loop.
- The Lost Lenore: Holly misses Bill Hodges and frequently thinks of him.
- Masked Luchador: The Outsider is a kind of boogeyman in Mexican folklore, called el Cuco, and references are made to an old, extremely cheesy series of films about a team of luchadoras, one of which features them fighting the creature.
- Men Can't Keep House: Jack Hoskins apparently can't, if the "dried scum of soap and shampoo" in his shower is any indication.
- Missed Him by That Much: When Claude is driving back after being (voluntarily) Locked Out of the Loop, he unknowingly passes Jack Hoskins, and the narration lampshades how close they were meeting to each other.
- Missing Reflection: The Outsider does not show up on camera. Anderson first notices this when he can't see a severely burned and disfigured man on any of the news footage about Maitland getting shot, even though he clearly remembers such a man being present. Comparisons to vampires not casting reflections in mirrors are made.
- Mistaken Identity: Holly briefly mistakes Ralph for Bill Hodges when, after killing the Outsider and seeing Jack's body again, she starts crying and talking about how she can't do it again.
- Nice Guy: Alec Pelley is sympathetic to the plight of Marcy and her children and has a positive relationship with Gold, his boss. When he confronts Ralph over the latter's public arrest of Terry, he says the arrest was "fucked to the sky" but that he would have done the same thing or worse if he had a child that looked up to a child rapist. He also thinks quite highly of Holly and is willing to support her theories.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Anderson makes his public arrest of Terry with the best of intentions. Howie Gold, likewise, argues against Terry wearing a bulletproof vest with the intent to help him (on the grounds a bulletproof vest would make him look guilty). Both of these things directly contribute to Ollie Peterson, the victim's older brother, shooting Terry dead. Also, Alec's idea that the Outsider is in the gift shop of the Marysville Hole, instead of in the Hole itself, is reasonable based on prior evidence but incorrect. This, combined with Gold's suggestion that they all go into the gift shop, gets himself, Gold, and indirectly Jack killed, and Yune badly injured.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The Outsider tries to justify his behavior by comparing himself to humans eating cattle. Holly and Ralph have none of it, however.
- Oh, and X Dies: Downplayed, as it's not a death, but a passage following Marcy's perspective begins by marking the time, then parenthetically noting that it was around the time Frank Peterson was making a hangman's noose, even though the spoilered event technically happens a few hours later.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Averted during the shootout between Hoskins and the protagonists. Officer Yune Sable is shot in the elbow, breaking it and dislocating his shoulder from the whiplash of the impact. Ralph lampshades how in movies Yune would just shrug it off and continue, but in real life, even though no vital organs were hit, Yune is out of the game due to his injury.
- Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Discussed. After his arrest, Terry naturally demands his lawyer, to which officer Yates responds that Terry wouldn't need one if he were innocent.
- Only Sane Man: Ralph thinks he's this, but in reality is just refusing to believe that something like the Outsider could exist. Jeannie calls him out on this throughout the story. When he denies the possibility of supernatural involvement yet again, Yune snaps at him and says that he doesn't need to keep telling them how strange the whole thing is "like the only sane man in the lunatic asylum" and that Ralph needs to face the facts of the case.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted - there are three separate characters in the novel named June: the little girl who witnesses the Outsider disguised as Maitland shortly after the Peterson murder, the Petersons' elderly next-door-neighbour, and a minor character whose name is provided briefly as part of a family group.
- Police Brutality: Ralph confronts Maitland after the latter is arrested for allegedly violating and murdering a young boy; when Maitland starts talking about Ralph's son Derek, who was part of the baseball team Maitland coached, Ralph strongly considers beating up Maitland but is reminded of the security camera by a fellow officer. Also discussed: two black boys at the beginning of the book leave the area near the baseball field when they see police, and the narration notes that "Black lives matter, their parents had instructed them, but not always to [the police]."
- Poisonous Person: When the Outsider is in the process of changing form, his skin becomes poisonous to touch, though it only results in a severe skin rash like poison ivy or a sunburn. He uses this against Jack Hoskins.
- Poor Communication Kills: Discussed. Holly describes it as "Macy's doesn't tell Gimbels", and avoids it by promptly informing the investigators of the Hodges case in Ohio and the eerie similarities it has to Maitland's case, as well as her personal theories as to the identity of the killer in both.
- Psychic Link: The Outsider links his mind to the person whose appearance he copied, allowing him to access their memories and knowledge. The heroes discuss this when they've met Bolton, since the Outsider is currently in a "transitional period" and taking on Bolton's form; they send Bolton on an errand while they discuss the gathered evidence to make sure they're not eavesdropped on.
- Rapid DNA Test: Justified; in a letter from Dr. Edward Bogan to Detective Anderson, the former admits that usually DNA tests take weeks or even months to be performed due to the long line of samples waiting for analysis, but given the nature of the crime and the apparent solidity of the case against Maitland, they will put the ones connected to the Frank Peterson case at the head of the line.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Holly gives the Outsider this in response to his claims that he kills to survive, pointing out he doesn't need to hurt children and could just feed off adults, and is nothing more than a petty pedophile or sexual sadist.
- The Renfield: The Outsider blackmails Jack Hoskins into becoming his bodyguard. Holly even compares him to Renfield from Dracula.
- The Resenter: Jack Hoskins hates Ralph because a year prior to the events of the story, Ralph... wrote "No opinion" on Hoskins' evaluation form when he was eligible for a pay bump, while a less senior detective "had said all the right things". The narration notes that it hadn't even stopped Hoskins from getting the raise. This escalates rapidly during his Sanity Slippage, with him having the "insight" that Ralph sent him to where he met the Outsider on purpose and that "Ralphie-boy had wanted to get rid of him for years".
- The Runaway: Merlin Cassidy, a 12-year-old kid from New York who ran away from home to escape from his abusive stepfather, stealing money and cars along the way. The police encounter him in El Paso while investigating how the white van that the Outsider used to capture Frank Peterson ended up from New York in Flint City.
- Sanity Slippage: It's revealed that the Outsider has the power to induce this in the people he touches and their family members; of note is the fact that he can only 'push' people in directions they were already going, and all of the people he influences this way are already of questionable mental health for various reasons.
- Shapeshifter Swan Song: The Outsider goes through this after Holly brains him, with "a hundred features" sliding across its face before it dies.
- Shoot the Fuel Tank: Jack Hoskins ends up shooting the gas tank of the SUV that Ralph, Holly, Howie, Yune and Alec used to get to the Marysville Hole when he fails to kill them all with a sniper rifle. It takes several shots, but eventually the SUV goes up in flames (not that it does him any good, since Holly guessed he would try that).
- Skinwalker: What the Outsider is is never fully explained, but it comes very close to the historical description of the infamous Native American skinwalker, a manipulative demonic shapechanger with the capacity for telepathy. It also takes at least one element of the Wendigo, being a monstrous cannibal.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The minor character Merlin Cassidy was running away in a van, eventually abandoning it in Dayton, Ohio. The van is later used by the Outsider to capture Frank Peterson, and a scrap of a "Tommy & Tuppence" flyer is found inside of it in the ensuing investigation, providing a link between Frank Peterson's murder and the murder of two girls in Dayton, Ohio. The murders are so similar - known Nice Guy suddenly rapes and murders a child while apparently witnessed in two places at once after a period where they didn't have knowledge of specifics they should have had - that there are suspicions of a serial killer. This line of thinking eventually leads to the Outsider being found out.
- Dougie Elfman appears for about two pages, but his discovery of the clothes Maitland was wearing at the rail station and insistence that his father call the police about it lead Ralph to start suspecting supernatural involvement.
- Stealth Sequel: The Outsider was advertised as a stand-alone novel, but with Holly Gibney's appearance at around the halfway point, long-term King fans will recognise it as a low-key fourth entry into the Mr. Mercedes series, minus the original protagonist Bill Hodges. With the announcement of King's 2020 novel If It Bleeds as "the second Holly Gibney mystery", it pretty much confirms The Outsider as the jumping-off point for a Mr. Mercedes spin-off series.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When footage that proves Terry Maitland was in Cap City at the time of the murder shows up, Anderson insists on trying to get forensic evidence from the hotel Terry stayed at, to which DA Bill Samuels points out how unlikely they are to get any since it's a big city hotel and it's been almost a week since Terry's visit. Later, Howie Gold proposes the exact same idea to Terry and his wife Marcy, to which Marcy likewise points out how unlikely it is they could find any, citing the exact same reasons why. The novel even lampshades how her words echo those of Samuels without her knowing it.
- Suicide by Cop: Implied with Jack Hoskins, who says that he's "not going the way [his] mother did" (his mother died slowly from cancer, and Jack is suffering from a rattlesnake bite and what he thinks is cancer but is more like irritation from poison ivy) and that he'll shoot Holly, then Ralph unless Ralph stops him.
- Spanner in the Works: Several.
- The discovery of the clothes Maitland was wearing in the rail station in a barn, as well as the evidence on them - Maitland's strangely degraded prints and a substance resembling semen - combine with the appearance of a man who doesn't appear on television footage of the courthouse media circuit to prompt Ralph to suspect supernatural activity. The circus counts as well, since it was engineered to provide publicity by the district attorney seeking re-election.
- Alec Pelley attempts to contact Bill Hodges when the investigation is at a standstill to ask for an investigation into the parts of the case in Dayton; he reaches Holly instead, who discovers the Heath Holmes connection and breaks it to the rest of the involved characters that supernatural forces are at work.
- Jack Hoskins shoots out the gas tank of the SUV, causing it to explode and leave a telltale marker of the investigators' presence at the Marysville Hole, which ruins the Outsider's plans to stay in the Hole and 'become' Bolton. His anger at this, as well as Holly calling him out for the "sexual sadist and common pedophile" that he is, is enough to make him run at Holly, who promptly beats him to death with the Happy Slapper.
- Take That!: Holly mentions that she likes Kubrick's earlier films, definitely better than The Shining (Stephen King several times mentioned that he didn't like Kubrick's adaptation of his novel).
- Indirectly, when Jack has gone completely off the deep end and is planning to shoot the main characters with a high-powered rifle, he notes that it's the same one (a Winchester .300 bolt-action) that "Chris Kyle had used to shoot all those ragheads" and then that he's seen the film eight times. Given Jack's state of mind and general behavior throughout the book, this is probably not a ringing endorsement of the film.
- The Nondescript: The Outsider's true face, seen briefly after Holly begins to beat it to death with the Happy Slapper, is noted to be "the face of anyone you might pass on the street, seen at one moment and forgotten the next".
- The Topic of Cancer: The Outsider uses this to manipulate Jack Hoskins, claiming that he gave the latter cancer by touching him and will take it away if Jack does what he says. This prospect is exceptionally terrifying for Jack, as his mother died from it particularly gruesomely, and he describes it as "getting eaten from the outside in - eaten alive". In reality, it's comparable to simple poison ivy irritation.
- Trauma Conga Line: For Fred Peterson. First his youngest son Frank is brutally murdered. Then his wife succumbs to a heart attack. Then his second son, Ollie, goes to the courthouse and kills Terry Maitland, resulting in Ollie himself getting shot as well. This becomes too much for Fred, and he decides to hang himself, but his attempt fails and only results in him ending up in a coma. His ultimate fate is left ambiguous.
- The Unreveal: What the Outsider is or what his origins are is never explained. Lampshaded by Holly, who remarks that "there's so much we don't know".
- Uncanny Valley: The Outsider looks like this in-universe when Ralph and Holly meet him in person because he is in the middle of transforming; he's noted to look half like Claude Bolton and half like Terry Maitland, complete with mismatched eyes.
- Unknown Rival: Downplayed, as the two characters already know and dislike each other, but Jack's pre-existing dislike of Ralph is twisted by his Outsider-induced Sanity Slippage into irrational hatred; he deludes himself into thinking that Ralph tried to get him killed when he (actually Chief Geller and Sheriff Doolin) sent him to Canning Township where he supposedly got skin cancer and that "it was all his fault, and he didn't get to walk away." Ralph is confused by this when Jack confronts him, but cares more that Jack has just killed Gold and Pelley and severely injured Yune.
- Vigilante Execution: Ollie Peterson decides to take it upon himself to avenge his brother despite the alleged killer being innocent after all: he succeeds, but is promptly shot dead by Ralph.
- Vomiting Cop: Ralph vomits at the sight of Alec Pelley's body when trying to drag it into the shade.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's never revealed if Fred Peterson awakens from his coma, but given his condition, it's probably unlikely.
- When She Smiles: Holly has a radiant smile that she displays after she becomes more familiar with the other protagonists.
- The Worm That Walks: Mysterious red "worms" come out of the Outsider's head after Holly bludgeons him, with a "writhing nest" of them in place of a brain.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Outsider kills children by tearing out parts of their flesh and drinking their blood, as well as raping them.
- Wrong Assumption: The protagonists agree that The Outsider doesn't have an accomplice, unaware that it is extorting Jack Hoskins for this purpose. This mistake leads to Hoskins killing Howard Gold and Alec Pelley and seriously injuring Yune Sablo.
- Your Head A-Splode: Howie Gold suffers this fate when being shot by Hoskins.
