2007 "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2007" stated; Scribner publishers, New York; hardbound in grey/green and blue boards with metal foil lettering along spine; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket very good.
Description -
Blaze is a novel by American writer Stephen King, published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. King announced on his website that he "found it" in an attic. In fact (as mentioned in the afterword of Different Seasons) it was written before Carrie and King offered the original draft of the novel to his Doubleday publishers at the same time as 'Salem's Lot. They chose the latter to be his second novel and Blaze became a "trunk novel." King rewrote the manuscript, editing out much of what he perceived as over-sentimentality in the original text, and offered the book for publication in 2007. The book also contains "Memory", a short story that was first published in 2006 and which King has since worked into Duma Key.
Plot -
The story concerns Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. (known as "Blaze" for short, thus the title), a mentally handicapped small-time con artist who kidnaps a wealthy gentleman's baby son, in the hopes of fulfilling the dreams of George Thomas Rackley, Blaze's deceased best friend and partner in crime. The chapters alternate between Blaze's past — which covers his childhood (including how he came to be brain damaged) and his entry into a life of crime despite an otherwise sweet demeanor — and his current caper, in which he imagines that he is still constantly advised by his friend George.
Despite the helpfulness of (the imaginary) George's advice, Blaze's world begins to crumble during his kidnapping venture, especially as he bonds with baby Joe. In the end, Blaze runs from his inevitable destiny back to the horrors of his old orphanage, the Hetton House. After the cops storm it, he rushes to a cave, where Joe is nearly killed, and Blaze ends up killing a state policeman and an FBI agent. He is killed by an FBI agent, and is buried only a few miles away from Hetton House and where his father lived.