An Analysis of The Intriguing Murder Mystery in Stephen King’s The Outsider

Abstract

There is no such thing as a perfect crime. In every case, sooner or later the culprit will be found and he or she shall face the law. Even in a case that can be seen as a perfect crime there will be some piece of information left by the criminal. The solving of the case depends upon the ability of the investigator to find out that hint and put it into investigation. But what happens when the crime is not done by an ordinary human and the police officials have arrested an innocent man? Stephen King’s The Outsider is all about such an inhuman being who has done several crimes especially the Raping and Murdering of innocent children. We can’t even think about a situation when we are blamed or even arrested for another man’s crime. But what happens when one experiences a scenario where the innocent is also guilty? This contradiction is portrayed in The Outsider as it follows the story of a detective whose search for the absolute truth leads him to discover evil in its pure form. Detective Ralph Anderson is all set for arresting Terry Maitland who is an esteemed sports trainer and high school educator for the killing and confrontation of an eleven year old boy, Frank Peterson. All the clues are against Terry Maitland. Ralph Anderson commands to arrest him at a local baseball game in front of his household and the whole horde. But Maitland had a mighty justification, he was in the company of some educators hundreds of miles away and there is video authentication to confirm it. His fingerprints are also there on a book where he claimed to be. How can he be at two places at the same time? However the Intriguing murder mystery is solved at last by the brave efforts of Ralph Anderson and his teammates.