Later, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime, $24.99)

Jamie is a kid who can see dead people, and his single mum is a literary agent willing to do whatever she has to to keep bread on the table, never mind the literary ethics. Before you get nervous that this is that same The Sixth Sense sort of dread, Jamie, our narrator, is well aware of M Night Shyamalan’s 1999 film. More importantly, King seems aware that The Sixth Sense is basically a superhero origin story: a kid figures out his powers and then tries to make the world a better place.

This is not how Later plays out.

As Jamie reminds us throughout, ‘‘this is a horror story,’’ and horror stories aren’t so much about making the world a better place as they’re about trying to get out alive, with as many shreds of your soul as you can steal back from the darkness. As Jamie quickly finds out, convincing those around him that he can see dead people is an invitation for them to make use of that ability – there’s a mad bomber menacing the city, there’s a lost manuscript, there’s fortunes only the dead know about – and this is where King has always excelled. His premises and situations extend themselves in your head just when you hear them sketched out.

The dead people in Later are bound by a small set of rules that feel common-sense – which is to say, they don’t feel like the storyenablers they’re soon to be. Over the course of the novel, though, these rules will provide the jump-scares, ticking clocks and emotional reveals, and, in typical King fashion, they already have their hand on your shoulder before you’re even aware they’ve been behind you the whole while. –