At 6’7” and built like a bear, Clay Blaisdell is one big mother, but his capers are strictly small-time until he meets George Rackley. George introduces him to a hundred cons and the one big score that every small timer dreams of: kidnap. The Gerards are filthy rich, and their child, the last twig on the family tree, could be worth millions. And after all a baby can’t ID you, so you can return it alive.

There’s only one problem: when the time comes for the deal to go down, George, the brains of the partnership, has died. Or has he? Now Blaze is running into the teeth of a howling storm and the cops are closing in. He’s got a baby as a hostage, and the Crime of the Century just turned into a race against time in the white hell of the Maine woods. Lost for years amongst Stephen King’s papers, and published for the first time ever in 2007, Blaze is a heartstopping thriller reminiscent of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men with the power of a noir fable.