The Shining

Excerpted from Chapter One



Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.

Ullman stood five-five, and when he moved, it was with the prissy speed that seems to be the exclusive domain of all small plump men. The part in his hair was exact, and his dark suit was sober but comforting. I am a man you can bring your problems to, that suit said to the paying customer. To the hired help it spoke more curtly: This had better be good, you. There was a red carnation in the lapel, perhaps so that no one on the street would
mistake Stuart Ullman for the local undertaker.

As he listened to Ullman speak, Jack admitted to himself that he probably could not have liked any man on that side of the desk under the circumstances.

Ullman had asked a question he hadn t caught. That was bad; Ullman was the type of man who would file such lapses away in a mental Rolodex for later consideration.

I m sorry?

I asked if your wife fully understood what you would be taking on here. And there s your son, of course. He glanced down at the application in front of him. Daniel. Your wife isn t a bit intimidated by the idea?

Wendy is an extraordinary woman.

And your son is also extraordinary?

Jack smiled, a big wide PR smile. We like to think so, I suppose. He s quite self-reliant for a five-year-old.

No returning smile from Ullman. He slipped Jack s application back into a file. The file went into a drawer. The desk top was now completely bare except for a blotter, a telephone, a Tensor lamp, and an in/out basket. Both sides of the in/out were empty, too.

Ullman stood up and went to the file cabinet in the corner. Step around the desk, if you will, Mr. Torrance. We ll look at the hotel floor plans.

He brought back five large sheets and set them down on the glossy walnut plane of the desk. Jack stood by his shoulder, very much aware of the scent of Ullman s cologne. All my men wear English Leather or they wear nothing at all came into his mind for

STEPHEN KING is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and an AT&T Audience Network original television series). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, and Doctor Sleep are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

A master storyteller. Los Angeles Times

Scary! . . . Serves up horrors at a brisk, unflagging pace. The New York Times

Guaranteed to frighten you into fits. . . . with a climax that is literally explosive. Cosmopolitan

The most wonderfully gruesome man on the planet. USA Today

An undisputed master of suspense and terror. The Washington Post

[King] probably knows more about scary goings-on in confined, isolated places than anybody since Edgar Allan Poe. Entertainment Weekly

He s the author who can always make the improbable so scary you ll feel compelled to check the locks on the front door. The Boston Globe

This chilling novel will haunt you, and make your blood run cold and your heart race with fear. Nashville Banner

Peerless imagination. The Observer (London)