The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted. Trisha McFarland discovered this when she was nine years old.

Lost in the woods. Trisha has only veered a little way off the trail. But in her panic to get back to her family, she takes a turning that leads deeper into the tangled undergrowth.

At first it's just the bugs, midges and mosquitoes. Then comes the hunger. For comfort she tunes her Walkman into broadcasts of the Red Sox baseball games and the performances of her hero Tom Gordon.

But as darkness begins to fall, Trisha realises that she is not alone. There's something else in the woods - watching. Waiting . . .

'Vintage King', a delightful suspense novel in which King's 'trump card is his ability to arouse empathy for the plight of his young heroine' Independent on Sunday