New Stephen King novel to be set in Joyland

Ghost trains. Rickety rides. Spooky clowns. Fairgrounds are scary enough, but horror writer Stephen King is to up the ante with his new novel which will be set in a small-town amusement park.

Joyland, to be published by Titan Books' pulp press imprint Hard Case Crime next June, is set in 1970s North Carolina and tells the story of the summer when college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder.

Editor Charles Ardai said: "It’s a whodunit, it’s a carny novel, it’s a story about growing up and growing old, and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time."

He added: "Even the most hardboiled readers will find themselves moved. When I finished it, I sent a note saying, ‘Goddamn it, Steve, you made me cry.’ ”

King himself promised the novel would be published in paperback next summer before being released as an e-book, "[I]  loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being," he said. "Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book.”

He added: "I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts. That combo made Hard Case Crime the perfect venue for this book, which is one of my favourites."

King's murder mystery The Colorado Kid was also published by Hard Case Crime. The imprint also publishes lost pulp classics, which, according to Playboy magazine “put to shame the work of modern mystery writers whose plots rely on cell phones and terrorists".