Duma Key
First edition cover
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| Author | Stephen King |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
Psychological horror Horror fiction |
| Publisher | Scribner |
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Publication date
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January 22, 2008 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 611 |
| ISBN | |
Duma Key is a novel by American novelist Stephen King published on January 22, 2008 by Scribner. The book reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. It is King's first novel to be set in Florida or Minnesota. The dust jacket features holographic lettering.
Edgar Freemantle, a contractor in St. Paul, Minnesota, barely survives a horrific on-site accident where his truck is crushed by a crane. Freemantle's right arm is amputated, and severe injuries to his head cause Edgar to have problems with speech, vision, and memory. As a result, Edgar also has violent mood swings and thoughts of suicide. During one of those mood swings, he attacks his wife, who later cites that as a main reason why she divorced him.
On the advice of his psychologist, Dr. Kamen, Edgar takes "a geographical": a year-long vacation meant for rest and further recovery. He decides to rent a beach house on Duma Key, a small island off the west coast of Florida, after reading about it in a travel brochure. Edgar's beach house is located on a part of the island called Salmon Point; Edgar nicknames the house "Big Pink," because of its rich pink color. On the advice of Dr. Kamen, Edgar revives his old hobby of sketching after he moves into Big Pink. He settles in with the help of Jack Cantori, a local college student.
Edgar becomes obsessively involved in his art, painting with a furious energy and in a daze. Edgar brings up psychic images in his paintings; he learns that his younger daughter, Ilse, is engaged to a choir singer and that his ex-wife is having an affair with his former accountant by painting these situations. While exploring the island with a visiting Ilse, Edgar drives past an elderly woman, Elizabeth Eastlake. Ilse becomes violently ill as they drive into an overgrown part of the island. Elizabeth later calls Edgar, warning him that Duma Key "has never been a lucky place for daughters". Edgar initially disregards the message, since Eastlake has Alzheimer's disease.
Edgar slowly recuperates, helped in part by taking longer and longer walks along the beach. He slowly approaches and eventually meets and befriends a man in his late 40's, whom Freemantle had seen sitting under an umbrella off in the distance. Edgar eventually reaches him and he is introduced as Jerome Wireman. Wireman is the hired companion of Miss Eastlake, who turns out to be very wealthy and the owner of half of Duma Key (with the remaining half of the island's ownership in dispute). Over the coming weeks, Edgar and Wireman develop a close friendship. Edgar comes to believe, and Wireman later confirms, that Wireman has some psychic abilities. Both Edgar and Wireman suspect that their psychic abilities are due to their both having sustained brain injuries and that Duma Key amplifies such abilities.
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