Joyland

Joyland (2013) is the second in Stephen King’s hard-boiled detective collection published by Hard Case Crime.

King has written more than 80 full-length novels in addition to 20 novellas, over 120 short stories, and 5 nonfiction books. He has won more than 30 awards for his fiction. His books and short stories have been made into 39 films and 13 television series (with more in planning).

This guide references the 2013 paperback edition.

Content Warning: The novel features suicidal ideation, explicit sexual language, and murder.

Plot Summary

The narrator, Devin Jones, looks back 40 years on the summer of 1973, when at 21, he takes a summer job at Joyland, an independent amusement park in North Carolina. The day of his interview, he meets Madame Fortuna, the palm reader, who tells him he will meet two children—a girl with a red hat and a boy with a dog, and one of them will have second sight. She adds that Devin is on the edge of great sorrow and possibly danger.

Devin also meets Lane Hardy, the Ferris wheel operator, who tells him about a murder that happened at the park’s house of horrors ride four years earlier and that Madame Fortuna (aka Rozzie Gold) won’t go near the Horror House at all, much less inside, because she believes it is haunted. Devin learns more about Linda Gray’s murder from his landlady, Mrs. Shoplaw, including that her killer was never found. There were photographs of him at the park, but the only distinguishing features are a bird tattoo on one hand and his blond hair.

Mrs. Shoplaw is renting rooms to two other summer hires, Tom Kennedy and Erin Cook, who along with Devin become “Happy Helpers” at Joyland amusement park, where the motto is “We sell happiness.” Devin’s favorite part of the job is entertaining children in the Wiggle-Waggle Village while wearing the Howie the Happy Hound costume. Howie is modeled after the former park owner’s old German shepherd. Devin finds that he has a gift for playing the role.

When Devin receives a bruising breakup letter from his first love, Wendy Keegan, he is taken aback by his sense of rejection and jealousy. He broods for weeks until Madame Fortuna and Lane Hardy take him to task for neglecting himself. Madame Fortuna again predicts sorrow and danger in his future and warns Devin to stay out of the Horror House.

On the Fourth of July, Devin meets the little girl in a red hat that Madame Fortuna told him he would encounter. He saves the girl from choking on a hot dog. His heroics attract the attention of the media and generate a good $20,000 worth of publicity for the park. Mr. Easterbrook, the current owner, wishes he could reward Devin the way he deserves, but the best he can do is grant him a favor should he ever need one.

One evening, Devin tells Erin and Tom about Madame Fortuna’s prediction about the girl with the red hat and about her belief that the Horror House is haunted by Linda Gray’s ghost. They plan to investigate on their day off. The next day, Devin, Erin, and Tom take the Horror House ride. Devin is hoping to see Linda, but instead, it is Tom who sees her in the middle of the ride at the point where she was killed. The skeptical Tom is deeply unsettled by the vision. It overturns everything he believes about the world.

Surprised to find himself jealous that Tom saw Linda, but he did not, Devin has an epiphany and calls in the favor that Mr. Easterbrook promised him. Mr. Easterbrook agrees to let Devin stay on at Joyland through the winter. Devin feels compelled to find out who killed Linda Gray and perhaps set her spirit free. He also doesn’t want to go back to college, where he may encounter Wendy and her new boyfriend. Most of all, he feels he has something he urgently needs to do before he can get on with his life.

Erin and Tom return to college. Just before Erin leaves, Devin asks her to use the university library to find out everything she can about Linda Gray and her murder. When she and Tom are both gone, Devin is left to confront his transformative winter at the park alone. He is supervised by Eddie Parks, a gruff old-timer who wears gloves all the time to cover his psoriasis. Devin remembers hearing that the man who murdered Linda Gray had a tattoo on his hand. Devin comes to work one morning in time to see Eddie collapsing with a heart attack. He resuscitates Eddie, saving his life. While waiting for the ambulance, he pulls off Eddie’s gloves, but there’s no tattoo. Lane Hardy notices that Devin was looking at Eddie’s hands.

Walking to and from work every day, Devin passes by Annie Ross and her son, Mike, as well as Mike’s Jack Russell terrier, Milo. Mike always waves, but Annie is cold and withdrawn. One day, however, Devin passes by as Mike is trying to fly a kite. Devin helps get the kite in the air, and Annie invites Devin to join them the next morning for breakfast. Devin realizes that Mike sometimes reads minds and has some clairvoyant abilities.

Mike wants to go to Joyland. Annie resists, feeling that if she and Mike start doing “last things,” she will be unable to prevent him from dying. Devin and Mike finally persuade her to let Mike visit the park. Joyland has been closed up for the winter, but Devin makes a deal with Fred Dean, the park manager, to open it up for a day just for Mike. They decide on Tuesday, before the tropical storm arrives on Wednesday.

The weekend before Mike’s scheduled day at the park, Erin arrives with research on Linda Gray’s murder. She has identified four previous murders linked to traveling shows. She shows Devin photos of Linda Gray with her killer, but his face is unrecognizable because he is wearing a goatee, sunglasses, and a baseball cap. Reviewing the pictures and descriptions of the killer from the previous murders, Erin and Devin realize the tattoo on the killer’s hand was a fake. Devin knows there is something else significant in the pictures, but he can’t put his finger on it.

When Mike’s day at Joyland arrives, he goes on some of the rides, and Annie takes a turn at the Annie Oakley Shootin’ Gallery, where she demonstrates that she is an expert markswoman. Ready to go home, they look around for Milo and spot him sitting in front of the Horror House. Suddenly, they hear a rumble and an empty car rolls out of the ride. Mike is looking at something in the cart that Devin can’t see. Devin hears him whisper, “Okay.” Mike tells Devin that helping Linda’s spirit escape from the Horror House is the last thing he came to Heaven’s Bay to do. He’s ready to go home.

Devin takes Annie and Mike home. Back in his room at Mrs. Shoplaw’s house, Devin falls asleep until he is awakened by the storm. Lying awake, he suddenly realizes what struck him about the photos of Linda Gray’s killer. He lays out pictures and realizes the killer is Lane Hardy. At that moment, Lane calls and threatens to break into Annie’s house if Devin doesn’t meet him at Joyland. At the park, Lane forces Devin onto the Ferris wheel. He thinks Devin figured out some time ago that Lane was the killer. He knew that Devin was trying to solve the mystery when he saw Devin take off Eddie’s gloves. He was sure Devin had figured it out when Erin brought the photos that weekend. As Lane is about to shoot Devin, Annie appears with a rifle and shoots Lane dead. Devin finds out later that Eddie Parks died in the night from a second heart attack and visited Mike, warning him that Devin was in trouble. Mike sent Annie to rescue him.

By spring, Mike and Annie have moved away, and Devin is back in school. In March, Mike dies from a fever, and Devin and Annie return to Heaven’s Bay. They place Mike’s ashes in a pocket taped to his kite and launch it into the wind, setting Mike free in the place he loved best.