Doctor Sleep is the 45th full-length novel by bestselling American author, Stephen King, and is the sequel to his fourth novel, The Shining. After a short preface that details an important interaction between young Danny Torrance and an ageing Dick Hallorann, King picks up the story some 23 years after the events at the Overlook Hotel, when Dan is hitting rock-bottom as an alcoholic. Getting off a bus in the small New Hampshire town of Frazier, he takes a temporary job as a groundsman, begins the AA program and is unwittingly contacted for the first time (of many) by a newborn with an incredibly bright shine, Abra Stone. Their paths do not cross, however, until some twelve years later when the actions of a group called The True Knot cause Abra to seek out Dan, now working as an orderly in a hospice, in person. The True Knot are a tribe of people who travel the country in search of children who shine to feed on the steam they produce. As usual, Kings main characters are well-rounded out and appealing. He creates a support cast with plenty of variety to people his tale: a feisty grandmother, a resourceful groundsman, a prescient cat, an alcoholic paediatrician and a bunch of innocuous-looking travellers in RVs with unusual nicknames. He sets the era of events using popular movies, songs and cheeky descriptions of presidents. His descriptive prose is wonderfully evocative: I must not look at it. Too late. His head was turning; he could hear the tendons in his neck creaking like old doorhinges. His plot has several twists and turns, plenty of excitement and a gripping climax (or two), all of which ensure this work is another page-turner. Reading (or rereading) The Shining before this novel is not essential, but it is certainly advisable as many references are made to the events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel some thirty-five years previous and key phrases echo throughout this novel. This is a very satisfying sequel to The Shining; it would make a great movie with the right director (thankfully not Kubrick) and cast. Another excellent tale from the master story-teller.

While not the sequel I was expecting, this is still an excellent Steven King story.

Returning to the world of Danny Torrance the boy who can see the dead, but set several years after the end of The Shining, Danny is drinking to overcome his troubles and helping ease the worries of palliative care patients in a nursing home when the call of another fellow 'shiner' draws him into a battle to defeat a wandering evil that feasts on the energy of those who shine.

Danny comes into his own in this novel, he is a complex character who must find a balance between helping others with his abilities and suffering the horrors that the shining can bring. King has evolved one of his most well known characters into something new fresh and exciting.

Sinister villains, haunting flashbacks and a clever winding plot come together to make this well worth reading.