What do you think?
Rate this book
Umney's Last Case
Stephen King's brilliant homage to Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald's noir classics--complete with a hard-bitten private eye who has bitten off a bit more than he can chew.
--back cover
--back cover
96 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1995
8 people are currently reading
1978 people want to read
About the author
Stephen King
2,422 books887k followersStephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
August 18, 2022
Story 3.25 stars**
Audio 3.75 stars**
Narrator Robert B. Parker
Audio 3.75 stars**
Narrator Robert B. Parker
February 13, 2016
Read as part of Stephen King's short story collection, Nightmares And Dreamscapes.
This story was particularly fascinating because it is so different from what a Constant Reader might expect from the King. The story is different as well as the style. King mixes Raymond Chandler with Philip K. Dick with this peculiar, short, and entertaining novella. I can tell that SK enjoyed writing this one; I enjoyed reading it.
5/5 Stars
This story was particularly fascinating because it is so different from what a Constant Reader might expect from the King. The story is different as well as the style. King mixes Raymond Chandler with Philip K. Dick with this peculiar, short, and entertaining novella. I can tell that SK enjoyed writing this one; I enjoyed reading it.
5/5 Stars
April 10, 2017
A SOLID superb tale, set in the late 1930s, where imagination intertwines with (the so called) reality, where a character meets its 'creator', where the reader can be held in question about her own existence. Nicely crafted and executed !! Highly recommended for everyone, and especially for story-writers. :)
December 21, 2017
"Umneys letzter Fall" ist eine knapp neunzig Seiten lange Kurzgeschichte, die in Deutschland in der Kurzgeschichten-Sammlung „Albträume – Nightmares & Dreamscapes“ erschienen ist. Da ich schon viele Kurzgeschichten aus der „Story Selection“-Reihe von Stephen King gelesen habe, musste auch diese unbedingt auf meinem Reader landen und ich muss sagen, das mich der Autor wieder einmal überzeugen konnte.
Stephen King konnte dabei wieder einmal mit seinem grandiosen Schreibstil bei mir punkten: Stellenweise salopp, immer direkt, es wird nichts beschönigt und gleichzeitig kann man sich in nahezu jeden einzelnen Moment hineinversetzen, sodass „Umneys letzter Fall“ letztendlich sehr gut durchdacht und spannend wirkt. Obwohl die Geschichte bereits in den achtziger Jahren erstmals veröffentlicht wurde, wirkt diese hier trotz allem doch recht frisch und modern, sodass das typische King-Gefühl wieder deutlich spürbar ist.
Erzählt wird hierbei die Geschichte des Autors Samuel Landry, der es in seinem Leben zuletzt nicht leicht hatte, da nicht nur erst sein Sohn verstorben ist, sondern auch noch seine Frau den Freitod gewählt hat. Da Samuel mit der Realität nicht mehr zurecht kommt, erfindet er den Privatdetektiven Clyde Umney, doch Samuel muss dabei feststellen, dass es auch in der fiktiven Welt nicht nur rosig zugeht und er auch dort mit einigen Problemen und Sorgen zu kämpfen hat...
Das Cover ist sehr schlicht, einfarbig und hebt lediglich den Namen des Autors und den Buchtitel hervor, was zwar kein Hingucker, aber dennoch in Ordnung ist. Die Kurzbeschreibung hat mich direkt angesprochen, denn diese liest sich so interessant, dass ich direkt mehr über das Leben von Samuel Landry und Clye Umney erfahren wollte.
Kurz gesagt: Mit „Umneys letzter Fall“ hat Stephen King erneut eine spannende und ereignisreiche Kurzgeschichte abgeliefert, die zwar nicht ganz ohne kleinere Schwächen auskommt, mich aber dennoch mit interessanten Figuren und einigen Denkanstößen überzeugen konnte.
Stephen King konnte dabei wieder einmal mit seinem grandiosen Schreibstil bei mir punkten: Stellenweise salopp, immer direkt, es wird nichts beschönigt und gleichzeitig kann man sich in nahezu jeden einzelnen Moment hineinversetzen, sodass „Umneys letzter Fall“ letztendlich sehr gut durchdacht und spannend wirkt. Obwohl die Geschichte bereits in den achtziger Jahren erstmals veröffentlicht wurde, wirkt diese hier trotz allem doch recht frisch und modern, sodass das typische King-Gefühl wieder deutlich spürbar ist.
Erzählt wird hierbei die Geschichte des Autors Samuel Landry, der es in seinem Leben zuletzt nicht leicht hatte, da nicht nur erst sein Sohn verstorben ist, sondern auch noch seine Frau den Freitod gewählt hat. Da Samuel mit der Realität nicht mehr zurecht kommt, erfindet er den Privatdetektiven Clyde Umney, doch Samuel muss dabei feststellen, dass es auch in der fiktiven Welt nicht nur rosig zugeht und er auch dort mit einigen Problemen und Sorgen zu kämpfen hat...
Das Cover ist sehr schlicht, einfarbig und hebt lediglich den Namen des Autors und den Buchtitel hervor, was zwar kein Hingucker, aber dennoch in Ordnung ist. Die Kurzbeschreibung hat mich direkt angesprochen, denn diese liest sich so interessant, dass ich direkt mehr über das Leben von Samuel Landry und Clye Umney erfahren wollte.
Kurz gesagt: Mit „Umneys letzter Fall“ hat Stephen King erneut eine spannende und ereignisreiche Kurzgeschichte abgeliefert, die zwar nicht ganz ohne kleinere Schwächen auskommt, mich aber dennoch mit interessanten Figuren und einigen Denkanstößen überzeugen konnte.
September 19, 2015
This story is quite original. I like the concept. A cat and mouse game between a story writer and his protagonist. I wonder which one of his characters King would chose to exchange his life with, if he ever gets the chance. I vote for Ted from 'Hearts in Atlantis'. One of the better stories of 'Nightmares & Dreamscapes'.
July 5, 2012
Private eye Clyde Umney awoke that morning realizing something was wrong. The neighbors, the Demmits, weren't tossing loud zingers at each other like normal. Their yapping dog, you know the kind that drives a knife into your nerves with it's high-pitched barks. The elevator operator was coughing sprays of blood, cancer, and talking about retiring to move west with his sister.
It got worse when he reaches the corner and the blind newsboy, Peoria Smith, is happily talking about his mother winning forty thousand in a Mexican lottery and he was getting an operation to fix his blindness. The boy gets mad when he senses Umney is not happy about and rauns off screaming he never liked Umney anyway.
His favorite restaurant, Blondie's, a fixture forever, had closed up on him.
It was all wrong. Things never changed in his world. They were always the same.
At his office, he finds the hall being painted in a bright white color. Those dark corners were gone forever. His secretary, Candy Kane, was gone, leaving a note saying she had never liked his making fun of her name and the bouts of slap and tickle they went through.
It really was all wrong.
But when the man entered his office, things really got weird. Umney couldn't even look at him. The voice was familiar, but not familiar. And he saw why when the man insisted he look at him.
The face was the same one he stared at every morning while shaving, except about twenty years older. He carried a very thin brief case with the smallest zipper he'd ever seen. And it didn't look to be made of metal.
That's when the story descends into one of those King has done several times over the years with a writer talking to his creation.
This tale is an homage to Chandler and Macdonald's private eye classics from the thirties on into the seventies. It first appeared in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection in 1992. This edition is a small book, eight-eight pages of story, published as part of Penguin 60s celebrating the publisher's sixtieth anniversary.
It got worse when he reaches the corner and the blind newsboy, Peoria Smith, is happily talking about his mother winning forty thousand in a Mexican lottery and he was getting an operation to fix his blindness. The boy gets mad when he senses Umney is not happy about and rauns off screaming he never liked Umney anyway.
His favorite restaurant, Blondie's, a fixture forever, had closed up on him.
It was all wrong. Things never changed in his world. They were always the same.
At his office, he finds the hall being painted in a bright white color. Those dark corners were gone forever. His secretary, Candy Kane, was gone, leaving a note saying she had never liked his making fun of her name and the bouts of slap and tickle they went through.
It really was all wrong.
But when the man entered his office, things really got weird. Umney couldn't even look at him. The voice was familiar, but not familiar. And he saw why when the man insisted he look at him.
The face was the same one he stared at every morning while shaving, except about twenty years older. He carried a very thin brief case with the smallest zipper he'd ever seen. And it didn't look to be made of metal.
That's when the story descends into one of those King has done several times over the years with a writer talking to his creation.
This tale is an homage to Chandler and Macdonald's private eye classics from the thirties on into the seventies. It first appeared in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection in 1992. This edition is a small book, eight-eight pages of story, published as part of Penguin 60s celebrating the publisher's sixtieth anniversary.
May 9, 2017
King lo hace de nuevo. "Umney" es un relato que bien podría ser experimental en muchos autores pero a King le queda como uno dentro de varios, más allá de la preferencia personal del propio autor. Idas y vueltas entre los mundos y los metamundos que con la historia de King tiene una capa meta por sobre las de la trama. Viajes entre mundos, cruces metafísicos y discusiones ontológicas con vueltas de tuerca que no defraudan y dejan al lector con la incomodidad justa.
May 31, 2009
One of the nice things about reading Stephen King is that his style (especially if you've read his other books) is immediately comfortable.
This is certainly the case with Umney's Last Case. It's a short story, but if you like King you'll love this. I found it for free at this address:
http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/englis...
This is certainly the case with Umney's Last Case. It's a short story, but if you like King you'll love this. I found it for free at this address:
http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/englis...
March 16, 2022
Interesting short story where the author takes over his subjects life
July 19, 2023
4.5*
From Nightmares & Dreamscapes
From Nightmares & Dreamscapes
June 24, 2024
A fun little metafictiony narrative.
March 24, 2025
Oh, this one is a real page-turner! While it's not necessarily what I expected going into King (I simply assume I'm going to be spooked by supernatural ghosts), I'd say this is a good one considering how I didn't quite enjoy the previous story I read in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which is The Ten O' Clock People.
I think I like the Black Mirror-esque twist to this. You'd meet a private investigator content with his life that starts to fall apart piece by piece. And upon an encounter with "God" who want to switch place with him, he realises that the guy is in quite literally the writer of his story. Writer guy isn't pleased with his life in reality and decides to swap place with his own character.
It's an interesting premise, really - which I'd imagine a terrible execution isn't difficult to achieve if this were not a short.
I'm interested in King as a writer, mostly - I think we share the similar practice in writing and I agree to most of his philosophies. But I'm not necessarily sure if I could be a fan of his works. So dabbling into this meta sort of story gives a glimpse of his own writer's mind and I like that.
I think I like the Black Mirror-esque twist to this. You'd meet a private investigator content with his life that starts to fall apart piece by piece. And upon an encounter with "God" who want to switch place with him, he realises that the guy is in quite literally the writer of his story. Writer guy isn't pleased with his life in reality and decides to swap place with his own character.
It's an interesting premise, really - which I'd imagine a terrible execution isn't difficult to achieve if this were not a short.
I'm interested in King as a writer, mostly - I think we share the similar practice in writing and I agree to most of his philosophies. But I'm not necessarily sure if I could be a fan of his works. So dabbling into this meta sort of story gives a glimpse of his own writer's mind and I like that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2020
It's ok.
November 28, 2017
Už chcem čítať svoje knihy :/ Ešte 2 týždne povinnej literatury
September 17, 2011
A private eye from the `30s walks around his town one morning and notices things are a bit... off. Things seem vague and people act differently to him. When he reaches his office he finds out that the man waiting for him holds the answers to all of these questions and more - the meaning of his life!
This edition is one of Penguin's small paperbacks they do every now and then, often taking short stories or novellas and putting them out like this. "Umney's Last Case" is a long-ish short story/novella (I never know the cutoff page limit is between terms) originally published in "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" so if you've got that, you've got this (and probably read it too).
I liked Stephen King's writing in this story. He captures the era nicely and there are a number of homages to writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett throughout. Mostly though, King doesn't ramble like he sometimes does with his more recent works. This is a well paced story that reads very well and goes into unexpected and dark places that fans of King's look forward to.
An interesting story and a good read - if you liked this I'd suggest buying his collection of stories that this book came from, "Nightmares and Dreamscapes".
This edition is one of Penguin's small paperbacks they do every now and then, often taking short stories or novellas and putting them out like this. "Umney's Last Case" is a long-ish short story/novella (I never know the cutoff page limit is between terms) originally published in "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" so if you've got that, you've got this (and probably read it too).
I liked Stephen King's writing in this story. He captures the era nicely and there are a number of homages to writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett throughout. Mostly though, King doesn't ramble like he sometimes does with his more recent works. This is a well paced story that reads very well and goes into unexpected and dark places that fans of King's look forward to.
An interesting story and a good read - if you liked this I'd suggest buying his collection of stories that this book came from, "Nightmares and Dreamscapes".
May 28, 2017
Umney's Last Case originally appeared as an entry in Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I read that collection many moons ago, but now Umney's Last Case has been repackaged in a small volume by itself-it is apparently a "Penguin 60" special edition published to honor Penguin Books 60th anniversary. This little book is adorable. As for the tale itself: worth a reread. This is not the first time King has played with the question of what is and isn't real vis a vis an author and his fiction. Also this is a nice tip of the hat to Raymond Chandler and that whole school of writing. And the ending is appropriately sinister.
July 17, 2012
So, everything I've read of Stephen King's, I have loved. Granted, it's only been an article he wrote about the last Harry Potter book, a children's story, and this short novella, but I love the way he writes. This story is a nod to the likes of Raymond Chandler and other Noir authors. It was entertaining and had a nice little twist ending. There was some strong language, but nothing else. If you want to see if you'd like Stephen King, but aren't sure if you want to read one of his longer novels, this would be a good one to pick up.
January 17, 2017
This novelette is a stand alone book released by Penguin in the 90's, but later released in the "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" collection. Well I just wanted to get a quick fix of King, and I read the Penguin novelette. This is actually a pretty good idea for a story, which i can't discuss without major spoilers. So let's just say this was a pretty cool idea, with a nice little twist at the end. A great little story, and recommended!
November 5, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this short tale.
July 31, 2020
I had no idea where this story was going to go and it did not end up how I thought it would. I strongly disliked the main character, but Stephen King is great at creating grizzled unlikeables. His descriptions catch me off guard and are often jarring in comparison to what's being described. This may be intentional. I loved the final concept of this story. Somehow, he avoided it from becoming cliché.
December 15, 2010
Nice story about escaping into the world of imagination/fiction and a nice sinister twist at the end, but Stephen King is simply a bad writer. Or at least a very pedestrian one. I spent a couple years as a kid devouring his books, and this is probably why the endings never felt satisfying, in spite of the awesome grotesquerie. Give me an ehh story with amazing prose and you'll have my loyalty.
January 27, 2018
#24in48
At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of this King novella. At the start it was a bit too heavy hand Chandleresque but as I read along I slipped right into the story, which is kind of fitting (no spoilers). Definitely one of my favourites of his now. Surprised it took me this long to read it. 4⭐️’s
At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of this King novella. At the start it was a bit too heavy hand Chandleresque but as I read along I slipped right into the story, which is kind of fitting (no spoilers). Definitely one of my favourites of his now. Surprised it took me this long to read it. 4⭐️’s
November 28, 2014
What a great short story. For some reason I don't remember reading this one before and I know I definitely didn't read it as a stand alone story. Loved the characters and it surely expands on the "what if" theme. Another wonderful Stephen King story.
August 1, 2007
Very quirky, and I don't think it's as clever as it thinks it is, but a pleasant enough diversion, and a much better attempt at crime fiction than The Colorado Kid.
August 1, 2009
fun little book
November 7, 2010
This started out really promising for me, in that lovely noir detective novel sort of way. When it switched to a bit of science fiction, I lost interest. The end was satisfying though.
November 8, 2015
Suspence
September 28, 2011
Perfect little book to sit down with a cup of coffee and finish in one sitting.
December 21, 2013
Nice little story. Best part about it was the whole hard-boiled, noir, Raymond Chandler-like detective.
March 8, 2015
This is a detective story with a big twist near the end. An underrated story from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews