Unfortunately for the authorities, incontrovertible CCTV, eyewitness and forensic evidence emerge that places him miles away at the time. After all, his fingerprints are all over the body and the van used to abduct Frankie, while eyewitnesses place Maitland, bloodied, at the scene. Scenes of damning evidence linking Frankie’s little league coach (and popular teacher) Terry Maitland to the killing are interleaved with those of his arrest by detective Ralph Anderson during a baseball match – in full view of the spectators, so sure is Anderson of Maitland’s guilt. The first few episodes (the opening couple were broadcast back to back on Monday) resemble a high-class episode of CSI played at half-speed as we follow an investigation into the rape, mutilation and murder of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson, whose body is discovered in the woods of a small town in Oklahoma. The Outsider (Sky Atlantic) is not the adaptation to give the lie to this rule. Under the Dome (which spread the tale of a city trapped under an impenetrable shield across three turgid series) and 11.22.63 (in which James Franco travelled back in time to try to avert the assassination of John F Kennedy) proved that, even with the best source material, maintaining suspense over several episodes is an undertaking only for the most fearless. Series adaptations of several of the books that made the aforementioned classic movies sank without trace, while many others failed to capture his magic. W hile film renderings of Stephen King’s work frequently result in celluloid classics or near-classics – Carrie, The Shining, Children of the Corn, Misery, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption – TV versions tend to go the other way.

The outsider stephen king book review