Publication Date: 2010 Collected In: Full Dark, No Stars On the drive home from a speaking engagement, Tess, a successful mystery writer, accidentally runs her car over a piece of wood embedded with nails and is left stranded in the wilderness. Soon enough, a large man in a truck offers to give her a ride, but this is the sick, perverted bastard who set the trap in the first place and he proceeds to rape and abuse her. But Tess is far from defeated, and it's thoughts of revenge that soon begin to steer her destiny towards a horrifying, blood-soaked climax... Big Driver is Stephen King having fun in the same way that Richard Bachman did back in the 70s. There's nothing particularly special going on here except for a thrilling sense of mounting tension achieved through the speedy narrative structure. King ties the novella together with some keen observations on the nature of revenge itself - Tess must deal with her new feelings knowing she wants to kill somebody - but this is basically just pleasure reading in that great, taut King style. The author even admits in the liner notes that "there's something intensely satisfying about what they call private justice" and cites Death Wish as an inspiration for the story. Would it make a good feature film? Yes. Big Driver is pretty much already a late-night horror movie in the vein of 70s women-out-for-revenge-movies like I Spit On Your Grave. Adapted with B-movie tendencies by somebody who knows how to pull off pulpy material, this could be a great - if not familiar - horror flick.