Richard Bachman

Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., nicknamed Blaze, is a mentally retarded giant of a man living in a decrepit old house. Blaze's best--and only--friend's name is George, and George is a bad influence. It is George who goads Blaze into kidnapping the baby and holding it for a million dollar ransom. As a pitch-black sequence of events unfolds, the true sickness of Blaze's condition comes into focus through painful flashbacks of abuse.

Billy Halleck, good husband, loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American Good Life: he has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer ... but he is also fifty pounds overweight and, as his doctor keeps reminding him, edging into heart attack country.