The Green Mile: Coffey's Hands

Harking back to the early days of the novel, The Green Mile is being published in six monthly installments. It's a great idea for a writer like Stephen King, famous for page-turning, nail-biting suspense. Like his earlier book The Shawshank Redemption, which became a hit movie, this one is set inside a prison; the title refers to the green-linoleum-covered corridor leading from death row to the electric chair. The narrator is an appealing prison superintendent, puzzled by the arrival of the enigmatic John Coffey, a huge, gentle, silent man accused of a double child rape-murder. Did he do it? Is the vicious guard going to do something awful, or have something done to him? Read the next installment.