The Lawnmower Man and Other Stories From Night Shift

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: John Glover

Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Playing upon our most primal fears, Stephen King draws us into his sinister world - a place where sane men and women see their lives shattered, their realities distorted and destroyed. Now, listeners can probe even deeper into the mind of the master storyteller of the macabre, with this third unabridged production of 5 classic short stories, from King's best selling collection, Night Shift.

Harold Parkette disposes of his lawnmower after his neighbor's cat dies a gruesome death. But the "Lawnmower Man" he hires to do the job proves more than Harold bargained for. A police officer begins to suspect that a series of grisly industrial accidents is no coincidence in "The Mangler." At "Quitter's Inc." a smoker soon discovers that they'll truly stop at nothing to make sure their customers kick the habit. A betrayed husband goes out on "The Ledge" when he takes vengeance into his own hands. And in "Sometimes They Come Back," the concept of alumni is given new meaning when a high school teacher, haunted by the past, is assigned 3 new students who seem eerily familiar.

©1976 Stephen King (P)1995 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Many stories missing

Now that I’ve listened to the THREE volumes of this series, I can report that One For the Road, Children of the Corn, Trucks and I am the Doorway are missing.

Four Short Stories are Missing!

I have found only three audiobooks here that contain short stories from Night Shift, and after reviewing all three of them, only 16 of the 20 stories from Night Shift are available. The four missing shorts are 'One For the Road', 'Children of the Corn', 'Trucks', and 'I am the Doorway'. I cannot seem to find these four stories anywhere in Audible. Where are they?

Mixed bag

Stephen King is a known quantity, and this collection neither disappoints nor blows you away. My only real comment is on the performance. The reader is okay, although IMO tries to hard to inject feeling into the story. But the real problem is the music and sound effects. Most Stephen King audio books have music here and there; short fillips, as it were. Accents to the story. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but they’re usually pretty unobtrusive and let the story take center stage. Unfortunately, the producers of this collection felt they had to go farther—maybe they didn’t trust the material?—and the result is not only distracting but quite annoying. Further, there are times when the music and effects actually drown out the reader, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of an audio book. Good stories; decent performance; irritating effects.

Really good food for thought!

If you like Stephen King short stories then these are for you. The narrator does a good job of making you believe he was telling you the story like it had happened to him. Definitely a good listen over and over again.

Stephen King is terrifyingly good! Well read, too.

Very interesting , but it could do without the music! Otherwise, very good King stories!

A great conclusion to Night Shift.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this, because these stories are truly terrifying.

What other book might you compare The Lawnmower Man and Other Stories From Night Shift to and why?

I would compare this to the other volumes in Night Shift. The other volumes have great stories, but they are not as scary.

Which character – as performed by John Glover – was your favorite?

I loved the lawn mower man. He is really creepy when he sets his lawn mower on the main character. I also thought the main character in the ledge was really well written.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

If you want to be really scared, just listen to the story the ledge.

Glover Steals the Show

This is an odd collection of the leftovers from Night Shift, all of the stories either feature the mystical or criminal element. While the writing is top-notch John Glover is really the standout giving a versatile and dynamic performance across all the stories contained here. He actually might have more characters to work with and these five and the other two collections of Night Shift combined. the one complaint here is the music. Although absent from the other two collections of Night Shift except during the interludes the music here tends to arrive for the crescendo of each story sometimes more than that and remain through the end. While the music itself is actually quite good it sometimes overshadows Glover's voice making it difficult to hear.

Poorly done

Volume fluctuates and there is constantly static turning on and off in the background. This book desperately needs a re-do.

A third part of Night Shift

Lots of good stuff here. Stephen King at his prime. Well worth the time and cost. My only downside, the book was split between 3 audiobooks, requiring you to make 3 purchases for one book. I blame the publisher for this. Still, these are some of King's best known works in the short story format. Recommended but with a bit of reluctance.

Good Listen👍 very entertaining and descriptive!

I am a fan of John Glover and Stephen King, so it's nice to hear the two come together into one performance of some of the more known collected short stories of King's library of literature.

Look elsewhere

Any additional comments?

I am a big fan of Stephen King, but this is far from his best work. The Mangler and the Ledge are standouts in this book, and were enjoyable enough. If you are a die-hard King fan and you've read most of his books, this is worth a listen, but you could randomly pick any other book by King and you'd probably find a better read than this.

What happened to Stephen King

Usually I like Stephen King, but this is almost the worst stories I have ever read.
I hope he wrote it as a joke