Meanwhile, Frank and Terry deputize several new recruits, including Peters and a juvenile delinquent named Eric Blass, and gradually restore order to Dooling.

Clint, according to her words, is 'the Man' whose purpose is to protect Eve for 'a week or so', when she promises to cure the women of Aurora. Clint's superior, Warden Janice Coates, fires one of her guards, Don Peters, for sexual harassment he drugs her with Xanax, leaving Clint to protect the dwindling number of still-awake female inmates.Ĭlint interviews Eve, learning that she is an 'emissary' sent by an otherworldly being who believes that women are capable of building a society free of war, abuse, and other evils she says are caused primarily by men. Lila herself falls victim to the illness, and is replaced by her alcoholic chief deputy, Terry Coombs, who in turn appoints Frank Geary, a former animal control officer with a short temper, as his second-in-command. As the disease continues to spread throughout the town, the local women become desperate to keep themselves awake, leading to looting and riots. Lila's husband Clint, the chief psychiatrist at the Dooling Correctional Institute for Women, begins noticing Aurora occurring among his patients at the same time that the woman, who is given the name 'Eve Black', is incarcerated in the prison. Dubbed ' Aurora', the disease also causes the sleeping women to enter into a homicidal rage, attacking and brutally murdering any adult who tries to open the cocoons. At the same time, reports start coming in of a mysterious sickness spreading across the world, which causes women to fall into a deep sleep, cocooned in a strange material. In the impoverished town of Dooling, part of the fictional Tri-Counties region of Appalachia, a bizarre murder occurs when two men running a meth lab out of their mobile home are beaten to death by a mysterious woman, who then sets fire to the lab before allowing herself to be arrested by the local sheriff, Lila Norcross. An excerpt was published on Septemby Entertainment Weekly in their special The Ultimate Guide to Stephen King issue. The novel was officially announced in June 2016 and is said to take place in a women's prison in West Virginia during a strange mystical occurrence that causes all the women in the world to fall asleep. I'm not going to say what the idea is because it's too good.' Of the novel, Stephen King stated, 'Owen brought me this dynamite idea and I've collaborated a couple of times with Joe. The book was first mentioned during a promotional appearance on the CBC radio program q. Sleeping Beauties is a novel by Stephen King and his son Owen King, released on September 26, 2017.

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King