The Virginian-Pilot
                            THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996                  TAG: 9604050677
SECTION: COMMENTARY               PAGE: J3   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY GREGORY N. KROLCZYK
                                             LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

THE GREEN MILE PART ONE THE TWO DEAD GIRLS

THE GREEN MILE

Part One: The Two Dead Girls

STEPHEN KING

Dutton, Signet. 92 pp. $2.95.

So the question begs: Does this novel-on-the-installment-plan format bring with it a change in writing style, too?

Well, not so far. While some might expect part one, ``The Two Dead Girls,'' to be an episodic tale with a cliffhanger ending, it is just the opening 75 pages of what reads like a typical (or nearly so) Stephen King novel.

Set in 1932, The Green Mile refers to the tired lime-green linoleum tile that covers the corridor of E Block, the ``death row'' of the state penitentiary located in the southern town of Cold Mountain. Our narrator is E Block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, a rather unremarkable (except for his urinary infection) everyman who's mostly just grateful to have a job during these depressed times. Other characters of note include Percy Wetmore, a sadistic guard currently climbing the rungs of nepotism; John Coffey, a gentle giant of a man sentenced to the Green Mile for the brutal rape/murders of the 9-year-old Detterick twins; and Mr. Jingles, a might-be-magical mouse who spends at least some of its time with a Cajun killer named Delacroix.

Add to this cast nearly no plot and a whole lot of foreshadowing, and you pretty much have part one.

About the only thing that isn't typical about ``The Two Dead Girls'' is its pace, being relatively unencumbered by those irrelevant plot asides King so loves to toss in. If this is a result of King writing ``on the fly,'' then maybe he should write them all this way.

So far, so good.

Up next: Part Two: ``The Mouse on the Mile.''

- MEMO: Gregory N. Krolczyk is a writer who lives in Kill Devil, Hills, N.C. by CNB