Blaze

Clayton Blaisdell Jr., known as Blaze, is a towering man with an intellectual disability, living in a remote shack in Apex, Maine. On a bitterly cold winter night, he steals a car from a bar parking lot, guided by the voice of his deceased partner, George Rackley, a small-time con man who died three months earlier. Blaze hears George as clearly as if he were alive, receiving instructions and insults. He finds a green Ford with a spare key and drives home, momentarily forgetting George is dead before the reality catches up and he begins to shake.

The next morning, Blaze remembers George's death again, a recurring cycle caused by his limited memory. George's voice berates him for failing to sweep away tire tracks, while Blaze catches himself pouring two cups of coffee, one for George. He drives to Ocoma Heights, an affluent neighborhood, and cruises past the Gerard estate, which George had previously scouted while posing as a meter-reader. The target is Joseph Gerard IV, the six-month-old great-grandson of shipping tycoon Joseph Gerard. George's plan was to kidnap the baby, reasoning that an infant cannot identify its captors, and demand one million dollars in ransom.

When Blaze tries to rush the kidnapping unprepared, George's voice stops him with practical questions he cannot answer: Where will the baby sleep? What about diapers and formula? Humiliated, Blaze robs a convenience store called Tim & Janet's Quik-Pik, taking about $340 at gunpoint, but blurts to empty air as he leaves that he forgot to wear a disguise.

The novel alternates between the kidnapping plot and extended flashbacks. Born in Freeport, Maine, Blaze lost his mother to a drunk driver at age three. His father, who had an alcohol addiction, threw him down a flight of stairs repeatedly, causing severe brain damage that destroyed his early promise as a student. Made a ward of the state, Blaze was sent to Hetton House, a grim county home where he used his growing size to protect himself and younger children. His only real friend was John Cheltzman, a skinny, intelligent boy who did Blaze's homework in exchange for protection. When the headmaster, Martin Coslaw, a feared disciplinarian the boys called "The Law," caught them cheating, Blaze endured a severe paddling without naming John. Blaze was periodically placed with foster families who exploited his labor.

Back in the present, Blaze spends his robbery proceeds on baby supplies at Hager's Department Store, helped by saleswoman Nancy Moldow. A stockboy named Brant Romano takes note of Blaze's appearance and car. Blaze steals new license plates, repaints the Ford blue, and robs Tim & Janet's a second time, remembering the stocking mask. After days of procrastination, George's voice goads him into action, warning that without the kidnapping, Blaze will end up in prison for life.

Blaze drives to Ocoma Heights, scales a fence, jumps an electrified hedge wire, and climbs a ladder to a second-floor window of the Gerard home. He finds the nursery, turns off the intercom, and wraps the baby in blankets. On his way out through the kitchen, Norma Gerard, the baby's elderly great-great-aunt, discovers him. Blaze panics and punches her unconscious. He breaks a storm window to exit, runs halfway across the lawn before realizing he left Joe on a serving cart inside, then returns and escapes with the baby.

At the shack, Blaze learns to care for Joe by instinct, growing fascinated by the baby's blue eyes. Radio news reports that Norma Gerard is in critical condition. Blaze composes a ransom note from cut-out magazine letters demanding one million dollars. A newspaper soon reveals a police sketch of Blaze, and he learns Norma Gerard has died from the injury he inflicted. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), led by Special Agent in Charge Albert Sterling, builds its case rapidly: Moldow recognizes the sketch and remembers Blaze's name from his driver's license, Romano confirms the car, and a statewide alert goes out.

Blaze shaves his head, mails the ransom note, and steals a Mustang to replace the Ford. He grows deeply attached to Joe. Further flashbacks trace Blaze's past: The happiest period of his life was a summer raking blueberries for Harry Bluenote, a farmer who offered to take him in permanently, only to die of a heart attack the next day. John Cheltzman later died of untreated rheumatic fever. Devastated, Blaze beat Coslaw unconscious and served two years at South Portland Correctional. After drifting through laboring jobs and petty crime, he met George in a Boston candy store. Their years of small cons ended when George was stabbed to death at a waterfront crap game. Driving away, Blaze heard George's voice from the back seat for the first time, telling him to carry out the kidnapping as planned.

George's voice returns in the present with an urgent warning: The police are closing in. George demands Blaze kill the baby, arguing Joe is dead weight that will guarantee capture. Blaze kneels over the sleeping infant and presses a pillow over Joe's face, feeling the small breaths stop and start. He cannot do it. He removes the pillow and refuses. George's presence seems to leave the shack entirely. Blaze packs the Mustang and flees with Joe before dawn, narrowly beating a ring of roadblocks.

He drives through deep snow to the abandoned Hetton House and sets up in the headmaster's old office with a fire in the hearth. That evening, he trudges three miles through a blizzard to a pay phone and calls the Gerards collect, making the critical error of giving his full legal name to the operator. He convinces Joseph Gerard III of his identity by describing details from inside the house, then instructs him to drop the ransom from a small plane along Route 1. The FBI traces the call in minutes, but a snowplow obliterates Blaze's tracks.

Sterling organizes a massive sweep of the area. Blaze wakes before dawn, examines Joe, and realizes he no longer cares about the money. George's voice warns that the FBI has traced his history to Hetton House. Blaze remembers a small cave he and John discovered as boys in a ravine behind the home. Inside, he finds words John traced in candle soot on the wall. He hides Joe there and returns for supplies, knocking a trooper unconscious in the woods. FBI agent Bruce Granger, left behind with a broken leg, spots Blaze entering the cave but cannot reach Sterling by radio.

Granger fires into the cave. A ricocheting bullet sends a granite chip into Joe's face, drawing blood. Blaze bursts from the cave in a murderous rage, crashes into Granger, and chokes him to death. He wraps Joe in blankets and flees toward a logging road, where empty police cruisers sit but converging vehicles block his escape. He runs toward the frozen Royal River, but the ice breaks under him. Turning along the bank, he sees George ahead in the blowing snow, urging him on. Bullets take him in the calf, the kneecap, and the hip; he keeps running. Sterling's shot severs his spinal cord. Blaze falls, Joe flying from his arms. He drags himself forward on his elbows until the baby's fingers wrap around his thumb. Sterling stands over him and fires the final shot.

In an epilogue, Joseph Gerard III announces that Joe has recovered from pneumonia. Blaze is buried in a pauper's grave in South Cumberland with no mourners. Joe Gerard IV lies in a hospital crib, well again. A nurse blows on the bird mobile above his crib, and Joe watches the birds fly and laughs.