History Literature / TheOutsider2018

It is the fourth instalment in the Main/HollyGibney series, preceded by the Bill Hodges Trilogy (''Literature/MrMercedes'', ''Literature/FindersKeepers'', and ''Literature/EndOfWatch'') and followed by ''Literature/IfItBleeds'', and ''{{Literature/Holly}}''.

Preceded by the Mercedes Trilogy (''Literature/MrMercedes'', ''Literature/FindersKeepers'', and ''Literature/EndOfWatch'') and followed by ''Literature/IfItBleeds.''

* DueToTheDead: Ralph is a believer in it: [[spoiler:he drapes Terry's coat over his head after the latter is shot on the courthouse steps. He also drags Alec Pelley and Howard Gold's bodies into the shade and covers their faces, after the confrontation with the Outsider, despite Yune's protests that it technically constitutes meddling with a crime scene. Later, Ralph, Holly, and Yune get a second hearse to transport Jack's body because "Yune spoke for all of them when he said there was no way the sonofabitch was going home with the men he had murdered".]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: [[spoiler:Jack Hoskins spirals into this after his encounter with the Outsider and subsequent SanitySlippage. For instance, he ends up at the conclusion that Ralph is out to ruin his life because the chief wants one detective on active duty, Ralph is on administrative leave, and the only other detective is ''currently giving birth''.]]

* MissingReflection: [[spoiler:The Outsider does not show up on camera. Anderson first notices this when he can't see a severely burned and disfigured man on any of the news footage about Maitland getting shot, even though he clearly remembers such a man being present. Comparisons to vampires not casting reflections in mirrors are made.]]

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:It's revealed that the Outsider has the power to induce this in the people he touches and their family members; of note is the fact that he can only 'push' people in directions they were already going, and all of the people he influences this way are of questionable mental health for various reasons.]]

** Indirectly, [[spoiler:when Jack has gone completely off the deep end and is planning to shoot the main characters with a high-powered rifle, he notes that it's the same one (a Winchester .300 bolt-action) that "[[Film/AmericanSniper Chris Kyle had used to shoot all those ragheads"]] and then that he'd seen the film eight times. Given Jack's state of mind and general unpleasant behavior throughout the book, this is probably not a ringing endorsement of the film.]]

* UnknownRival: Downplayed, as the two characters already know and dislike each other, but [[spoiler:Jack's pre-existing dislike of Ralph is twisted by his Outsider-induced SanitySlippage into irrational hatred; he deludes himself into thinking that Ralph tried to get him killed when he (actually Chief Geller and Sheriff Doolin) sent him to Canning Township where he supposedly got skin cancer and that "it was all [Ralph's] fault, and he didn't get to walk away." Ralph is confused by this when Jack confronts him, but cares more that Jack has just killed Gold and Pelley and severely injured Yune.]]

* FacialHorror: [[spoiler:The Outsider does this in different ways. Its face resembles something like putty with straws for eyes before it starts taking on the form of its next target, which is how it first shows itself to spoiler:Terry’s younger daughter. Earlier, when Ralph sees it at the courthouse before Terry’s arraignment, it appears to be someone with a badly burned face.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler:The Outsider is superficially polite, but drops the act very quickly if it's not getting him what he wants. Notable examples include him mocking Grace Maitland in her dream and his extreme anger when Holly calls him out as the child rapist he is.]]

* AcousticLicense: Averted. [[spoiler:When Ollie Peterson starts shooting at Terry, he fires over a television anchor's shoulder, and the narration notes she was "no doubt deafened". When Jack Hoskins starts shooting at Ralph and friends with a .300 rifle, the narration notes he had neglected to pack shooter's plugs or cotton, and his ears ring so much he doesn't notice the warning rattle of a rattlesnake, which subsequently bites him.]]

* TheAtoner: Anderson becomes this after [[spoiler:Maitland's death]], as it very likely could've been avoided (or at least not been such a fiasco) if he hadn't made Maitland's arrest such a public affair to begin with.
* {{Blackmail}}: The Outsider seems to give officer Jack Hoskins skin cancer when he investigates a barn the former had been using as a hideout, and orders him to kill Ralph Anderson and the others for him in return for getting cured. In reality, it's not cancer but a skin rash.

* CanonWelding: Possibly. [[spoiler:The Outsider mentions ''ka'' from King's ''Dark Tower'' series. As mentioned in TheUnreveal below, however, it's still unclear what exactly it is or how it knows about ''ka''.]]

** June Gibson, the Peterson's elderly neighbor, who saves Fred Peterson after his BungledSuicide by performing mouth on mouth resuscitation.
** Claude Bolton's mother, who not only provides Ralph, Holly, and their other cohorts food and company but proves key to them finding [[spoiler:the Outsider's]] hideout.

* DueToTheDead: Ralph is a believer in it: [[spoiler:he drapes Terry's coat over his head after the latter is shot on the courthouse steps. He also drags Alec Pelley and Howard Gold's bodies into the shade, and covers their faces, after the confrontation with the Outsider.]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: [[spoiler:Jack Hoskins spirals into this after his encounter with the outsider and subsequent SanitySlippage. For instance, he ends up at the conclusion that Ralph is out to ruin his life because the chief wants one detective on active duty, Ralph is on administrative leave, and the only other detective is ''currently giving birth''.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Anderson makes his public arrest of Terry with the best of intentions. Howie Gold, likewise, argues against Terry wearing a bulletproof vest with the intent to help him (on the grounds a bulletproof vest would make him look guilty). [[spoiler:Both of these things directly contribute to Ollie Peterson, the victim's older brother, shooting Terry dead.]]
* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:The Outsider tries to justify his behavior by comparing himself to humans eating cattle. Holly and Ralph have none of it, however,.]]

* OneSteveLimit: Averted - there are three separate characters in the novel named June: the little girl who witnesses [[spoiler:the Outsider disguised as]] Maitland shortly after the Peterson murder, the Petersons' elderly next-door-neighbour, and a minor character whose name is provided briefly as part of a family group.

** Jack Hoskins [[spoiler:shoots out the gas tank of the SUV, causing it to explode and leave a telltale marker of the investigators' presence at the Marysville hole.]]
* TakeThat: Holly mentions that she likes [[Creator/StanleyKubrick Kubrick]]'s earlier films, definitely better than ''Film/TheShining'' (Stephen King several times mentioned that he didn't like Kubrick's adaptation of his novel).

* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:What the Outsider is or what his origins are is never explained.]]

* TheWormThatWalks: Mysterious red "worms" come out of [[spoiler:the Outsider's head after Holly bludgeons him]].

* MissingReflection: [[spoiler:The Outsider does not show up on camera. Anderson first notices this when he can't see a severely burned and disfigured man on any of the news footage about Maitland getting shot, even though he clearly remembers such a man being present.]]

* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:The Outsider tries to justify his behavior by comparing himself to humans eating cattle. Holly and Ralph have none of it however.]]

* PsychicLink: [[spoiler:The Outsider links his mind to the person whose appearance he copied, allowing him to access their memories and knowledge.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: The minor character Merlin Cassidy was running away in a van, eventually abandoning it in Dayton, Ohio. The van is later used [[spoiler:by the Outsider]] to capture Frank Peterson, and a scrap of a "Tommy & Tuppence" flyer is found inside of it in the ensuing investigation, providing a link between Frank Peterson's murder and the murder of two girls in Dayton, Ohio. The murders are so similar - known NiceGuy suddenly rapes and murders a child while apparently witnessed in two places at once after a period where they didn't have knowledge of specifics they should have - that there are suspicions of a serial killer. [[spoiler:This line of thinking eventually leads to the Outsider being found out.]]

* SuicideByCop: Implied with Jack Hoskins, who says that he's "not going the way [his] mother did" (his mother died slowly from cancer, [[spoiler:and Jack is suffering from a rattlesnake bite]]) and that he'll [[spoiler:shoot Holly, then Ralph unless Ralph stops him]].

* VigilanteExecution: [[spoiler:Ollie Peterson decides to take it upon himself to avenge his brother despite the alleged killer being innocent after all.]]

* EmotionEater: [[In addition to eating flesh, the Outsider gains sustenance on negative emotions.]]

* CreepyCave: The climax takes place in the Marysville Hole, a network of caves that are vast, dark, confusing and prone to collapse. Even before the Outsider made the caves its home, they were still dangerous. An entire rescue party who had been looking for two children lost in the caves became trapped by a cave-in and slowly perished in the dark.

* AndThisIsFor: When Ralph finally shoots Hoskins, he fires three times, once each for Howard, Alec, and Yune. Interesting in that the last of these isn't dead by Jack's hand, but merely severely injured.

* CellPhonesAreUseless: There is no cell phone reception at the Marysville Hole, or miles around it. Hence why the protagonists can't call for help when they are under attack by Hoskins. The Outsider knows about this, and thus doesn't believe Anderson when he claims that they called for backup.

** Claude Bolton's mother, who not only provides Ralph, Holly, and their other cohorts food and company but proves key to them finding the Outsider's hideout.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: While Frankie Peterson's murder is not shown on-page, police interviews and autopsy reports make it horrifically clear that his death was a brutal, gory mess. Later on, another case that is eventually connected to the Outsider comes to light, involving twin girls who may have had it worse than Frankie.

* DissonantSerenity: The Outsider is initially perfectly calm when confronted by Ralph and Holly. He begins to panic when Ralph informs him that Jack's shooting out the fuel tank of the vehicle they came in means that there is smoke marking their presence. He completely loses it when Holly calls him a sexual sadist and common pedophile.
* EldritchAbomination: Even in the context of the universe of the Mercedes Trilogy, the Outsider is freakish, monstrous, and unknowable.
* EmotionEater: In addition to eating flesh, the Outsider gains sustenance on negative emotions.
* EvilTwin: The Outsider effectively functions as this to whoever he is impersonating.
* EyeScream: When Anderson is forced to shoot Ollie Peterson, his first shot misses because someone bumps into him at the last moment. The bullet instead strikes a shoulder-mounted camera, resulting in the lens exploding and glass shards ending up in the eye of the cameraman.
* FacialHorror: The Outsider does this in different ways. Its face resembles something like putty with straws for eyes before it starts taking on the form of its next target, which is how it first shows itself to [[spoiler:Terry’s younger daughter]]. Earlier, when Ralph sees it at the courthouse before Terry’s arraignment, it appears to be someone with a badly burned face.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Although she saved him, June Gibson quickly comes to regret her heroic deed and believes it would be better if she had let Fred Peterson die. He already lost his entire family, and now he's in a coma from which he might never wake up, and if he does his life will never be the same again due to the brain damage he suffered from near-suffocating.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Outsider is a shapeshifting monstrosity that can mimic a human right down to their DNA but wields a variety of outright supernatural powers, and between transformations looks human only in general shape, with poisonous, burned-looking skin and "eyes" that look more like bundles of straw than anything.

* KnuckleTattoos: While in prison, Claude Bolton gave himself "CANT" and "MUST" finger tattoos as a self-enforcement of his vow to stay clean. As the Outsider takes on his form, it also manifests the tattoos but uses them for intimidation, especially to Jack Hoskins.
* LaughingMad: Arlene Peterson, Frankie's mother, finally loses it after a busy day of people coming to their house to remember her son, console her, and celebrate that the killer has been caught. She goes into frenzied, hysterical laughter, starts throwing leftovers around, and dumps a tray of lasagna one of the visitors brought on her head while laughing how Frankie may be gone, but she won't have to cook for months. She finally stops when the excitement gives her a heart attack and is able to apologize to her husband before passing out.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: When the protagonists track the Outsider to Marysville and learn he has chosen Claude Bolton as his new appearance, they are forced to keep Claude in the dark about their plans since everything Claude knows, the Outsider knows. Claude realizes this danger and willingly allows himself to be locked out of the loop.

* MaskedLuchador: The Outsider is a kind of boogeyman in Mexican folklore, called ''el Cuco'', and references are made to an old, extremely cheesy series of films about a team of ''luchadoras'', one of which features them fighting the creature.
* MissingReflection: The Outsider does not show up on camera. Anderson first notices this when he can't see a severely burned and disfigured man on any of the news footage about Maitland getting shot, even though he clearly remembers such a man being present.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: The Outsider tries to justify his behavior by comparing himself to humans eating cattle. Holly and Ralph have none of it however.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted during the shootout between Hoskins and the protagonists. Officer Yune Sable is shot in the elbow, breaking it and dislocating his shoulder from the whiplash of the impact. Ralph lampshades how in movies Yune would just shrug it off and continue, [[ThisIsReality but in real life, even though no vital organs were hit, Yune is out of the game due to his injury]].
* OneSteveLimit: Averted - there are three separate characters in the novel named June: the little girl who witnesses the Outsider disguised as Maitland shortly after the Peterson murder, the Petersons' elderly next-door-neighbour, and a minor character whose name is provided briefly as part of a family group.

* PoisonousPerson: When the Outsider is in the process of changing form, his skin becomes poisonous to touch, though it only results in a severe skin rash like poison ivy or a sunburn. He uses this against Jack Hoskins.
* PsychicLink: The Outsider links his mind to the person whose appearance he copied, allowing him to access their memories and knowledge.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Holly gives the Outsider this in response to his claims that he kills to survive, pointing out he doesn't need to hurt children and could just feed off adults, and is nothing more than a petty pedophile or sexual sadist.
* TheRenfield: The Outsider blackmails Jack Hoskins into becoming his bodyguard. Holly even compares him to Renfield from ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''.

* SanitySlippage: It's revealed that the Outsider has the power to induce this in the people he touches and their family members; of note is the fact that he can only 'push' people in directions they were already going, and all of the people he influences this way are of questionable mental health for various reasons.
* ShootTheFuelTank: Jack Hoskins ends up shooting the gas tank of the SUV that Ralph, Holly, Howie, Yune and Alec used to get to the Marysville Hole when he fails to kill them all with a sniper rifle. It takes several shots, but eventually the SUV goes up in flames. (Not that it does him any good, since Holly guessed he would try that.)
* {{Skinwalker}}: What the Outsider is is never fully explained, but it comes very close to the historical description of the infamous Native American skinwalker, a manipulative demonic shapechanger with the capacity for telepathy. It also takes at least one element of the {{Wendigo}}, being a monstrous cannibal.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: The minor character Merlin Cassidy was running away in a van, eventually abandoning it in Dayton, Ohio. The van is later used by the Outsider to capture Frank Peterson, and a scrap of a "Tommy & Tuppence" flyer is found inside of it in the ensuing investigation, providing a link between Frank Peterson's murder and the murder of two girls in Dayton, Ohio. The murders are so similar - known NiceGuy suddenly rapes and murders a child while apparently witnessed in two places at once after a period where they didn't have knowledge of specifics they should have - that there are suspicions of a serial killer. This line of thinking eventually leads to the Outsider being found out.

* SuicideByCop: Implied with Jack Hoskins, who says that he's "not going the way [his] mother did" (his mother died slowly from cancer, and Jack is suffering from a rattlesnake bite) and that he'll shoot Holly, then Ralph unless Ralph stops him.

* TheNondescript: The Outsider's true face, seen briefly after Holly begins to beat it to death with the Happy Slapper, is noted to be "the face of anyone you might pass on the street, seen at one moment and forgotten the next".

* TheUnreveal: What the Outsider is or what his origins are is never explained.
* UncannyValley: [[invoked]] The Outsider looks like this in-universe when Ralph and Holly meet him in person because he is in the middle of transforming; he's noted to look half like Claude Bolton and half like Terry Maitland, complete with mismatched eyes.
* VigilanteExecution: Ollie Peterson decides to take it upon himself to avenge his brother despite the alleged killer being innocent after all.

* TheWormThatWalks: Mysterious red "worms" come out of the Outsider's head after [[spoiler:Holly bludgeons him]].
* WouldHurtAChild: The Outsider kills children by tearing out parts of their flesh and drinking their blood, as well as [[RapeAsDrama raping them]].

Preceded by the Mercedes Trilogy (''Literature/MrMercedes'', ''Literature/FindersKeepers'', and ''Literature/EndOfWatch'') and followed by Literature/IfItBleeds.

Preceded by the Mercedes Trilogy: ''Literature/MrMercedes'', ''Literature/FindersKeepers'', and ''Literature/EndOfWatch.''

* AdultFear:
** The idea that a person that you’ve known for years and trusted your children to be around could secretly be a child rapist and/or murderer. This is repeatedly mentioned, by both Ralph and people who saw the Outsider disguised as Terry in their statements to the police.
** Having one's life radically altered by the actions of another party is a rare and more mundane danger explored in the early parts of the book. While most people who undergo this can fortunately say they don't have their life and reputation destroyed so quickly and comprehensively as Ralph did to Terry, the consequences aren't just between them. How does this splash back on their loved ones? And what if the motivation wasn't malice, but misplaced anger?

* TraumaCongaLine: For Fred Peterson. First his youngest son Frank is brutally murdered. Then [[spoiler:his wife succumbs to a heart attack. Then his second son, Ollie, goes to the courthouse and kills Terry Maitland, resulting in Ollie himself getting shot as well. This becomes too much for Fred, and he decides [[DrivenToSuicide to hang himself]], but his attempt [[BungledSuicide fails]] and only results in him ending up in a coma. His fate is left ambiguous.]]

* OneSteveLimit: Averted - there are three separate characters in the novel named June: the little girl who witnesses the Outsider disguised as Maitland shortly after the Peterson murder; the Petersons' next-door-neighbour; and a minor character whose name is provided briefly as part of a family group.

* SuicideByCop: Implied with Jack Hoskins, who says that he's "not going the way [his] mother did" (ie slowly dying from cancer and in his case a recent rattlesnake bite) and that he'll shoot Holly, then Ralph unless Ralph stops him.

* NotSoDifferent: The Outsider tries to justify his behavior by comparing himself to humans eating cattle. Holly and Ralph have none of it however.

* CreepyCave: The climax takes place in the Marysville Hole; a network of caves that are vast, dark, confusing and prone to collapse. Even before the titular [[HumanoidAbomination Outsider]] made the caves its home, they were still dangerous. An entire rescue party who had been looking for two children lost in the caves became trapped by a cave-in and slowly perished in the dark.

* RapeAsDrama: The Outsider rapes and murders children.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: The minor character Merl Cassidy was running away in a van, eventually abandoning it in Dayton, Ohio. The van is later used by the Outsider to capture Frank Peterson, and a scrap of a "Tommy & Tuppence" flyer is found inside of it in the ensuing investigation, providing a link between Frank Peterson's murder and the murder of two girls in Dayton, Ohio. The murders are so similar - known NiceGuy suddenly rapes and murders a child while apparently witnessed in two places at once after a period where they didn't have knowledge of specifics they should have - that there are suspicions of a serial killer. This line of thinking eventually leads to the Outsider being found out.

* UncannyValley: The Outsider looks like this in-universe when Ralph and Holly meet him in person because he is in the middle of transforming; he's noted to look half like Claude Bolton and half like Terry Maitland, complete with mismatched eyes.

* WouldHurtAChild: The Outsider kills children by tearing out parts of their flesh and drinking their blood.

* AntiHero: Detective Anderson starts the story off this way, presented as something of a gung-ho CowboyCop whose ethically-questionable arrest of Terry Maitland causes catastrophic damage to the lives of almost everyone involved in the Frank Peterson case. At the same time, he's also a loving and devoted family man, and the aftermath of the colossal fuckup in question is what pushes him to become TheAtoner, as described below.
* TheAtoner: Anderson becomes this after [[spoiler:Maitland's death]], as it very likely could've been avoided, or at least not been such a fiasco, if he hadn't made Maitland's arrest such a public affair to begin with.

* EyeScream: When Anderson is forced to shoot Ollie Peterson, his first shot misses because someone bumps into him at the last moment. The bullet instead strikes a shoulder mounted camera, resulting in the lens exploding and glass shards ending up in the eye of the camera man.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Although she saved him, June Gibson quickly comes to regret her heroic deed and believes it would be better if she had let Fred Peterson die. He already lost his entire family, and now he's in a coma from which he might never wake up, and if he does his life will never be the same again due to the brain damage he suffered from near-suffocation.

* HistoryRepeats: Holly once again bashes a terrible villain's brains out with the [[ImprovisedWeapon Happy Slapper]]. [[spoiler:Not so lucky as Brady Hartsfield is the Outsider, though; Holly dead-out beats him to death with it.]]

* LaughingMad: Arlene Peterson, Frankie's mother, finally loses it after a busy day of people coming to their house to remember her son, console her, and celebrate that the killer has been caught. She goes into frenzied, hysterical laughter, starts throwing leftovers around, and dumps a tray of lasagna one of the visitors brought on her head while laughing how Frankie may be gone, but she won't have to cook for months. She finally stops when the excitement gives her a heart attack, and is able to apologize to her husband before passing out.

* RapidDNATest: Justified; in a letter from Dr. Edward Bogan to Detective Anderson, the former admits that usually DNA tests take weeks or even months to be performed due to the long line of samples waiting analysis, but given the nature of the crime and the apparent solidity of the case against Maitland, they will put the ones connected to the Frank Peterson case at the head of the line.

* TheRunaway: Merlin Cassidy, a 12 year old kid from New York who ran away from home to escape from his abusive stepfather, stealing money and cars along the way. The police encounter him in El Paso while investigating how the white van that the Outsider used to capture Frank Peterson ended up from New York in Flint City.
* ShootTheFuelTank: Jack Hoskins ends up shooting the gas tank of the SUV that Ralph, Holly, Howie, Yune and Alec used to get to Marysville hole when he fails to kill them all from his ambush. It takes several shots, but eventually the SUV goes up in flames. (Not that it does him any good, since Holly guessed he would try that.)

* StealthSequel: ''The Outsider'' was advertised as a stand-alone novel, but with Holly Gibney's appearance at around the halfway point, long-term King fans will recognise it as a low-key fourth entry into the ''Mr. Mercedes'' series, minus the original protagonist Bill Hodges. With the announcement of King's 2020 novel ''If It Bleeds'' as "the second Holly Gibney mystery", it pretty much confirms ''The Outsider'' as the jumping off point for a ''Mr. Mercedes'' spin-off series.

* TheUnreveal: What the Outsider is or what his origins are are never explained.

* CreepyCave: The climax takes place in the Marysville Hole; a network of caves that are vast, dark, confusing and prone to collapse. Even before the titular [[HumanoidAbomination outsider]] made the caves its home, they were still dangerous. An entire rescue party who had been looking for two children lost in the caves became trapped by a cave-in and slowly perished in the dark.

* DestroyTheEvidence: When Anderson finds a book in Cap City that has Maitland's fingerprints on it, DA Samuels tries to coax him into destroying it (which woud be easy since Anderson examined the book at home, and hasn't filed it as evidence yet). However, despite this new evidence even further undermining their case against Maitland, Anderson refuses and officially files the book as evidence.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:We never find out if Fred Peterson awakens from his coma but given his condition, it's probably unlikely]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:We never find out if Fred Peterson awakens from his coma but given his condition, it's probably unlikely.]].

* AgentScully: Anderson himself however is quite skeptical, and keeps trying to find a logical explanation before finally realizing Jeannie is right.
* AlmostDeadGuy: Between [[spoiler:Anderson and Maitland after the latter gets shot. Ralph tells Maitland he won't make it, and urges him to [[DeathbedConfession confess now while he still can]]. Maitland, however, uses hist last breath to once again state his innocence, and ask Anderson [[ArmorPiercingQuestion how he's going to clear his conscience]].]]

* TheAtoner: Detective Ralph Anderson becomes this after [[spoiler:Maitland's death]], as it very likely could've been avoided, or at least not been such a fiasco, if he hadn't made Maitland's arrest such a public affair to begin with.
* {{Blackmail}}: The outsider seems to give officer Jack Hoskins skin cancer when he investigates a barn the former had been using as a hideout, and orders him to kill Ralph Anderson and the others for him in return for getting cured. In reality, it's not cancer but a skin rash.

* HistoryRepeats: Holly once again bashes a terrible villain's brains out with the [[ImprovisedWeapon Happy Slapper]]. [[spoiler: Not so lucky as Brady Hartsfield is the Outsider, though; Holly dead-out beats him to death with it]].
* HumanoidAbomination: The Outsider can pass as human right down to the DNA, but he is clearly something quite different. He wields a variety of outright supernatural powers, and between transformations he looks human only in general shape, with poisonous, burned-looking skin and "eyes" that look more like bundles of straw than anything. It's never even made clear if "he" is the right word to use for a creature like that.
* IdenticalStranger: Discussed: Ralph Andersons' wife, who loves detective novels, suggests they might be dealing with one of these, hence why Terry Maitland could seemingly be in two places at once. Ralph counters her argument with that a lookalike would still have different fingerprints and DNA, to which she offers the theory that maybe it was the double who went to the writer's conference in Cap City while Terry stayed in Flint City and committed the murder. Ralph also dismisses this since that would mean the double successfully fooled three of Terry's colleagues who went to the same conference.
* KnuckleTattoos: As the Outsider takes on Claude Bolton's form, it manifests his "CANT" and "MUST" finger tattoos. It also twists their purpose; while Claude gave them to himself in prison as a self-enforcement of his vow to stay clean, the Outsider uses them for intimidation, especially to Jack Hoskins.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Anderson makes his public arrest of Terry with the best of intentions. Howie Gold, likewise, argues against Terry wearing a bulletproof vest with the intent to help him (on the grounds a bulletproof vest would make him look guilty). [[spoiler: Both of these things directly contribute to Ollie Peterson, the victim's older brother, shooting Terry dead.]]

* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted during the shootout between Hoskins and the protagonists. Officer Yune Sable is shot in the elbow, breaking it and dislocating his shoulder from the whiplash of the impact. Ralph lampshades how in movies Yune would just shrug it off and continue, but in real life, even though no vital organs were hit, Yune is out of the game due to his injury.

* ThisIsReality: See OnlyAFleshWound above. When Yune gets shot in the arm, Anderson notes that in real life there is no such thing as "just" being shot anywhere--any bullet wound is very serious.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:We never find out if Fred Peterson awakens from his coma but given his condition, it's probably unlikely]].
* TheWormThatWalks: Mysterious red 'worms' come out of the Outsider's head after [[spoiler:Holly bludgeons him]].