Finish line in sight for `Mile’> King takes 5th book down to the wire

While Olympic runners are racking up the miles in Atlanta, marathon readers are putting their own champion in the front line of best-seller lists around the nation. Though hard work is hardly part of the routine, it does take some patience and perseverance, and the true faithfuls are sticking out to the end.

By most reports, Stephen King, the world’s best-selling novelist (no contention there!), is giving a winning performance with his six-part summer series “The Green Mile.”

When it appears in bookstores today, “Night Journey” kicks off the fifth part in the suspense series, which has put King back in top form with his readers.

Probably more than any of the other segments, “Night Journey” moves the up-til-now plodding plot along and gives readers their $2.99-worth of a King fix.

When we last heard from Paul Edgecomb, the story’s narrator, he was mulling over the mysterious healing powers of prisoner John Coffey and had a plan about how those astonishing abilities might be best put to use.

In “Night Journey,” Paul is convinced that Coffey might play miracle worker with Melly, the terminally ill wife of Paul’s friend and boss. He and his fellow guards take the chance and sneak Coffey out of his death-row cell for a night trip that has King’s spooky shtick in the driver’s seat.

Except for the gory death scene in last month’s installment, “Night Journey” is the best of the books so far. There’s good suspense that keeps the pages turning, and there’s some genuinely sweet moments regarding the overgrown Coffey and his gentle way with folks. There’s even a dream sequence in which Coffey takes on Christ-like proportions.

Still, “The Green Mile” seems more like a marketing technique than a literary experiment. Sure, King is staying on the charts; he always does. But this guy-tale of crazy inmates, worldly wise prison guards, and women who fade into the background simply isn’t as interesting as some of his other works.

We’re down to the last mile, however, and anyone who has kept up with the series will want to see how King pulls it all together in 90 or so short pages.