King has been a prolific and popular writer since the 1970s. King is best known as a horror writer, but his strong characterization and use of setting and mood have created a crossover appeal to readers who aren’t normally interested in the horror genre. He writes across many genres, including horror, supernatural, suspense, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, often blurring boundaries between one genre and another.

Joyland is one of three novels published by Hard Case Crime, a publisher of stories that take a new approach to the traditional hard-boiled detective genre. The classic hard-boiled detective story leans toward a stark, unsentimental view of the world. Settings tend to be urban and grim. Joyland departs from the tradition by setting the story in an amusement park in a seaside town. King uses the park as an urban landscape, set apart from the rest of the world by its own private language and culture. The amusement park represents a magical world in which ghosts and fortune tellers can exist, but Joyland is also solidly planted in the real world and described in gritty, unflinchingly realistic terms.