Finders Keepers Stephen King
With Finders Keepers (**** out of four), Stephen King introduces another literature-loving nutball to rival the uber-fandom of Misery's Annie Wilkes.
Two book lovers are at the center of the iconic novelist's newest foray into detective fiction, which also acts as the second tome in a planned trilogy kicked off with last year's masterpiece Mr. Mercedes. But Midwestern private eye Bill Hodges and his returning sidekicks stay offstage until the second act — a good 150 pages in, which is a novel concept for a sequel — so King can focus on adding fresh personalities and kicking everything up a notch in this sprawling suburban noir.
Morris Bellamy and Pete Saubers are males of different generations who grow up on the works of John Rothstein, a reclusive American author mentioned in the same sentence as Salinger and Hemingway. Yet a shared passion for the writer's work is where the commonalities end.
In the 1970s-set opening chapter, a young Morris murders Rothstein in his house and makes off with the author's life savings plus several works of unpublished material worth a fortune. Morris hides the loot and stacks of Rothstein's personal notebooks packed in a trunk in a forest, but his grand plans are stalled when a drunken night leads to years in prison.
Decades later, teenage Pete finds Morris' treasure just outside his backyard. Pete's father was crippled when madman Brady Hartsfield ran a Mercedes through a crowd of job seekers — the main villain and case of Mr. Mercedes — so the teenager uses the cash to anonymously help his struggling family.
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Finders Keepers is a crime novel by American writer Stephen King, published on June 2, 2015.It is the second volume in a trilogy focusing on Detective Bill Hodges, following Mr. The book is about the murder of reclusive writer John Rothstein (an amalgamation of John Updike, Philip Roth, and J. Salinger), his missing notebooks and the release of his killer from prison after 35 years. Sep 19, 2015 Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and an AT&T Audience Network original television series).
The money dries up and Pete turns to selling Rothstein's prose, which puts him on Morris' radar after he's paroled. Now an older man, Morris is dementedly determined to get the stolen goods back and will kill anyone who stands in his way.
Obsession is a major thematic tool used in the King catalog, none more than in this series. Annie, for example, held noted writer Paul Sheldon captive to make him write a new book. Finders Keepers focuses on characters preoccupied with not the writer they idolize but his words.
Morris blames Rothstein for his troubled lot in life — the crusty writer even tells him, 'It's guys like you who give reading a bad name' before he gets a bullet to the head. Yet the proposition of finally reading what happens to the author's Holden Caulfield-esque fictional character of Jimmy Gold makes years of jail time worth it for Morris.
For Pete, a Gold aficionado as well whose life took a more positive route after reading Rothstein, having more than 150 important notebooks in his possession weighs on him in a negative fashion, so much so he has to reach out to detective Hodges for help.
Then there's the PI, who's bettered himself physically – more salads, fewer doughnuts — but is haunted by the legacy of Hartsfield. That worries his closest friends: quirky Holly Gibney and loyal college kid Jerome Robinson, both sleuthing whizzes in their own right this time around.
King continues to tweak the hard-boiled genre in spectacular ways in Finders Keepers, hints at a bit of the supernatural — he's pretty good at that if you hadn't heard — and touches on his own place as an American literary celebrity.
King's had his share of diehard fanatics over the years, but the new book is so good, being at least mildly obsessed with it is understandable. The finest thing about it, however, is that the author has another story to tell before the finale of this excellent series.
Finders Keepers
By Stephen King
Scribner, 448 pp
4 stars out of four
| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Country | U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Series | Bill Hodges Trilogy |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Published | June 7, 2016 (Scribner) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN | 978-1-5011-2974-2 |
| Preceded by | Finders Keepers |
| Followed by | The Outsider |
End of Watch is a crime novel by American writer Stephen King, the third volume of a trilogy focusing on Detective Bill Hodges, following Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers.[1] The book was first announced at an event at St. Francis College on April 21, 2015 under the title The Suicide Prince. On June 10, the new title End of Watch was announced.[2] At the 2015 Edgar Awards, while accepting the award for Best Novel for Mr. Mercedes, King announced that the novel's antagonist, Brady Hartsfield, would be making a return in this book.[3]
The novel was released on June 7, 2016.
Plot[edit]
Retired detective Bill Hodges, who now with his sidekick Holly runs the private investigation agency Finders Keepers, is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Given only months to live, he finds himself drawn into a recent spree of suicides. All the dead are connected by a common thread: each of them has, in the past, been in contact with mass murderer Brady Hartsfield, the notorious Mr. Mercedes who, six years ago, plotted a follow up mass murder of blowing up a rock concert venue packed with teenagers. Hodges and Holly thwarted Brady's plans and left the killer in a vegetative state from which he never regained consciousness. However, many of the staff in the hospital where Brady now resides believe that he is recovering at an impossible rate, and that he may be faking his injuries to avoid facing charges for his crimes. Meanwhile, all those who have gotten too close to proving this suspicion seem to have committed suicide.
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After his head injury, Brady found himself gaining new abilities, including the power to move small objects with his mind and the ability to enter the bodies of certain people susceptible to his mental domination. Still confined to his hospital bed, Brady has used his power to finish his murderous work by creating a hypnotic video game app that heightens the user's susceptibility. Once the users are in Brady's control, he uses the app to dominate their minds and persuade them to commit suicide. The targets are the very teenagers who escaped death when Brady's plan to destroy the concert venue failed. Brady's ultimate goal, however, is to lure Hodges into the game and exact revenge. Brady uses the bodies of both a corrupt neurosurgeon and a hospital librarian as puppets and red herrings to do his dirty work and to misdirect the police while he makes his final move to destroy Hodges, all the while unaware that Hodges is already racing the clock against his own death.
Reception[edit]
The book received generally positive reviews. The review aggregator website Book Marks reported that 38% of critics gave the book a 'rave' review, whilst 54% of the critics expressed 'positive' impressions, based on a sample of 13 reviews.[4]
Television adaptation[edit]
On October 10, 2017, Audience announced that the TV series based on the first Bill Hodges novel, Mr. Mercedes, was renewed for season 2, based on the original Mr. Mercedes novel, Finders Keepers and End of Watch.[5]
References[edit]
- ^'StephenKing.com - End of Watch'. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
- ^McClurg, Jocelyn (2015-06-10). 'Stephen King Rules at No. 1.'USAToday.com. USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
- ^Mystery Writers of America (13 May 2015). '2015 Edgar Awards Best Novel'. Retrieved 20 January 2017 – via YouTube.
- ^'End of Watch'. Book Marks. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- ^Erik, Pedersen (October 10, 2017). ''Mr. Mercedes' Renewed For Season 2 On Audience Network'. Deadline. Retrieved November 6, 2017.