Two boys living in the same house thirty years apart. Both come from middle class families. Both love to read, especially novels by the reclusive John Rothstein, a fictional contemporary of John Updike, Shirley Jackson, and J.D. Sallinger. Both are enamored with the author's Jimmy Gold Runner trilogy. However, this love leads to a different paths taken in their lives. For one, the antagonist, it leads to a crime involving murder and theft. For the protagonist it leads to benevolent familial behavior.
The antogonist is Morris Bellamy, a petty criminal, who critical of the author's third book in the trilogy decides to confront the author with the aid of two accomplices. This confrontation leads to the theft of cash, a number of unpublished manuscripts, and the murder of all but Morris. Eventually, he is sentenced to life in prison for another crime.
The protagonist is Pete Saubers. His father was a victim of the Mr. Mercedes incident leaving him disabled and without employment. When Pete finds a cache of money and Rothstein unpublished documents, he concocts a plan to help his family.
In this second novel of Stephen King's Bill Hodges crime drama trilogy, the two boys, one grown up and recently paroled from prison, and the other, an adolescent aspiring to be a great writer, meet in a collision course. The author uses ever shortening chapters with alternating voices of the protagonist and antagonist to heighten the story's suspense.
King uses two-thirds of the book to build the characters of his two adversaries. Bill Hodges, the retired police detective and new owner of the detective agency, Finders Keepers, his assistant Holly, and college-age friend Jerome, all who aided in the capture of Mr. Mercedes finally make their appearance when their services are needed. Since their characters wre developed in the first book in the trilogy, less time was spent in this book doing so. However, there is enough backstory to allow a reader to pick this book up first. However, I did enjoy seeing how Holly evolves over the two book.
Although this book is the typical good vs bad confrontation the plot develops in only a way that Stephen King can do. Although the primary plot in this book is satisfactorily resolved, there is a cliff hanger introduced at its end promising for a great future read. I have found that I enjoy the author's crime novels better than his supernatural ones.
The antogonist is Morris Bellamy, a petty criminal, who critical of the author's third book in the trilogy decides to confront the author with the aid of two accomplices. This confrontation leads to the theft of cash, a number of unpublished manuscripts, and the murder of all but Morris. Eventually, he is sentenced to life in prison for another crime.
The protagonist is Pete Saubers. His father was a victim of the Mr. Mercedes incident leaving him disabled and without employment. When Pete finds a cache of money and Rothstein unpublished documents, he concocts a plan to help his family.
In this second novel of Stephen King's Bill Hodges crime drama trilogy, the two boys, one grown up and recently paroled from prison, and the other, an adolescent aspiring to be a great writer, meet in a collision course. The author uses ever shortening chapters with alternating voices of the protagonist and antagonist to heighten the story's suspense.
King uses two-thirds of the book to build the characters of his two adversaries. Bill Hodges, the retired police detective and new owner of the detective agency, Finders Keepers, his assistant Holly, and college-age friend Jerome, all who aided in the capture of Mr. Mercedes finally make their appearance when their services are needed. Since their characters wre developed in the first book in the trilogy, less time was spent in this book doing so. However, there is enough backstory to allow a reader to pick this book up first. However, I did enjoy seeing how Holly evolves over the two book.
Although this book is the typical good vs bad confrontation the plot develops in only a way that Stephen King can do. Although the primary plot in this book is satisfactorily resolved, there is a cliff hanger introduced at its end promising for a great future read. I have found that I enjoy the author's crime novels better than his supernatural ones.