My wife knows how much I love to read and books are always on the gift list. I always receive books for Christmas; I certainly hint enough about the latest books I’m interested in. And this past Christmas, once again, my wishes were answered. She bought me two books by one of my favorite authors, Stephen King.And in a way that only King could do it, they were tied together. The books were Mr. Mercedes followed by Finders Keepers.
No horror involved in these mysteries, other than the horror of our times.
Both of these books are about an unlikely trio who come together to solve crimes. In Mr. Mercedes the crime is where an individual drives a Mercedes into a huge crowd lined up for a job fair, killing and injuring several. The main character is a retired detective who was the main investigator on this case and was never able to solve it, leaving him a sense of guilt at having let such a perpetrator get away with murder. Over the course of the early days of his retirement, he becomes terribly depressed about this, leading him to have deep thoughts about his failure and what he could do to ease his pain, little knowing that the criminal in question knows how much this would be bothering such a successful detective and takes it on himself to contact the detective via a chat app, taunting him, hoping to make the detective follow through on his dark thoughts of relieving himself of his guilt.
But with this prodding, the detective in a back-door way, using all the skills and contacts he has, begins searching again initially using the help of a local teenager who does his lawn work. And then they’re joined by the niece of the unfortunate lady whose stolen Mercedes was used in the crime, not knowing that the perpetrator of the crime had used the same chat app to get in touch with the aunt, eventually playing on her guilt that it was her stolen vehicle used to commit the crime which led to her suicide, the same goal he has in mind for the detective. And that’s nuff said for I want to give nothing else away, but it was a fantastic read with a very interesting conclusion.
In Finders Keepers I found the same trio coming together again in a mystery involving the thirty year old cold-case murder of a famous author who, just like the author in King’s book Misery, quit writing a series of books about a particular character, totally incensing a fan. And the rest is up to you to discover; just read the book.
In these books, King gets away from the supernatural/horror themes of many of his books, delving into mystery. And in using recurring characters he continues a theme he’s used in many of his works, bringing back characters who appeared in an earlier book, except this time it’s two books in a row. Good reads, both, which I highly recommend.
I will never forget the day my 10th grade English threw A Tale of Two Cities in the trash and gave the class Salem’s Lot to read. I have been a Stephen King fan ever since.
I’ve never read a Stephen King book that I didn’t love. I haven’t read this one, but it’s on my incredibly long list of books to read.
I love reading and I love Stephen King! I am definitely going to have to pick these two up soon. They sound awesome!
Sounds like a great book. I love Mystery and Supernatural 🙂 Stephen King is one of my favorite authors too
I’m going to have to buy this book. I’m a huge Stephen King fan and I’ve yet to read this book.
I used to love to read Stephen King books!! This one looks like a good one, I need to check it out!!
I’ve never read a Stephen King book. I always thought they were all scary. I need to check out one of these from the library.
I would love to meet Stephen King someday. I think he would be as awesome as his books. Thanks for sharing!
I can’t read his books I get freaked out really easy! I know he is a great writer, my dad loves him. I will have to tell him about this new book!
I have read some of his books. One of my favorites is Needful Things. I have not been reading lately, but I would love to get a copy of these books.
These sound like great books to read. I haven’t really gotten into Stephen King books because they feature quite a bit of horror. I’m currently watching the TV series on Netflix. I’ll have to read the book to grab the details that I have missed.
I’m not much of a horror fan, but Stephen King is a wonderful storyteller! I’m so glad to hear that I’ll be able to enjoy these books since they don’t have the horror aspect to them. I love a good mystery!
Sstephen King is such a great and talented writer! It’s great to see that he is still putting out the books! I will have to look these up!
I would love to read the Finder’s Keepers. Sounds like a great book to read on a rainy day.
Stephen King is a fantastic author. I have been enjoying his stories since i was a kid. I look forward to reading this book.
I have never read anything by Stephen King before, it sounds like a good book, will take a look
I love Stephen King’s books and movies. Want to know something cool? I use to live in the same town he does. 😉
I’ve never read a Stephen King Book that was not great! Can’t wait to read this one!
My father is a huge fan of Stephen King books…I’m sure he’s already reading this one! I much prefer the movies!
I love Stephen King and his books! I can’t really tell a favorite because I loved them all. I look forward to reading this!
Stephen King books have always intimidated me because I’m such a scaredy cat lol! These plots though are definitely intriguing!
I know Stephen King is an amazing writer. I need to get this book will keep this in mind my next bookstore run!