Mr. Mercedes by Stephen KingMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hardcover, 436 pages
Published
June 3rd 2014
by Scribner
(first published January 1st 2014)
Source: Own Copy Synopsis:
'In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.
In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the "perk" and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.
Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again.
Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.'
My Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr Mercedes and think that it was another great attempt by King to write something other than a novel of the horror or supernatural persuasion.
Crime novels are usually my favourite genre next to horror and in my opinion this one had a gripping storyline that was built up nicely from the beginning and carried through nicely to the end.
All of the characters were interesting and easy to imagine and by the end I even grew quite fond of some of them which means I really cannot wait until the next instalment in this trilogy gets released. I'm especially interested to see which characters get carried on through the series and how they develop further over time.
One of the main aspects of Mr Mercedes that I really enjoyed was that the reader was given the story from two different perspectives, being that of the retired cop investigating the crimes as well as the bad guy who is responsible for it all. Once I got further into the criminal's mind and saw his history and background, I almost felt pity for him as he is clearly an object of his upbringing and the psychology behind the actions of people like this has always fascinated me a little.
All in all I loved this book and struggled to put it down during the last 100 pages or so. Due to the nature of King's previous work you really do never know what his conclusions will bring and I was so invested in needing to know what the outcome of the bad guys mission was going to be that it became my mission to find out towards the end.
If you go into reading this book expecting old King writing then you might be a bit disappointed, but if you go into it with a clear mind and the knowledge that you are reading a good crime novel then hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.
