I won't give away any spoilers of the first two books, so this will be a bit brief. This third book continues the story of Bill Hodges, a retired police detective in Ohio, and his now-business-partner, Holly Gibney (who also makes an appearance in King's The Outsider). Together, they solved the case of the Mercedes Massacre in book one and the stolen manuscript in book two, but now a suspiciously odd string of suicides brings them back into an active police investigation. This final book of the trilogy comes back to the story of Brady Hartsfield, the evil but brilliant computer genius who was the vile “Mercedes Killer” (not a spoiler—you know from the start of book one who Brady is) and who is now paralyzed and in the hospital.
It was gripping and super-suspenseful, as are all of King’s novels! The first two books were mostly straight-up mystery/thriller stories, but this third one brings in some of that King creepiness with some supernatural phenomena. After I finished reading the book, we started season two of the Mr. Mercedes TV show, but it was highly annoying to me to find out they switched books two and three in the TV series so that season two is about book three (that’s why someone had warned me to finish reading the full trilogy before embarking on season two of the TV show). And they killed off of a beloved character who’s alive in the books! It’s probably best to wait a bit longer after reading a book to watch its TV or movie adaptation. In any case, the TV show is still good, even though it’s annoying me. And all three of the books were excellent with that can’t-put-it-down compelling character for which King is famous.
400 pages, Gallery Books
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Congrats on your first big book review of the challenge! I'm looking forward to posting my first review later today. This book sounds like a great read and a nice conclusion to this trilogy—the added supernatural aspects are intriguing. I'm sorry that the TV show has gone so far away from the plot of the books—I really don't understand why shows and movies do that, as it's really aggravating! Thanks so much for the great review!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteKing's novels that include supernatural elements 9which is many of them) are always fun!
We just watched The Woman in the Window movie, and it was funny because my husband and I listened to the book together on audio, but he remembered all the details, and I didn't (it's usually the opposite!). So, I enjoyed the movie, and he kept pointing out what was different! Best to watch the adaptation several years after reading the book!