Mr Mercedes

If I look back at all the books I have read in my life, I think I can say with confidence that Stephen King is my most-read author. Some of his works make me kinda cringe a bit now, but all in all, I just love his writing. Over the years, he's been branching out into many genres, away from just being a horror writer, and Mr. Mercedes is crime fiction, not horror. Sometimes it didn't even have that feeling of a Stephen King novel.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. Bill Hodges is an overweight, retired police detective who's in his 60s and struggles to find a reason to live. In comes Mr. Mercedes, a killer he was never able to catch in his active time, who ran a Mercedes sedan into a crowd, killing many people. Mr. Mercedes is trying to taunt Hodges into committing suicide. Little does he know that this will kick Hodges back into gear, as he renews his efforts to find Mr. Mercedes.

The novel reads as a back and forth. We early on get the PoV from the killer, who is a young man with a somewhat disturbing relationship to his alcoholic mother, and get to experience how his life gets more and more out of control. It is a bit of a nailbiter at the end there.

As mentioned above, I really liked it. I liked the cast, especially the highly unlikely 'investigator' Holly, a neurotypical woman in her 40s, Hodges' young helper Jerome, etc. Looking forward to reading the two next books, plus Holly, King's most recent book.