Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King – Spoiler-Free Review

MR. MERCEDES
by Stephen King

Scribner
June 3, 2014

From Goodreads:

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, 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 Hartsfield 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 two new, unusual 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.

A few years ago, if you had asked me if I was a Stephen King fan, I would have said, “Nah. I like a few of his books, but not a fan.”

I was wrong.

Since then, with each book I read, I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan. I think it’s the way his premise never screams out to be as something I need to read and then once I start reading it, I’m sucked right in.

The plot starts out simple. A retired cop is haunted by a case that was never closed and continues investigating it on his own. This simplicity quickly turns into Hodges navigating the maze of a killer’s sick game and provides a few of those moments where you have to put the book down because you’re shouting so much.

But where the book really shines, where most of King’s books really shine, is the characters. I can’t help but wonder if they’re real people that he trans morphs into his books using some ancient and demonic ritual. King also has this way of showing you a side of the story’s “villain” that makes you feel bad for him. You know the horrible stuff he’s done, you know what kind of person he is, and at the same time you find yourself wanting to reach out and help the poor bastard. Or maybe that’s just me and I need to do some soul-searching.

On the other end of that spectrum, the “good guys” are shown for what they’re worth and you see their dark sides. You wonder if you can really be pulling for someone who did some of the things these people have done.

In the end, I suppose they really aren’t heroes and villains at all. They’re all just people that ended up in a series of situations where they’re allowed a heroic moment, or a monstrous opportunity.

So, the book that didn’t sound especially like something I’d enjoy ended up a 5-star read with me putting the next 2 in this series high up on my TBR. Damn it, King, you did it to me again.

Fun fact about this post: I always get the feeling that King imagines himself as the main character, even if only a little.