Writers are often using characters and locations that work the best. William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County was the setting of most of his novels with characters appearing in one and dying in another. Tom Clancy’s novels mostly dealt with the techno-thriller world of Jack Ryan and John Clark. John Updike gave us Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom while Gregory Mcdonald wrote about Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher.
But the question is when does the writer divert from what the reader wants. I’m not alone in thinking Dean Koontz wrote too many books about Odd Thomas while most readers wanted another Chris Snow novel, which has been long-delayed by decades. Halfway through her “Alphabet” series, did Sue Grafton ever just want to write about someone other than Kinsey Milhone? Holly Gibney might be the one character Stephen King can’t shake. Even by his own admission, he admits this. Next to Roland Deschain, she’s the only other character to have been featured in multiple books over the years.
Holly first appeared as a supporting character in Mr. Mercedes. And while she could’ve simply been a throway character, she reappeared in the sequels Finder Keepers and End of Watch. After Billy Hodges died, she also appeared in The Outsider .along with the novella If It Bleeds. Holly was given life on the Tv series Mr. Mercedes played by Justine Lupe then in the series The Outsider where she was portrayed by Cynthia Ervio. It’s nothing against a great actress like Ervio, but after seeing her portrayed by Lupe, it’s like watching Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling in Hannibal. No one could top Jodie Foster.
Lupe managed to convey the odd quirks of a character with OCD but make her seem like a real person rather than a plot device. What’s funny about Holly on paper is that she is a chronic smoker, but also a hypochondriac. While not exactly on the autism spectrum, she seems to be the one of the perfect examples of someone who Asperger’s Syndrome, even if not fully diagnosed. It’s a shame that she’s in such a novel, finally as the lead and sole protagonist but there’s not much of a thrilling plot. The novel is set mostly in the summer of 2021 when the Covid-19 pandemic was just starting to slow down as people were getting vaccines but still dying.
While King hasn’t held back his political views and how he feels about former President Donald Trump, MAGA and the Republican Party, some readers might be turned off. He hinted with it in recent novels, notably Billy Summers, but here he goes full in. King says the focus is to criticize those who “do their own research.” While not to spoil much of the movie, the focus is on an elderly couple, who are also racist and homophobic, abducting people for the most part of a decade.
Holly who know runs Finders Keepers alone with Jerome Robinson as her assistant is mourning the loss of her mother, who died from Covid complications. Previous readers will now they had a complicated relationship. But she is contacted by a mother herself, Penelope Dahl, who wants her to find her daughter, Bonnie, who’s gone missing under mysterious circumstance. Bonnie was abducted by the couple, Rodney and Emily Harris, former professors of a nearby college who have a gruesome ulterior motive.
What it is I won’t say. However, I felt King could’ve slashed the novel by a good 100-150 pages to make it more effective. The Harris seem to be a representation of the people King think are ruining the country. He was an avid anti-war protestor while a student at the Univeristy of Maine during the Vietnam War and has expressed his concerns over the year in previous works. I’m sure King has known a lot of people like Rodney and Emily and has lived around them his whole life. You could argue what they’re doing is what a lot of people see other Boomer-age people doing, only interested in themselves while not thinking of anyone else.
Despite a good beginning and a good ending, the middle part get bogged down in a lot of plot exposition, but not much of a plot. I felt he should’ve brought the twist out sooner and that might have made the Harris couple more malicious. King isn’t the first to explore the “Sweet Old Couple Who Are Secretly Evil” concept. You can basically do your own research of many true crime stories and see similar people. But King adds his own sick twist to it.
Like his previous books in recent years, such as Billy Summers and The Institute, King knows the truly horrific monsters don’t have three heads or are lurking underneath our beds, but present themselves as regular everybodies who are cruel and violent to others, including children and the frail.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 