Mr. Mercedes

by Stephen King

trade paperback

Published Nov. 10, 2019 by Vintage Español, una división de Penguin Random House LLC.

ISBN:: 978-1-9848-9868-5

(11 reviews)

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 …

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.

34 editions

Kadomi@buecher.pnpde.social reviewed Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

The hunt for a killer

4 stars

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 …

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.