Mr. Mercedes: proof that Stephen King could turn paint drying into a thrilling event

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Stephen King. He's published 54 novels, six non fiction works, nearly 200 short stories, and many of his works have been turned into blockbuster films and TV shows. He's one of the most prolific writers of modern times. And most of his works have been well received by critics.

Given the popularity of his work, you would think that an avid reader like me would be a huge fan. And I am. Now.

For many years I thought Stephen King only wrote stories that were full of horror, the supernatural, and science fiction. Many of his books and short stories do focus on these things. He also writes about people. He creates deep and intimate portraits of individuals and manages to populate whole towns with colorful characters.

He also writes about totally normal people under normal circumstances. And sometimes, he writes about normal people under extraordinary circumstances. I've found that some of his best work is the latter.

In his latest series: "Mr. Mercedes," "Finder's Keepers," and "End of Watch," the story starts out tragic, but fairly normal, and end with just enough supernatural elements to create a thrilling trilogy.

The series mainly follows Kermit William Hodges, or as he prefers: Bill. It's a pretty typical premise. Bill has recently retired from the police force in an unspecified Mid-Western city. The case of his career remains unsolved and he's not transitioning into retirement smoothly.

The case is one that unfortunately sounds all too real, especially given the chronic mass killings that have plagued our country recently. A madman drives a stolen Mercedes into a crowd  of job seekers that are waiting for a desperately needed job fair to open. He kills eight and wounds fifteen others.

It's Bill Hodge's case pre-retirement and he retires with honors with the case unsolved. He copes by bingeing on TV, crap food, and obsessive thoughts about the case. Bill sits in his favorite chair in front of the TV and practices blowing his head off with the gun he keeps in the end table.

Things change when an ominous letter arrives in the mail from the madman, who refers to himself as Mr. Mercedes. As with any good story about a retired cop trying to solve a crime, Bill decides to keep the letter to himself and investigate Mr. Mercedes on his own.

What follows is a fairly formulaic series of events. Boy tries to solve case. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Madman kills girl. Boy solves case and madman is captured.

During the course of these events Bill creates a crime solving team of misfits: a high school student who mows his lawn and the niece of the woman he loves. This team will continue to populate the next two novels and King develops them into beautiful and lovable characters.

While the events are at times predictable, the narrative style is intense and engaging; floating between Hodges and Mr. Mercedes, as well as a few other key characters.

Mr. Mercedes, or Brady, is truly a psychopath. He feels justified in his actions and longs to kill more and create as much suffering as possible. Disappointed that he's unable to nudge Hodges into suicide, he targets those around Bill. In those efforts he manages to inadvertently kill his mother, with whom he has a creepy incestuous relationship. While annoyed that his mother's death was not planned, he feels no sadness over her passing. He plans the ultimate mass killing where he'll detonate a bomb at a teeny bopper concert of 4,000 plus young girls and their mothers.

Bill's team catches him just in time and stop him. In the end Brady is rendered non compos mentis and locked away in a mental hospital. Thought to be essentially brain dead, he wakes up and asks for his mother. Will he recover enough to kill again?

"Mr. Mercedes" is in most ways a simple police procedural with a retired cop substituted for the lead detective. I know that Brady would ultimately get caught, but as I mentioned above, I couldn't put this book down. And once I finished and put this one down, I immediately picked up the next in the series: "Finder's Keepers."

When I first finished this book, I was conflicted. I was compelled to read the next one as soon as possible but wasn't exactly raving about the first one. Having read the entire series, I now would upgrade my rating from "eh..." to "very good." I've started a new book, but am already scheming which Stephen King novel to pick up next.

Stay tuned for my review of books two and three in my next post.