Stephen King's first 2014 offering is a neo-noir crime thriller complete with suicidal retired detective brought back from the brink of death by one last case. King fans, crime fans, and fans of interesting well written characters will enjoy Mr. Mercedes. King combines classic detective tropes with modern technology and a modern problem- senseless mass murder. What unfolds is a taught howcatchem pitting an unlikely, aging, overweight hero against a pathetic, perverse, and all to possible villain. The pedal-to-the-metal pacing keeps you turning pages but the depth of the characters make the pulpy tale rich.
Mr. Mercedes does not have any supernatural element and tangentially addresses some very timely issues. As a King fan and taken in conjunction with the King Cannon it makes me hopeful that we may get a straight novel out of the wordslinger in the near future. It seems like King is evolving beyond horror, not that he can't do it or doesn't need to do it, but from some of his recent books its clear he has become more interested, and put more energy, into the people that populate his fantastic yarns than he use to. He has become more concerned with the interpersonal rather than the mystical. I fell in love with Stephen King through the Dark Tower Series then went back and read as much as I could. I love his dialogue, I love his characters, I love how his stories move. Having devoured so much of his work I would like to read, just once, a Stephen King novel devoid of genre. Not because I am unsatisfied but because as a reader that's the direction the books seem to be pointing. I can see it, I wonder if he can.
Either way Mr. Mercedes is a good read. And, as always, a new Stephen King book makes me excited for the next. Revival is due out in November.
Mr. Mercedes does not have any supernatural element and tangentially addresses some very timely issues. As a King fan and taken in conjunction with the King Cannon it makes me hopeful that we may get a straight novel out of the wordslinger in the near future. It seems like King is evolving beyond horror, not that he can't do it or doesn't need to do it, but from some of his recent books its clear he has become more interested, and put more energy, into the people that populate his fantastic yarns than he use to. He has become more concerned with the interpersonal rather than the mystical. I fell in love with Stephen King through the Dark Tower Series then went back and read as much as I could. I love his dialogue, I love his characters, I love how his stories move. Having devoured so much of his work I would like to read, just once, a Stephen King novel devoid of genre. Not because I am unsatisfied but because as a reader that's the direction the books seem to be pointing. I can see it, I wonder if he can.
Either way Mr. Mercedes is a good read. And, as always, a new Stephen King book makes me excited for the next. Revival is due out in November.
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