Finders Keepers

Originally published July 2015

It’s a book thriller for book lovers.

Stephen King’s latest, “Finders Keepers” is the the second in a roller coaster trilogy that began with last summer’s “Mr. Mercedes” and will come to a close next spring with “End of Watch.”

And the ending will have you waiting breathlessly. But I digress.

Full disclosure, King is one of my favorite authors. So it’s hard to disappoint. What began with “Mr. Mercedes”—a off-the-charts whackadoodle that is searching for infamy with mass killings all while taunting a retired police detective continues with a different criminal mind front and center: Morris Bellamy.

Bellamy is a book lover. A bad guy, but he’s got a thing for one author in particular—John Rothstein and his famed literary leading man, Jimmy Gold. It’s Bellamy’s plan to rob Rothstein and make his fortune selling the ongoing Gold saga, but plans go awry as they often do, and after a 30+ year stint in prison, Bellamy is ready to make good on Rothstein’s unpublished words.

Too bad another book lover found them.

Pete Saubers is the teen son of Linda and Tom, a victim of Brady Hartsfield’s original vehicular attack in “Mr. Mercedes.” And Pete is struggling to keep his family together when he happens upon a small fortune in cash and Moleskine notebooks. When the money runs out, it’s Pete’s turn to see if he can cash in on Rothstein’s work.

King’s prose brings several storylines into convergence brilliantly—taunting not just the characters but the readers. Me? I had a hard time putting the book down simply because I just had to know what was going to happen next. It was one of those reads where you find yourself yelling at the characters and gasping out loud.

And then there’s the ending. OMG. Just when you wonder if perhaps King was asking his paranormal muse to sit this series out, it rears its head.

How ironic that a book about people so thoroughly in love with an author and his main character would leave its readers in a delicious lurch, anxiously awaiting another go ’round with Hodges and Hartsfield.

This is a fantastic summer read—highly recommend it and its predecessor. Easy to finish in a weekend, too. What are you waiting for?