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Cover of Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Mr. Mercedes

  • 484 pages · about 8 hours
  • First published 2014
  • 47 editions

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1 About this book

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 highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again.

  • Horror
  • Mystery
  • Crime
  • Serial murderers
  • Serial murders
  • Thrillers
  • Criminal investigation
  • Automobiles

2 What to expect

A crime novel in which retired detective Bill Hodges, lonely and restless, is drawn back to an unsolved massacre by a taunting letter from the killer. The book also follows the killer's own mind, so the tension comes from a cat-and-mouse chase, not from a hidden identity. It is Stephen King's first hard-boiled detective novel and the start of a trilogy, with graphic violence and dark psychology.

Good for readers who want: hard-boiled crime, a cat-and-mouse thriller, and the start of a gripping trilogy.

3 About Stephen King

Born 1947

Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror fiction and has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. In a career spanning six decades, he has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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