This is a little bit of a change for Stephen King. This is a detective novel and a darned good one at that.
A man drives a stolen Mercedes Benz into a crowd somewhere in mid America a few years ago and kills several of them. He leaves behind a mask and hardly anything else and is known only by his media given nickname Mr Mercedes. The lead detective on the case Bill Hodges works on it for a time and then retires without solving it.
His retirement is not going very well and gets so bad he considers suicide from time to time. Mr Mercedes decides to try and nudge him over the deep end and sends Hodges a letter taunting him. That gets Hodges back involved in the case on an unofficial basis.
The story, like in a good detective novel, has lots of twists and turns and unexpected events. Hodges finds an unlikely pair to team up with as they try and solve the case. Mr Mercedes himself is quite the interesting guy and it is entertaining to see point/counterpoint as the story develops.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and give it five stars out of five!
This book is the first of a planned trilogy. I can’t wait for the next installment.
