In the second installment of the Bill Hodges trilogy, Stephen King pits a vengeful maniac obsessed with the works of America’s iconic author John Rothstein against a young seventeen year old literature buff, who ironically is also an avid fan of Rothstein. Morris Bellamy, disenchanted with the portrayal of Jimmy Gold, Rothstein’s fictional hero, confronts the author and in a moment of desperate mania, guns him down. Before escaping the crime scene, Bellamy steals the unpublished works of Rothstein embedded in hundreds of Moleskine diaries. Before he can begin to read the works, Bellamy is sentenced to prison for 35 years for assaulting and raping a waitress. Seventeen year old Pete Saubers, miraculously lays his hands on Bellamy’s treasure trove.
After serving his sentence, Morris Bellamy comes hunting for both Rothstein’s Moleskines as well as the impudent teen usurping the diaries. Only Bill Hodges stands between Pete and a dire and dangerous killer. Stephen King, the master of economy and lucidity produces a marvelous tour de force as he deftly weaves an exquisite plot that slowly builds up taut nerve after taut nerve before finally climaxing into an unbelievable crescendo. An edge of the seat thriller, this King imprimatur is a one sitting read. One can be forgiven for not believing that John Rothstein is a product of the author’s imagination and for disregarding the fact that Jimmy Gold’s fleeting existence is merely restricted to the 370 pages of this wild goose chase.
As a prelude to the final work in this trilogy, the megalomaniac, Brady Hartsfield a.k.a Mr.Mercedes, the deranged psychopath who plowed down multiple individuals in the first book of this series, makes a creepy and goose-bumps inducing appearance, providing a flavour of things to come in June 2016! June is not going to be a month of serenity and tranquility!
“Finders Keepers” – If you find it, simply keep it!
