Will M.'s Reviews > Mr. Mercedes

Update 2015: I heard they're developing this into a "limited" TV Series! Can't wait to watch it! Here's the link

A psycho-madman with a Mercedes ran over a crowd of unemployed people resulting to 8 deaths and 15 injuries. He escapes. Months later, Bill Hodges, the lead detective, is still having nightmares about the crime incident. He contemplates suicide, and watches a lot of TV shows with his gun on his lap. Out of the blue, he receives a letter from the psycho-madman, and then the story of cat and mouse chase begins.

I think I can say that I wasn't biased with the rating. I'm not ashamed to say that Stephen King is my favorite author of all time, but I disregarded that thought while deciding the rating. Not his best work, but still satisfactory overall.

We all know that King is the king of horror, but I think this is his first genuine crime novel. A lot of people were bewaffled and curious of how the outcome would be. I'm one of the few who didn't really doubt the King, but I'll be completely honest and say that I'm not entirely impressed with the novel.

The premise is actually really interesting. Someone running over people, with no sense of regrets, that's something interesting to read about. I was expecting a lot more gruesome things to happen in the novel, because the beginning was good. I bought the book without even reading the summary at the back though, but it's a King novel, why would you need to do that.

The characters were really great, just like most of King's characters. Unforgettable? Not really. I didn't like Bill Hodges as much as I wanted to. He's a 64-year old retired cop who acts like he's in his 40s. He was unnaturally strong for his age. He's my least favorite of the main characters, but not to an extent of disliking him. Jerome and Brady are my two favorites in this novel. Jerome just brought out the humor this novel kind of needed. His natural wittiness and attitude brought the novel alive. Brady is probably the weakest main villain King has written (of his books I've read), but he was still really enjoyable. I like those psychologically damaged characters who are funny because of their craziness. Brady was funny in this novel, but a mastermind criminal? Nope. His emotional issues interfered with his psychological craziness capabilities. But like I said, he was great and humor filled in this novel.

My main problem with this novel would be the outcome of the plot. The ending was terrible. It was so cliche that I kinda got annoyed. With endless possibilities of what Brady could do, King chose to write a bit of a cliche. I get that most crime novels are cliche, but he chose one of the bad cliches. That's the reason why I rated this with a 4, and not a 5. The novel was filled with more drama than action. I don't necessarily mind that, but an explosive good ending would've made up for that. I like character driven novels as much as the next guy, but I also need that major plot twist that would leave my mouth hanging open for a few seconds. His other novels managed to do that, but this one is a little bit lacking.

His usual alternating chapters never fails to impress me, and this is not an exception. I really find it entertaining, reading about what the hero wants to do, while the villain plans on his next master plan. Great technique by King that I enjoy a lot.

Aside from the bad ending and not so thrilling plot, I still found this enjoyable. His characters were filled with humor and were really likeable for me. Not his strongest novel, but still worth checking out. 4/5 stars, and now on to the next King novel.