Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #2)

by Stephen King

'Wake up, genius.' So begins King's instantly riveting story about a vengeful reader. The genius is John Rothstein, a Salinger-like icon who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn't published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel.

Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he's released from prison after thirty-five years.

Not since Misery has King played with the notion of a reader whose obsession with a writer gets dangerous. Finders Keepers is spectacular, heart-pounding suspense, but it is also King writing about how literature shapes a life - for good, for bad, forever.

• ISBN10: 1473698995
• ISBN13: 9781473698994
• Publish Date: 2 June 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 14 June 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

While King is the indisputable king of horror, I am quite enjoying his foray into crime thrillers, and his descriptive creepiness finds its way into Finders Keepers.

The tale stems around a man obsessed by the works of author John Rothstein and that of his famous character Jimmy Gold. Our villain idolized this character; one could even say he is obsessed.
When the author stopped writing about Jimmy and in Morris's opinion "sold out the character" Morris kills him. He then ransacks the authors' home and steals not only cash but also a treasure trove of unpublished works including some Jimmy Gold novels. Imagine Gollum and “my precious” and you will have an indication of Morris and his obsession.

Morris hides his “precious” and ends up being locked away for another crime. Thoughts of his treasure trove are the only thing that keeps him from losing his mind. Almost a decade later Peter Saubers discovers the treasure trove when its needed the most. When Morris is released and goes searching for his "precious,"  it is up to Bill, Holly and Jerome to stop this angry, obsessed man.

King did a wonderful job fleshing out Morris and Peter. The first three-fourths of the novel are spent going back and forth between them and I quickly found myself caught up in their stories. Morris gave me the chills and King did such a wonderful job of capturing his deranged personality. We see glimpses of Bill and the gang but they felt more like commercials between until the last one-forth of the story. I felt for Peter and held my breath as the their story-lines began to merge.

The intensity of the story increased when Bill, Holly and Jerome entered the picture. At this point, I could not stop listening. I know not everyone has warmed up to Bill and the others, but I adore them. They are quirky, fleshed out and exactly what I have come to expect from King. I think Will really brought them to life with his narration. Holly is a genius, albeit a weird one and her quirky mannerisms and logical tones had me giggle. Bill is an old school detective and I love his commentary.

The case wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion as King set us up for the final book and I am excited to see what happens. Fans of King and crime thrillers will find themselves caught up in Finders Keepers. Are you going on a road trip this summer? Than grab the audio, Will Patton does an excellent job. I love his speaking voice to begin with and he rocks this series.

Audio provided by publisher. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[pamela]

Reading Finders Keepers, Stephen King's new crime thriller directly on the back of Mr. Mercedes was both a blessing and a curse. While I enjoy Stephen King novels once in a while as a distraction, I've never been a huge fan. He does really excel at horror writing and so both Mr Mercedes and Finders Keepers, purely crime novels, somehow felt a little lacking.

The overall pace of the novel was exciting. It was a general page turner like so many of King's novels are. It lacked the grizzlyness of Mr Mercedes however, and for a crime novel seemed to focus more on the psychology of poverty and the psyche of the criminal. No bad thing, let me assure you, but it certainly felt like a departure from the viscerally graphic murders of the previous novel. The descriptions of the Mercedes massacre and the job fair, and of Brady Hartsfield's mother after imbibing poised hamburger meat in Mr Mercedes stayed with me for a few days after finishing it. The murders in Finders Keepers on the other hand were over relatively quickly with little to no fanfair or excess grimness attached. Without the insertion of Det Ret Hodges and his new company 'Finders Keepers', you could be forgiven for thinking you were reading a book which was not in the same series as Mr Mercedes, let alone a book which was the direct follow on from it.

In Mr Mercedes we were introduced to Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson, the characters who should be integral to the plot of Finders Keepers but in reality were barely in it. With the introduction of Holly as a character left to very last minute in Mr Mercedes I did expect there to be a little more development of her character in this novel. While the characters from the first novel existed, their appearance is brief, and did not really flow with the rest of the plot which developed the new characters of the antagonist, Morris Bellamy, and the unfortunate Finder and titular Keeper of the stolen notebooks of the late, murdered, fictional Salinger-esque John Rothsein. Even Rothstein's unpublished body of work is almost a character in its own right. Through Morris Bellamy and Pete Saubers I did start to feel attached to Rothstein's work and wished I could read it for myself. With all of this in mind, I actually think Finders Keepers would have been a better novel had Hodges and co. not actually featured in it and it had stood alone as the spiritual successor to King's earlier novel Misery.

Despite it's other flaws, such as some clunky allusions to events of the previous novel, an unnecessary and irrelevant (to the plot of this novel at least)supernatural plot twist involving the near brain-dead Brady Hartsfield, and some questionable decisions of the part of its characters, Finders Keepers was a welcome distraction. It wasn't brilliant, it didn't blow me away, but it kept me entertained on some long journeys home. And isn't that sometimes just what you need?

[anne]

Good story, though constantly thinking I had read the story before, so not as original as book 1, but still good.