Finders Keepers

Stephen King is candy, but really good candy. Okay, I know, I've said that before.

Finders Keepers continues in this tasty tradition. It is the second in a three part series centered on retired detective Bill Hodges and one or two psychotic murderers. The first in the series was the excellent Mr. Mercedes. The third is called End of Watch, and is not yet out in paperback, at least in Indonesia (and who buys a Stephen King hardback, right?).

I read the second half of Finders Keepers, which runs a bit more than 500 pages in all, in a single afternoon. A page turner, by definition.

That said, Finders Keepers lacks the tightness of Mercedes, the sharp twists and turns. Its inventiveness really comes with the supposition that there is a certain reclusive writer, a very famous writer who wrote books that were iconic in the 60s, and whom has then disappeared from print or interview of any kind. Think a combination of J.D. Salinger, Phillip Roth and John Updike. People with mental problems have been known to become obsessed with this writer. Murderously so. Rumor gets about that this hermit-like author is sitting on top of decades of unpublished material - sure to fetch a small fortune if the writer himself were not standing in the way. Thus, his murder, the theft of many dozens of notebooks, parts 4 and 5 of what had been thought to be a trilogy, and more.

It's a pretty good, though pretty sick plan - but, of course, the best laid plans of mice and men do tend to go awry, and this one does just that, catching any number of characters in its deadly web.

Looking forward to the finale, whenever it happens to appear in Periplus.