Book Review: Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been a massive fan of Stephen King ever since I picked up a collection of his short stories. His novels can be epic, small, focused on two characters or feature a town full of people. Every single one is different and he seems to write them quicker than I can read them!
Mr Mercedes is a break from his normal supernatural and fantasy stories. This one is pure crime/cop caper and we are introduced to two main characters, retired Detective Bill Hodges and Brady Hartsfield. No attempt is made to disguise the fact that Hartsfield committed the horrific crime in the novel, instead this story is more cat and mouse.
King is a solid writer. It normally takes me a couple of chapters and I'm in. This book was a little different. It took me a lot longer to get going. I think the problem with this book is that the characters were so predictable. Detective Hodges is overweight, contemplates suicide, watches tonnes of day time TV, eats too much fried food and even wears a fedora. Since retiring he's blatantly bored and a letter from the killer is just what he's been waiting for.
Hartsield obviously took Psychopath 101. He is a loner, hates everyone, lives in his basement and has a dysfunctional relationship with his mother. These are characters we have seen before countless times before. I expected more from King.
There are several sidekicks who all have roles to play in catching Hartsfield, namely Jerome, a black seventeen year old who runs errands for Hodges and Holly, a forty year old who lives off cigarettes and medication.
Once the plot picked up I had no problem getting engrossed in the novel but the characters just seemed to leap to conclusions with no obvious way of reaching it and the ending was just as I expected. I gather that this was about the journey, not the conclusion but it was a bit of a let down compared to King's other works.

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