“Finders Keepers” by Stephen King – The Novel of Blood

We've gotten rather used to the concept of there being popular figures and their fans. Most people make whoever's work they truly enjoy a part of their life... but there are some who start basing their lives around it, and worse, around the artist him/herself.

The fear of crazy and dangerously-obsessed fans has no doubt plagued virtually everyone who had a brush with fame, and in his new novel Finders Keepers , Stephen King once again plays on it masterfully.

In this story, which is part of the Bill Hodges Trilogy, we are presented with an author, John Rothstein, who created an icon of a character decades ago, and has since then done nothing. Morris, his number one fan, one day works up the courage to kill him, emptying out his safe in the process.

More important than the money, Morris found notebooks that hold in them the words to Rothstein's last golden novel. He hid it all away in a stash, but was whisked away to prison for another crime.

Thirty-five years later, a young boy named Pete finds the treasures forgotten by the world... by all except for one. Little does Pete and his family know, Morris is on the cusp of being sent out into the free world from his prison, and will do the same to them he did to Rothstein. And so Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson find themselves in the uncomfortable position of being the only ones able to help.

Whereas the first book in the Bill Hodges trilogy was a straightforward murder mystery investigation with our band of protagonists doing their best to solve a case, this time things are quite different. There really is no mystery to solve for the reader, it's a straight up suspense thriller as we know exactly who the good and the bad guys are.

What's more, the first third of the book is solely focused on Morris and Pete, creating a rather vivid portrayal of four politically and economically turbulent decades for the former, telling his life from Rothstein's murder in the 1970s all the way to the MR. MERCEDES attack in the 2000s.

Naturally, there is less to tell about Pete and his family, but by the end of the first third we are rather well-acquainted with all of them, knowing what they want, what drives them, and what they are capable of.

The characters end up being really fantastic in this book, with much of the focus being placed on their development, especially that of Morris. His philosophy and perception of the world make him a downright terrifying villain, with King doing a fantastic job of playing on our fear of becoming someone else's murderous obsession for no reason other than bad luck.

King makes us care about his characters, and that makes the tense scenes all the more terrifying and suspenseful.

All in all, Finders Keepers is more reminiscent of a classic King novel, retaining your attention by the sheer virtue of the suspense and horror itself.

There are layers of complexity to the characters and some personal thoughts on obsessive fandom and idolization strewn about along the way. It's definitely a novel worthy of the Master of Horror himself.

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Favorite quote: "A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them happen and then writes down what he sees."

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Stephen Edwin King Personal site Here is a man who probably needs no introduction. Stephen King is known by virtually everyone as being the master of horror, coming up with classics such as It and The Shining, but his literary talents to extend beyond that as he delivered plenty of memorable novels in other genres, including 11/22/63 and Under the Dome.