The latest Stephen King novel is Finders Keepers. Looking at the book cover will probably remind you a lot of another recent novel of his, Mr. Mercedes.
There is a reason for this. Finders Keepers involves many of the same characters as Mr. Mercedes, and both novels are set in the same unnamed Ohio city.
It takes a while for many of the characters from the previous novel to show, however. You are already well into the book before you really hear about them, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
***Spoiler Alert***
The beginning of the book takes place over the course of many decades, with a murder of a very famous and reputable author (the fictional John Rothstein, who seems to bear a striking resemblance in many respects to J. D. Salinger) providing an exciting start, establishing the character of the murderer and main bad guy in this book, Morris Bellamy, and setting the tone for the rest of the novel.
Bellamy kills Rothstein after recruiting help from two friends for what he portrayed as a simple burglary. What the two other criminals do not know is that Bellamy is completely obsessed with Rothstein's fiction, particularly the Runner trilogy. But he feels betrayed by the fate of the main character (the Runner) in the last book, and actually kills Rothstein over it. The other two with Bellamy are shocked, but Bellamy does not care, and he later takes care of both of them, as well. What Bellamy is interested in, far more than the sizable amount of money taken during the actual robbery part of the crime, is Rothstein's notebooks. He wants the chance to read, them, but he has to remain low while the crime is still hot. So, he hides the notebooks, meaning to return to them soon. Only, before he ever gets the chance, he is thrown in jail for decades for another crime entirely.
In the meantime, Pete Saubers and his family have moved into Bellamy's old home. By chance, Pete finds the trunk that Bellamy has hidden in the nearby woods. Also by chance, Pete himself is very much into literature, and he becomes almost as obsessed with Rothstein as Bellamy himself, albeit in a healthier manner. His parents are going through serious financial problems, with a tough economy, and with the father trying to recover from injuries sustained during events described in Mr. Mercedes. So Pete sends the money to them anonymously. It is exactly what they need, when they need it, and it gets the family through some extremely tough times.
What Pete really values, however, are those notebooks. He reads everything that Rothstein has written, and when the money runs out, he begins thinking about selling the notebooks. But he feels guilty about it, knowing that these do not belong to him. Also, he is worried about getting into trouble. So he devises a plan, and approaches a local bookseller who is less than honest and, unbeknownst to Pete, is an old friend/rival of Rothstein's killer, Morris Bellamy. The book dealer tries to intimidate Pete, and means to get the notebooks from him, one way or another. he rightly suspects that the kid is holding back on him.
In the meantime, Bellamy is released from prison. He finds the trunk that he hid everything in empty, and this drives him mad. He decides to pay the old bookseller a visit, feeling that he is responsible for how everything went wrong, and wants to kill him. Before he does, he manages to find out enough information about Pete to set up a plan. Now, he poses a huge threat to Pete and his entire family, because Bellamy will stop at nothing to obtain those notebooks.
Pete shows the strain of everything by the time that he goes to this book dealer, and only gets worse as things move along. This does not fail to get the attention of his family, particularly his sister, who calls in the crew from Mr. Mercedes. They quickly deduct what has happened, much to the shock of the Saubers family, as well as Bellamy, ultimately.
This is a fast-paced book. It starts off seeming to take a bit longer in character building early on, but once the old characters enter the picture, you just fly through the pages. Everything comes to a crescendo quickly, and despite seeming to be a "big book" (that was what some of the kids I worked with called it), you just plow through it very quickly. Typically of King, it is a fast-paced page turner, and you surprise yourself with how quickly you get through it.
Also, there is a bit of a twist (which is one thing that I will not reveal here) concerning one of the old characters in that last book. Something happens, or at least their are ample hints to suggest that something is still developing, which probably will mean another novel coming out in the near future set in this same Ohio city, and likely involving many of these same characters.
Ultimately, this is a must read for any King fan, although I strongly recommend reading Mr. Mercedes first, before opening this one up. For more casual fans, or the simply curious, you can certainly do worse than Stephen King. This is a great addition to his ever growing collection of best-selling novels, and it was enjoyable to read!
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