Stephen King has a broader range of writing styles than most people realize. Sure, horror put him on the map (Carrie, Salem’s Lot). He’s also a great fantasy author (Eyes of the Dragon, Dark Tower). He tells stories about people you end up caring for (The Green Mile, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption). In Mr. Mercedes, King uses the crime detective genre to created some new flawed characters you’ll end up rooting for.

Bill Hodges is a near suicidal retired detective looking for a reason to leave his mindless life of daytime television. Jerome Robinson is brilliant student and the end of high school who does yard-work for the detective. Holly is a middle-aged woman with clinical mental issues who wants to live life beyond the purview of her family guardians.

Put these three characters on the trail of a psychopathic killer and you get Mr. Mercedes. King is the master at pacing, leaving little clues throughout the text which point you toward something you need to discover in just a few more pages. In fact, “just a few more pages” might become your mantra. As with (almost) every King novel, this book grabs you in the first chapter and will have you compulsively finding time to keep reading no matter how busy your schedule.

Mr. Mercedes leaves you wanting to hear more from Bill, Jerome, and Holly and King has obliged. Finders Keepers, the second novel in the Bill Hodges Trilogy, is on book shelves. A third book is in the making.

—Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes (New York: Scribner, 2014).