People in a Midwestern college town are disappearing. The timing for Finder’s Keepers—Holly’s detective agency—isn’t ideal. She just buried her mother who died from the COVID-19 virus that’s raging. Furthermore, her partner, Pete Huntley, is out of commission fighting the virus. But when a distraught mother calls Finders Keepers for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney can’t resist.

Stephen King explains that Holly was intended to be a minor character in Mr. Mercedes, but she quickly became prominent in the Bill Hodges Trilogy and beyond (Outsider, anyone?) Ms. Gibney shines in her eponymous novel, putting all of her hard-won detective skills to work.

Holly isn’t a standard whodunit. The reader quickly learns who’s to blame. The tension is generated by the reader agonizingly watching Holly put the pieces together while the threat continues.

As always, King blends characterization with perfect plot pacing. This is the sort of book that will have you justifying, “just one more chapter.”

King, Stephen. Holly. Narrated by Justine Lupe, Audiobook, Unabridged, Simon and Schuster Audio, 2023.