Last week I told you about the book Mr. Mercedes. What I failed to tell you is that it was the first of a trilogy. The second book is called Finders Keepers. This book sort of tells three different stories,  but I’m not going to spoil the last part of it. I’m making you read it. MWAHAHA

The first part is set in 1978 where our antagonist, Morris Bellamy, murders and robs an author by the name of John Rothstein for ending his famous Jimmy Gold trilogy not to Morris’ preference (Yeah, dude is a fucking psycho). Rothstein had been reclusive in the years prior to his murder and had kept writing, but not publishing anything, so Bellamy not only stole all of his money, but also all of his written works, which had two finished Jimmy Gold books. Being a psychopath and paranoid someone is going to take the books, Bellamy kills his two partners and gets away with the murders. He ends up hiding the books and money under a tree by his house until the heat dies down some. Unfortunately for him, he’s an idiot and gets drunk and ends up raping a woman and is sent to jail for life.

In the present a boy by the name Pete Saubers is now living in Bellamy’s old house. Pete’s dad, Tom, was injured in the events that opened Mr. Mercedes and because of that the family is on the brink of financial ruin. Fortunately for them, Pete finds the money and books and uses the money to help support his family and becomes engrossed in the written works of Rothstein. When the money eventually runs out, Pete is now in his teens and realizes how much the two Jimmy Gold books would be worth and comes up with a plan to sell them. At the same time, Morris Bellamy is released from jail on parole. The entire time he was in jail he has been thinking, obsessing over those books, but when he gets to where he buried them, yep you guessed it, they aren’t there. Eventually, his search for the books leads him to Pete.

A wicked game of cat and mouse ensues and eventually our heroes, Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney are on the case.

This is an interesting book for me personally, because the story is GREAT! The story of this book is truly a great one, Stephen King is truly a master storyteller. My issue with this is Morris Bellamy. He annoyed the shit out of me. Not in like a “he’s the bad guy so I hate him” sort of way, but the I “just am super annoyed by that guy” way. He doesn’t quite ruin the book for me, but he comes damn near close to it. In my opinion this is the weakest of the trilogy, still worth checking out so you can complete the series though. Be sure to come back next week to see what I have to say about the final book of the series, End of Watch

Photo Source: goodreads

Rating: 3/5

Length : 434 pages

Favorite Quote: “I knew there were no ghosts in there, but on the other hand, what if there were?”

Niles’ rankings of Stephen King books:

  1. 11/22/63
  2. Mercedes
  3. Finders Keepers