Finders Keepers: A Novel (2) (The Bill Hodges Trilogy)

King writing about writing, what's not to love? I don't know if I've ever read an author that I've enjoyed more when it comes hearing street-slang, or whatever it's called. King has such a wonderful ear for picking up the latest, and coolest way with dialogue makes his writing, at least for me pure pleasure. King's plotting is good, and has plenty of suspense, but it's really the dialogue that makes his books sing for me. He really knows how to bring a character to life showing all of the dark places that a person can go, sometimes finding redemption, and sometimes just sinking all the way to the bottom.

I haven't read Mr. Mercedes so I found myself playing catch-up with the characters in a few places. I would recommend reading that book first, though Finders Keepers was plenty enjoyable by itself. What made this novel particularly pleasurable, was that it was about a writer. Think Catcher In The Rye, and you have the series The Runner, which is at the heart of Finder's Keepers.

Morris, a young man, raised by a domineering-intellectual monster of a mother, falls in love with the series The Runner and decides to rob the elderly writer for two reasons. First, is because Morris believes that Rothstein might have written more than the three books that are published, and second because he's so disappointed at how the series hero, Jimmy, sold out. Because it's a Stephen King book, things go wrong for Morris from the first page and we watch as his frustration is honed to a razor's edge until Morris is a ticking time-bomb waiting to take out the innocents of the novel.

King has his characters bump into each other in synchronistic ways that made me want to weep for the poor Peter, the young boy who only wants to help the family that he loves. King uses a high school english teacher to comment on what makes a novel a classic, which is fascinating to me. King is giving us insight into his views on other writers, and his own psyche. It's obvious that King is tapping into his fears about how crazy fans can get when obsessing over characters who aren't even real. I really appreciate how honest King is as a writer, which is probably what gives his characters such depth which makes us care for them, which of course is at the heart of a great suspense novel. If we didn't care about the characters, we wouldn't care if they were eaten by the monster.

As much as I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes - and I did, quite a bit - I still wasn't entirely sure about the fact that King wanted to write a trilogy about detective Bill Hodges. Part of the appeal to Mr. Mercedes was the treat of seeing King take on something new for him; between the fear of being a retread and the way Mercedes's cliffhanger suggested the sequel would go, I just wasn't all that excited about the idea of two more books. But Finders Keepers allays those fears and then some, finding King moving to a very different kind of crime novel while still using all of his various strengths to tell a great story with some compelling undercurrents. Finders Keepers kicks off with a 1970's-set home invasion at the home of a reclusive author who once one heralded as the voice of a generation, and although the robbers steal plenty of money, it's evident that the unpublished manuscripts - and the way they might change the author's reputation and the fate of his most famous creation - are going to be the key to this whole story. How Hodges fits into it doesn't come until much later, by which point King has a half-dozen plates spinning, somehow keeping them all afloat without dropping a one. And when, to mix a metaphor, he starts pulling all of these plot threads together, Finders Keepers takes off like a rocket without ever slowing down again. From a plot perspective, Finders Keepers is pretty straightforward; while Mr. Mercedes was a psychological duel between two men, Finders Keepers is a more streamlined crime novel about a heist, the loot, and everyone who wants it for themselves. The fact, though, that the loot may be less financial and more intellectual is one of the things that makes Finders Keepers so engaging, especially for any book lover who might find themselves identifying more than they'd like to admit with the book's villain. It's a really richly satisfying and truly exciting read, one that sinks its hooks in quickly and then drags you along without ever really giving you a chance to catch your breath - and that's part of what makes it such a good read. Apart from that, there's King's usual knack for character work (particularly with regard to the Saubers family in general, and Pete specifically, without whom the book wouldn't work at all), his engaging prose, and that thematic richness as he explores the idea of who books and characters really belong to. Yes, the book's final pages give me pause as I start to get an idea where the third book in the trilogy will go (and the reported title seems to confirm those suspicions)...and yet, I can't deny that Bill Hodges seems to have lit a fire with King, delivering a pair of great reads. So why worry too much about the third just yet - especially when there's as great of a read as Finders Keepers to enjoy first?

I personally feel that Finders Keepers by Stephen King is better than Mr. Mercedes. I found myself totally engrossed within the novel after just the first few pages. This book is definitely a keeper!

As many of you already know, the story deals with Morris Bellamy who murdered his favorite author, John Rothstein, because the writer took the character in his trilogy, Jimmy Gold, in a slightly different direction from what was expected. Bellamy felt the author had sold out and punished him for it. The young man also stole a lot of money and dozens of personal notebooks from the author’s safe and then killed his two accomplices. A few weeks later, Morris has buried his treasure, had a fight with a young man whom he thought would help him sell the notebooks, and ends up in prison for life after having raped a woman while angry and drunk.

Move ahead in time.

Teenager, Pete Saubers, and his family now live in the house where Morris and his family used to reside. His dad was one of the people injured in the Mr. Mercedes crimes and has been out of work for several years. One day, while taking a back path through the nearby woods, Pete finds the trunk with the hidden treasures. Once he's sure nobody is looking for the trunk, he uses the money to help his family out of debt and then keeps the notebooks for himself, quickly becoming a fan of the “Jimmy Gold” novels, as well as the unpublished ones.

Jump ahead a few more years.

Morris Bellamy has finally gotten out of prison and wants his money and notebooks. Thinking about them was the only thing that kept him sane while in the slammer. He soon discovers that the young man he had a fight with over the selling the notebooks, is now preparing to buy them from Pete. The hidden money has run out, and Pete needs funds to send his younger sister to a private school. The notebooks have to go even though he hates giving them up. What he isn’t prepared to do is fight Morris to the death for them.

But, that’s exactly what he'll have to do. After thirty-five years in prison, Morris is old, but no pussycat. He killed three times, and now he’s ready to do it again.

Of course, the team of Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson are back from Mr. Mercedes and quickly find themselves immersed in the situation to keep Pete alive and to put Morris back in prison.

Nothing, however, turns out the way they expect or hoped.

Like other of King’s books, this novel was a pleasure to read and had a more than satisfactory ending. In fact, since the author plans on doing a trilogy, the ending leads directly into the third upcoming book.

One of the many things that Stephen King does to absolute perfection is create believable children and teenagers in his novels. He has a particular magic for this and succeeds tremendously with Finders Keepers.

Another thing is that the author always manages to pace his novels with suspense, allowing the reader to take the dark journey with him from beginning to end. The reader is seldom permitted to be bored, though some claim that many of his books are simply too long.

Finders Keepers is certainly a winner in my book, though not quite as fantastic as 11/22/63 or The Green Mile or It or some of his first published novels. Still, you won’t be disappointed in giving this novel a try, especially in preparation for the third book that's to come in 2016.