Mr. Mercedes: A Novel (1) (The Bill Hodges Trilogy)

I'm not a big horror fan, but Stephen King has always had the ability to hook the reader on the first page, so I've read my fair share of his novels and short story collections. MR. MERCEDES isn't really horror anyway. King's son, Joe Hill, must have influenced him to try the mystery genre, and that's what this book is.

King hooks us with these two likable characters, Augie Odenkirk and Janice Cray, who are both standing in the rain waiting for a job fair to open. A thousand people are to be hired and they're both desperate for work. Janice is so desperate she's brought her baby with her and it needs to be changed and fed. Augie loans her his sleeping bag. Just when she's all set, a Mercedes plows into the crowd. We're hoping Augie, our hero, and Janice and her baby aren't hurt, but that rat King won't let us have our way. So then who's this story about? King is a lot like John Sandford in that he lets you follow the killer throughout the book. This killer is a computer repairman, part-time ice cream salesman (That's how he gets to know the real hero of the book, a retired cop, named Bill Hodges, who's thinking of eating his father's hand gun). Brady Hartfield has seen him through the window. and he intuitively knows that's what Bill is doing. So he writes Bill a letter, signing it Mr. Mercedes. (BTW, that's a flaw in the book. Newspapers don't give serial murderers nicknames anymore like the Zodiac killer or Son of Sam. That's what they want, publicity. If they do, they'll hear from the police.) Brady's new target is Bill Hodges, and he wants to drive him to suicide, just as he's done with the owner of the Mercedes.

Brady Hartsfield is one sick puppy. He's got an Oedipus complex for one thing. He still lives with his mother, and he's got a man cave in the basement where he torments his future victims via the dark Internet. He's trying to get Bill to sign on to a site called “Debbie's Blue Umbrella”, but actually he's done Bill a favor; Bill now has a reason to live besides watching Judge Judy on TV: to track down this monster before he hurts somebody else.

Often divorced Bill also meets the owner of the Mercedes's sister, Janey. Mr. Mercedes has sent her sister a letter similar to the one Bill received. Bill is 62; Janey is 44 and beautiful. For some reason, she likes him, despite the age disparity. She hasn't had much luck with men, and Bill is a very nice man. She wants in on the search for the killer. So does Jerome, Bill's lawn boy, who also happens to be an all-American boy bent on being accepted at an Ivy league school. But he likes to pretend he's a field hand around Bill as he's an African-American. He's also adept at computers, and he helps Bill check out “Debbie's Blue Umbrella.” The last member of the group is Holly, whose mother was Mercedes owner Olivia Trelawney's sister. Holly ia forty-four years old but her mother, along with other bullies, has driven her to bat city She's got more ticks than a Rocky Mountain forest, but she's also computer literate, and she's brave and smart, despite her condition.

This book will keep you on the edge of your chair until the climax is over, and you'll keep reading to find out what happened to everybody after that. It even ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. Usually that's a no-no for me, but I would have read the next King mystery anyway.

I just reread the "Mr Mercedes" trilogy by Stephen King. I liked them a lot. Then I watched the mini series on Peacock. I WISH I could have a chat with Mr. King and ask him WHY he allows the powers that be to rewrite so much of his book for the TV script. It really bugs me. And the worst part is, it's not just that he lets them, he is in on it as one of the executive producers. And it's not the first time I've seen it happen. Other books of his were altered for TV or movies.

Some of the best parts of Mr. Mercedes were either left out or totally rewritten. Characters were added which weren't in the books. Characters were removed who had been in the books. I found myself shaking my head more than once saying, "THAT didn't happen!" Or, "who the heck is that?" Jerome's character was a lot less appealing than he was in the books. There was no boy band concert with Barbara attending which I think would have been a really great part of the movie. They killed off Hodges former partner, Pete who outlived him in the series. Holly was in her 50's in the book but 31 in the TV series. Lou didn't kill Brady or go to trial in the books. No cabin in the woods in the dead of winter where Hodges, Holly and Jerome found Brady. There were just a LOT of changes that I felt were not for the better. I kept wondering, why even bother calling the TV series, "Mr. Mercedes". The plot has so many changes you could just call it something else and leave the books out of it altogether!

I wanted to share these feelings with Mr. King himself and figured he at least had a web page where his fans could post but it's been shut down. Don't know why. Of course there is no way to e-mail him or write him directly, which hey, I get. He could not possibly read all the fan mail I'm sure he'd get. Here's hoping he does maybe check out his book reviews on good old amazon.

My favorite book of King's is, "Duma Key" but I am afraid of how they will mutilate it when the time comes for them to make a movie or TV series out of that one. It seems like S.K. would insist they stick to his book. He surely has enough clout now to have things done the way he wants them. Or perhaps he really doesn't mind all the changes or even contributes to them, which really would be disgusting!

You wrote a great trilogy. Stephen. Why didn't you stick to the book for the TV series? I just don't get it! I am begging you please, stick to the book when/if "Duma Key" is made into a movie or TV series.