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Mr. Mercedes (2014)

Before reading: I have been waiting for this day for a long time. We are beginning the Bill Hodges trilogy! I love getting a series from King and this is supposed to be a good one. In addition, this is our first introduction to Holly! I met Holly in The Outsider so I'm excited to officially begin her "series" as well. There is also supposed to be a really good TV show version of this, as well. Lots of good stuff so let's get into it!

After reading: No surprise here, this was a good book. This was one of King's grittier tales and I would place it more under the thriller category. I was looking back at his other titles and I believe this is our first real detective/thriller type novel that isn't a Hard Case Crime book. I really enjoyed it! I know we get quite a few more from this genre after this one so I guess King enjoyed it, as well. This was a great intro to the Billy Hodges trilogy. I really liked his character and I'm glad we get to see more of him. Additionally, this was our introduction to Holly. I was a bit surprised, having met her later on, but I still love her character and am excited to see her growth. 

This book was an excellent thriller with a really solid story line. The characters were great, the visuals and story-telling were engrossing. Overall, a very good book. Due to some subject matter, it did lose points with me. The antagonist's relationship with his mother was tough for me to read. I get it but at times it felt like too much. Additionally, we have had icky racism issues in previous books. I was hoping that with this book being written in 2014 we were past that. The black character puts on a slave voice throughout the book and the antagonist is racist and throws the n word around. It's just all unnecessary. If those elements were taken away, I would consider this a five star read. 

While it wasn't the best, it was up there. I look forward to finishing this trilogy.

But first...Revival.



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