I haven’t read Stephen King in years, but I was invited to buddy read this and gave in. I also watched the first book in the series The Outsider to get to know Holly a little.

In this book, Holly gets a call from a missing college librarian’s mother that her daughter has been missing for a few weeks and she finds it all unusual. As you start the book, you watch this couple pose as needing wheelchair aid to lure unsuspecting victims into their garage at different time periods. 

Like many Stephen King books, this one is hard to read at times, just so gory and sickening. I had so much fun deciphering it with other readers, though. And it makes me interested in going back to the older Mr. Mercedes series to meet Holly there.

This does include a lot of pandemic information (in the setting) and does take a political stance. King discusses this in the author’s note.

“What went on between them was more like a stone you can’t get out of your shoe.” Ch 18

“Gifts are fragile. You must never entrust yours to people who might break it.” Ch 19

“Most cases are fragile, the way eggs are fragile. Why? Because most criminals are dopes. When it comes to doing dirt, even the ones who are smart are dopes. Otherwise they wouldn’t do dirt in the first place. So you treat a case like an egg. You crack it, you beat it, you put it in a pan with some butter. Then you make yourself a nice little omelet.” Ch 34