Hard-Boiled

No one man or woman, King suggests, can forestall every act of senseless violence or protect us from random catastrophe. But what “Mr. Mercedes” offers instead are bighearted men and women who are, after all, much like us. And, King seems to be reminding readers, the good guys still outnumber the bad.

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Stephen King in overdrive with killer 'Mr. Mercedes'

Brady Hartsfield is a weird dude with mommy issues hiding in plain sight as both an IT specialist and the ice-cream man, watching Hodges from afar but also working on a new plan to maim and kill thousands. He offers a fascinating look at what makes a serial killer in a post-9/11 context and is exceedingly worthy to be in King's vast menagerie of malevolence.

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Stephen King's new 'Mr. Mercedes' is a thrilling detour into hard-boiled crime fiction

A creepy cat-and-mouse game ensues, with the killer taunting the detective in online chat rooms instead of foggy alleyways. As Hodges and Janey, his client, and Jerome, his neighbor-assistant-lawn cutter, get closer, the stakes get higher for the trio. Those close to Hodges are endangered – and it soon becomes clear that the killings at the City Center job fair were just the beginning for Mr. Mercedes. His plotting of mass killings are all too believable in 2014, unlike in the golden age of noir.

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Book review: ‘Mr. Mercedes’ by Stephen King

Mr. Mercedes derives much of its queasy power from King’s ability to pull readers inside Hartsfield’s claustrophobic existence, a veritable incubator of banal evil. Every bit as loathsome as monsters like Pennywise the clown or Randall Flagg, Hartsfield is a fearsome, twisted creature, gifted with technological skills that make him a pure 21st-century terror.

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‘Mr. Mercedes,’ by Stephen King

On one level, “Mr. Mercedes” is an expertly crafted example of the classic race-against-the-clock thriller. On another, it is a novel of depth and character enriched throughout by the grace notes King provides in such seemingly effortless profusion. It is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses. James M. Cain, who knew a thing or two about this sort of story, would probably have agreed.

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A madman and a retired detective square off in Stephen King’s fast-paced ‘Mr. Mercedes’

Mr. Mercedes isn’t scary the way The Shining and Salem’s Lot were — you can’t even call it a horror novel, really — but it’s chilling and compelling in a manner King’s later books often weren’t, because this one feels like it could happen. Here there be monsters, and they look just like you and me.

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Stephen King’s "Mr. Mercedes' will get your heart racing

Hartfield is sensitive, sympathetic and one of King’s most realistic characters. He is a lot like Norman Bates from “Psycho,” in the worst ways imaginable. You can add Hartfield to the list of great King villains, alongside the shape-shifting monster Pennywise from “It” and the hypnotic vampire Kurt Barlow from “Salem’s Lot.

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Stephen King's 'Mr. Mercedes': book review

In “Mr. Mercedes” King displays a light touch, telling a story that could almost be characterized as sweet except of course for the sociopath on a bloody rampage. King will be King, and he’s never less than scary. Who in their right mind would want him to be?

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Mr. Mercedes’: haunted and taunted by an unsolved crime

It’s a rather short read, by King standards (just over 400 pages), but all the elements come together in a very public, potentially explosive finale (with a surprising post script). King fans may find themselves furiously turning pages long into the night.

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Review: Stephen King puts the pedal to the metal in 'Mr. Mercedes'

King may have left out the supernatural in Mr. Mercedes, but his gifts for creating thoroughly believable characters and thrumming suspense are in full play. He keeps raising the stakes and ratcheting up the violence, and just when you think everything is settled there's one spine-icing little turn on the very last page. Propulsive, deeply creepy and at heart warmly humane, Mr. Mercedes is not really a departure from the rest of King's work. But if you really miss those ghoulies and ghosties, he'll have another novel out in November, a horror tale called Revival.

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Driven to solve murders in Stephen King's 'Mr. Mercedes'

...King's richly layered, technologically savvy story that illuminates Mr. Mercedes, his evil deeds and even more monstrous plans is uncomfortable yet riveting to read. Alternating between Hodges' and Brady's points of view sets the stage for a creepy, ripped-from-the headlines climax, a showdown between good and evil that characterizes the best of King's work, regardless of genre. And without spoiling the fun of reading this excellent addition to King's growing list of mystery-thriller titles, there's even a small hint that the Mr. Mercedes show may go on — a scary thought indeed.

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A new direction for Stephen King in "Mr. Mercedes"

This being a Stephen King book, people are going to die particularly horrifying and gruesome deaths, but there are surprisingly few of them in "Mr. Mercedes." The book is much more a cat and mouse game played out primarily through the Internet, until Hodges figures out what Brady's ultimate move will be. Then it's a full-throttle sprint to the finish; the last 80 pages cannot be doled out over multiple reading sessions. You'll have to swallow them all in a single gulp.

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Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes: Read the book, not the reviews

...Mr. Mercedes is one of the most surprising King novels in years. For starters, it’s not a horror novel, at all. Rather, it’s a tightly constructed thriller, drawing on conventions of the detective novel while not being bound by them. Second, there are no supernatural elements to it whatsoever: its terrors, its darkness, are human in both nature and scale.

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