Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
‘Sometimes the Universe throws you a fine read’
And King’s narrative is just that, a deliciously warped crime fiction novel, devoid of the supernatural, but one of his finest thrillers.
This latest work, eponymously titled after a minor character from his 2014 work Mr Mercedes - Holly Gibney, who would return in Finders Keepers, End of Watch and in the novella If It Bleeds is centre stage.
Recovering from her mother’s death from COVID, Holly Gibney Private Eye, takes on the case of missing librarian Bonnie Dahl against the wishes of her partner the ex-Cop Pete, who is suffering from COVID.
Perhaps it’s the aftermath of her own mother’s funeral [held on-line] that makes the missing woman’s mother, Penny Dahl’s plea for help that forces Holly to take on this missing person’s case.
King switches timelines between the kidnapping of Bonnie Dahl, with other abductions all carried out in close range of the local college, but not linked by the police as serial abductions.
The novel is a dark affair, highlighting the divisions in America exacerbated by the emergence of the virus, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, with those of the issues of racial politics that defined the Trump era.
Stephen King’s ability in weaving a propulsive narrative, with a vast array of characters and plotlines just gets better and better, and his latest is a wonderful example of perfect convergence in a hypnotic narrative.
The sheer enthusiasm in the telling of the tale, indicates that this is not the last time the constant reader will encounter Ms Holly Gibney.
And a warning for the ‘foodies’ - the novel does contains Liver, but there are no Fava Beans nor a decent bottle of Amarone from Italy’s Chianti region.
