Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   

Author:   Stephen King

Genre:  Fiction, Crime, Suspense, Thriller

431 pages, published June 2, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

Finders Keepers is the second book in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges Triology (the first is Mr. Mercedes and the third is End of Watch) and the name of Bill Hodges’ Private Detective Agency.  Hodges is a retired detective who, in Mr. Mercedes which was book one of the series, stopped serial killer Brady Hartzfield before he could blow up an auditorium full of concert-going pre-teens.  While Hodges plays a role in Finders Keepers, the action focuses primarily on Morris Bellamy, a killer who murders a J.D. Salinger type figure and steals his writing notebooks which contain the fourth book in the acclaimed Jimmy Gold series with which Bellamy is obsessed, and Pete Saubers, a smart high school kid who thinks he has found an answer to his family’ money problems when he finds the stolen money and notebooks in the back yard of a house that had been occupied by Bellamy decades earlier.  When Bellamy is released from prison after serving more than 35 years on a on a different charge, he goes looking for his long buried treasure.  When he finds it missing, a cat and mouse game ensues with Bill Hodges and crew pulled back into action.  

 

Quotes

“For readers, one of life’s most electrifying discoveries is that they are readers—not just capable of doing it (which Morris already knew), but in love with it. Hopelessly. Head over heels. The first book that does that is never forgotten, and each page seems to bring a fresh revelation, one that burns and exalts: Yes! That’s how it is! Yes! I saw that, too! And, of course, That’s what I think! That’s what I FEEL!”

 

“As the twig is bent the bough is shaped.”

 

“No. I was going to say his work changed my life, but that’s not right. I don’t think a teenager has much of a life to change. I just turned eighteen last month. I guess what I mean is his work changed my heart.”

 

“They say half a loaf is better than none, Jimmy, but in a world of want, even a single slice is better than none.”

 

“A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them happen and then writes down what he sees.  A good novelist realizes he is a secretary, not God.”

 

“Books were escape. Books were freedom.”

 

“Mostly because nobody with his kind of talent has a right to hide it from the world.”

 

“Don’t let your good nature cloud your critical eye. The critical eye should always be cold and clear.”

 

“Coldness went marching up his arms like the feet of evil fairies.”

 

“Some of you will say, This is stupid. Will I break my promise not to argue the point, even though I consider Mr. Owen’s poems the greatest to come out of World War I? No! It’s just my opinion, you see, and opinions are like assholes: everybody has one.” They all roared at that, young ladies and gentlemen alike. Mr. Ricker drew himself up. “I may give some of you detentions if you disrupt my class, I have no problem with imposing discipline, but never will I disrespect your opinion. And yet! And yet!” Up went the finger. “Time will pass! Tempus will fugit! Owen’s poem may fall away from your mind, in which case your verdict of is-stupid will have turned out to be correct. For you, at least. But for some of you it will recur. And recur. And recur. Each time it does, the steady march of your maturity will deepen its resonance. Each time that poem steals back into your mind, it will seem a little less stupid and a little more vital. A little more important. Until it shines, young ladies and gentlemen. Until it shines.”

 

“when someone says they’re going to be honest with you, they are in most cases preparing to lie faster than a horse can trot.”

 

“He kept seeing the brains dribbling down the wallpaper. It wasn’t the killing that stayed on his mind, it was the spilled talent. A lifetime of honing and shaping torn apart in less than a second. All those stories, all those images, and what came out looked like so much oatmeal. What was the point?”

My Take

I have always found Stephen King to be a masterful storyteller and he continues to please with Finders Keepers, the second book in the Bill Hodges trilogy.  Like he does in Misery, King has created a novel that is intense, suspenseful and has some interesting thoughts on a reader’s unhealthy obsession with a reclusive writer.  I found Finders Keepers to be an engrossing book (with excellent narration by Will Patton) and highly recommend it.