The book has a prolog that, unusually for King, has nothing to do with the rest of the story.
And yes, Stephen King being one of our favourite authors (and this book is an example of why), we have reviewed many of his books including, for example, Dolores Claiborne and Four Past Midnight.
August (“Augie”) Odenkirk, having lost a job goes to a job fair to try to find another. There comes a Mercedes plowing down the mob waiting for the job.
The scene shifts to Bill Hodges, who has retired and finds life so boring that he is frequently thinking of ending it. Only TV shows and loneliness greet him every day. Then he gets a letter from “The Mercedes Killer” who praises him but boasts that his case was one of the failures. He further states that he, not being tempted to repeat his crime, will never be caught.
He is goading Hodges to complete his suicide mission in humiliation and even supplies intimate details about Hodges’ family including her daughter. However Hodges for the first time has a purpose in life : to find and capture this unknown, elusive killer.
He requests a lunch with his erstwhile partner.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to the murderer – Brady, who works with Freddi Linkletter (a gay punk girl) in a shop called Electronix Cyber Patrol. This is a computer shop that is in trouble, and their boss is Frobisher.
Brady happens to be a computer genius. He has invited the ‘fat retired cop’ to talk to him in Blue Umbrella, a shady website. The cop wants to take the help of Jerome, who is a brilliant black boy to ensure it is safe.
Bill meets the sister of the woman whose Mercedes was stolen by Brady. She shows him letters which seem to have induced the woman to commit suicide and hires Bill to investigate the murderer, which Bill was already going to do anyway.
Jerome helps Bill know the dangers/ authenticity of the website Blue Umbrella. While Brady is seething with impatience that the ‘fat cop’ has not taken his bait, Bill proceeds cautiously. He has seen Mr Mercedes portray two different persona – one of taunting, jeering man with Bill himself and a diffident, shame filled one with Trelawney where he goaded her to suicide by chatting with her in the same site as Blue Umbrella, Bill does not want to scare him away with the wrong move.
He wants to infuriate him and tells him that he is an imposter and it works. He also suggests that if the person who was talking to him in The Blue Umbrella, an anonymous chat site, was the real killer, he would have mentioned the withheld evidence from the police.
Billy goes crazy with anger. He then gets another taunting letter from the ‘fat cop’ and decides to take revenge. First on Jerome’s dog; then the fat cop and finally a great suicide bombing and go out in glory.
Meanwhile Janette Patterson (Janey) and Bill Hodges sleep together, much to the amazement of Bill.
When Brady takes three days off by switching duties with another and makes a meatball hamburger laced liberally with arsenic to target the dog which he knows accompanies Jerome’s nephew and niece always to a downtown store, he does not expect the accident that causes another victim to accidentally consume it. (No spoilers here).
He now knows he needs to kill Bill Hodges and sends him a direct message.
Brady’s younger brother Frankie is a sad story. Already a little slow on the uptake, he chokes on an apple piece and comes home brain damaged. A poor woman, the mother, has a lot of trouble looking after him and Brady sometimes has to babysit Frankie. Finally, when it looks like they will be driven to street, they collude and Brady pushes Frankie down the stairs.
Brady wants to go in a blaze of glory and goes to a concert with explosives in his seat. He is on a disabled wheelchair with his hair shaved off and a fake glass on his nose and he manages to get in through the tight security.
Hodges, Jerome and Holly manage to find out (by cleverly taking over the computers in command centre by voice) and are horrified to discover the plan. They rush to the MAC centre where the event happens with Hodges unable to reach any security folks at all. The tension is amazing and you keep turning pages as fast as you can.
Brady is seated in the disability area and just waiting for the right time to get the explosives activated.
What follows is pure adrenaline and does not let go until the climax. No, not the end of the book. There is some aftermath discussions but very close to the end, and it is all very readable, Stephen King in full swing.
8/10
— Krishna
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