Mr Mercedes is a crime novel written by the famous American writer Stephen King. Stephen King is known to have a stand for himself in American literature with his famous books like Cujo, It, The Shining, Salem’s Lot and others. His most recent work is The Outsider which came out in May 2018.

A Mercedes crashes into the middle of a job fair killing people with every other detail unknown. The plot revolves around the retired detective, Kermit Bill Hodges who gets a letter from the mystery man, behind all this addressing himself as Mr.Mercedes. The story slowly unravels with insightful and unprecedented deductions.

A modern-day Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes come into play here with imperative deductions done by Bill Hodges, the protagonist.

This book is the first from the Bill Hodges Trilogy, followed by Finders Keepers and End of Watch. I personally recommend this book to those bookworms who are especially into detective or crime fiction. Also, I personally am a huge fan of Stephen King who is most known for horror plots but this, is as he claims his first massive crime novel written.

The characters are strong with a background and hard lives. The antagonist, for example, has a background of a psychopath. He brings these different characters from diverse backgrounds together evolving the plot. Strong characters mixed with the right suspense and facts never descend to hook the readers till the end. The book just can’t be kept down and is a downright cliff-hanger.

The novel also won the Edgar award in 2015.

By Athira A

athira.nair187@gmail.com