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Mr. Mercedes (book #1 of 3)
By Stephen King
(Scribner Book Company, Hardcover, 9781476754451, 437pp.)

The Short of It:

The Girl (my daughter) asked, “Why is there a bloody umbrella and a tiny happy face on this cover?”

“Because it’s Stephen King,” I said.

But of course.

The Rest of It:

Mr. Mercedes is a departure from what we’ve come to expect from King. Kind of. Sort of. Okay, maybe not. Stephen King himself is calling it his first hard-boiled detective story. It is that, but it’s got his signature KING stamp all over it and if you handed it to me without a name attached to it, I’d still be able to tell it’s King’s writing. For this, I am glad because I’ve really come to love King’s writing and his deft handling of the characters he develops.

The book opens with a Mercedes plowing into a crowd of people at a job fair. Eight people are killed and fifteen injured. The killer is never caught. Bill Hodges, the cop who tried to solve the case has since retired. He spends his days sacked out in his recliner, watching Jerry Springer. When he gets a letter from Mr. Mercedes himself, his first reaction is doubt but as the communication continues, he realizes that this is his chance to catch the one that got away. But he’s not in shape and he’s technically not a cop anymore which makes him the underdog. An adorable, lovable underdog who you can’t help cheering for.

King tells us who the killer is very early on. This is no secret and is shared in every blurb you’ll read, but what I love about giving us this info so early is that we get to spend time with a true, twisted individual. Brady Hartsfield wears many hats. He’s a computer geek by day, going out on service calls to “fix” the computers that others have f’d up in some way but he’s also the Mr. Tastey ice cream guy, driving around the neighborhood handing you a cold one while thinking terrible thoughts about you. He has a super-special relationship with his mother which is classic King in my opinion. I’ll let you ponder that one.

As with most King books, included are a host of characters that you end up loving in some way. There’s plenty of action, especially towards the end and now that I know this is book one of a trilogy, the ending makes a little more sense. Overall, I really loved it but while talking to others, we all agreed that the ending was a little too easy and for that, I might shy away from giving it a perfect five stars but as a King fan, I felt like it had all of the required elements to satisfy me and it was fun to read. Especially fun to read with others.

This would be a good book for someone brand new to King. There’s no “woo woo” supernatural stuff going on. No clowns in sewers. Just good storytelling. I encourage you to pick up a copy and I cannot wait for book two, Finders Keepers to hit shelves early next year.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Magnificent Vibration (audio)
By Rick Springfield
(Simon & Schuster Audio, Compact Disc, 9781442370494, May 2014)

The Short of It:

A very weird, mixed-up story about a guy’s conversations with God. I think.

The Rest of It:

Where do I start? This is quite possibly the worst audio book I’ve ever listened to. I’m not sure what I expected when I discovered that Rick Springfield had written a novel, but what played out before me was like smoking some bad weed and then being over taken by fumes of an unknown variety. My eyes watered. My ears hurt. I kept telling myself, it’s Rick! It’s got to be good. I mean, I love the guy. I have loved him since the 80’s. I loved him through his stint on General Hospital and I still think he’s right up there musically. But writing? Not his strong suit.

The story is about a guy named Bobby. He steals a self-help book titled Magnificent Vibration. Inside, he finds a 1-800 number and calls it. When the guy on the other end answers and introduces himself as God, an interesting conversation takes place. Bobby then hooks up with a sex-pot named Alice and the two head off on an adventure.

I got through two discs and between those discs, I think the main character mentions masturbation, I don’t know, at least twenty times and Springfield’s use of colorful expressions to represent the act was impressive. But putting all that aside, the story is all over the place. I listened to those two discs uninterrupted and had to go back a few times to figure out what was going on. There is a little bit of humor in between the gritty bits but overall, the story, the reading (slurred words, poor attempt at an accent maybe?) were just too much for me to keep going.

I’ve been told that I have a good sense of humor and can be a little sarcastic at times so I get the sarcasm and the jabs and all that, but the dialogue was really what made this difficult to listen to. Perhaps it plays out better in print, but I doubt it.

If you’ve read the book or listened to the audio, I’d be interested in your opinion on this one.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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