Holly

Holly by Stephen King

Holly Gibney #3

Fiction/Thriller

2023

Finished on October 24, 2024

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” — BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

Fantastic! Another winner by King. Holly is less of a mystery (the reader is privy to all that is going on while Holly is trying to find out if there's a serial killer at large), and definitely not horror (at least not in the supernatural sense), so I'd categorize this one as a thriller. I couldn't put it down! Each night I would read a few chapters before falling asleep, only to wake up an hour later, eager to read more. I knocked off half a point due to the heavy-handed commentary about Covid. I don't mind revisiting the pandemic in my reading, and King doesn't shy away from opportunities to voice his opinion (which I share) about Trump and antivaxxers. However, it's a bit on the nose for over 400 pages. 

I enjoyed meeting Holly Gibney in The Outsider and If It Bleeds, and I'm looking forward to reading the Bill Hodges' trilogy (in which she first appears) that I somehow overlooked when they were first released starting back in 2014. I may even reread Holly once I've finished those three. 

I've said it more than once, but I'll say it again. Stephen King is a master storyteller. He is on my list of all-time favorite authors, and easily in the top ten. Highly recommend!