Finders Keepers by Stephen KingAuthor Website Amazon (UK) Amazon.com Hodder & Stoughton (hardback), 2015
371 Pages
BLURB
1978: Meet Morris Bellamy, a reader obsessed by novelist John Rothstein, the reclusive genius who created the celebrated fictional character Jimmy Gold.
Morris is livid - not just because Rothstein has stopped writing but because he has made the nonconformist Jimmy sell out for a career in advertising. Morris breaks into Rothstein's house and empties his safe of cash. But the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel - and Morris is prepared to kill for them. Later, he goes to jail for another crime but not before he has hidden the spoils.
2009: Meet young Pete Saubers, whose father was brutally injured by a stolen Mercedes while he was queuing at a job fair. When Pete discovers a buried trunk containing the money and notebooks, he realises he has the means to rescue his family from poverty. If he can keep it secret...
2014: Morris is up for parole. And he's hell-bent on recovering his treasure. That's when retired detective Bill Hodges - who has set up a company called 'Finders Keepers' - is asked to investigate. Together with colleagues Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson, Hodges must rescue Pete from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris...
Rothstein didn't want to wake up.
thought Finders Keepers was really good. The novel isn't excellent like some of King's work but really, really good and a vast improvement from last year's lacklustre Mr Mercedes. I wasn't impressed with either of King's novels published in 2014 and am pleased that he's restored my faith in him with Finders Keepers. Unlike Mr Mercedes, I didn't find this novel at all predictable. King uses the right amount of tension and drama to keep me reading and guessing to the end. I liked the premise of Finders Keepers. I can understand both Morris and Pete's obsession with Rothstein and books. I dig the shit out of that. I found it interesting that Hodges and his associates play a more minor role than they did in Mr Mercedes. The book is very much focused on crazy Morris and Pete, the young man who bites off far more than he'll ever be able to chew. I liked the link to Mr Mercedes through the fact Pete's father was one of the people injured outside Civic Centre. King's a much better writer of fantasy novels (i.e. The Dark Tower) and supernatural fiction. He can write decent suspense fiction but he doesn't shine as much as he does with his other work. Finders Keepers is really good and I am looking forward to the conclusion to the trilogy. I'd recommend this novel.
