I have little words for this novel.
To make it clear.. I'm an avid Stephen King fan, I've read almost everything he published.
I would never have believed if someone told me beforehand that one day I would begin in a novel of him I wouldn't like, even to the extent of not being able to finish it.
Today, this stranger I never met, is proven right. I didn't like Mr. Mercedes.
It felt like a clumsy attempt to publish one book a year. Most of his ideas are terrific, but not all his ideas and I feel like he has come to a point where no matter what he writes it will get published and that's sad compared to aspiring writers.
The story revolves around a retired Police Detective, named Hodges and one of the last cases he couldn't solve.
A madman who drove into a crowd using a very fancy Mercedes. Nicknamed Mr. Mercedes, but known to us as Brady.
Brady is a little crazy, but I think his craziness would've been more effective and creepy if it wasn't by the rules.
With 'by the rules' I mean that Brady is so textbook crazy, it's laughable. Distorted family, obsession with his mother, driving the ice cream truck (which seems only the gullible or crazy ever do for a long time) and even the fact that he's still a virgin. Although he mother relieves him of blue balls once in a while.
It didn't impress me, and neither did Hodges.
In most of King's novels I feel a very close connection with the protagonist but I didn't give a damn about Hodges. He's an empty vessel in my opinion.
Since I didn't finish the novel, and it isn't from the lack of trying. I twice threw the novel away (metaphorically) and picked it back up again because I didn't believe to be defeated by a novel by my favourite writer. But in the end I just wanted to read something good again.
