Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

This book took a bit to get into.  In fact it took over a hundred pages before I was hooked.  Since this is only the second novel of Mr. King’s I have read I guess I was hoping for the book to draw me in like so many of the movies and miniseries have.  I think this will make a great movie too!

This is a multifaceted story of people who have social, psychological and personal issues.  Each of the characters here has some form of these issues.

Brady Hartsfield is one very disturbed young man but I should have expected nothing less.  Once the source of his psychosis begins to become clear then the story gets more interested.  He holds two jobs, cares for a dependent mother and kills people.  He is both a victim and a victimizer.  Very intelligent, he cannot cope with normality on a day to day basis. His mother, Debbie is not quite as dysfunctional as she seemed. True she was a drunk, but highly functioning as proven in the end.

The Trelawney family is equally dysfunctional.  Olivia and Holly (Gibney) both suffer from OCD and who knows what else.  Olivia’s care was used in the first murder and then she was driven over the proverbial edge by the driver through some very unusual methods.  Holly manages to control her own illness to capture the same killer!  Janey had come around to believing she might find some happiness when Brady kills her trying to kill Hodges.

Bill Hodges is trying to deal with retirement and thinks about killing himself.  Brady exploits that thinking it would be a fun thing to do—make the guy bite the bullet in reality. 

Jerome is the least confused in the entire group. His social issue is more based on the fact that he is a brilliant young black man who falls into Ebonics from time to time and likes to hang out with the retired old guy whom he alternately learns from and teaches.

The technical details of the story fascinate me.  I hope they are not able to hook into our computers and control our lives. It does make you think twice about allowing a third party to work on the computer though! 

Do I like the way the story ends?  Yes and no.  For those who survive life improves. However for the survivors, there are the memories of those who did not.  As for Brady Hartsfield?  I think he lives to wreak havoc again!