Holly- Book Review

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.

I love reading Stephen King’s books and this is one of the books that I actually loved.

Bonnie Dahl is missing. The police and others believe that Bonnie had a fight with her mother and left the town. But her mother believes otherwise and believed that something happened to her daughter. She enlists the help of Finders Keepers, a private detective agency. Holly Gibney is dealing with her mother’s death and her coworker is having Covid but she couldn’t turn Bonnie’s mother down and decide to take the case. Meanwhile, a few miles from where Bonnie was abducted, a reputed academician couple Professors Rodney and Emily Harris live in a house after retiring from college. But in the basement of their house, a dark secret is hiding…

This was cleverly written, a mixture of horror and thriller blended together. Stephen King is a master at telling stories and this book is no exception. Although this is Holly Gibney’s book 3, you can read this book as a standalone. Holly is determined that there might be a serial killer while as a reader you know who those serial killers can be. I actually enjoyed reading this book as it was fast paced and a page turning novel. Overall worth five stars.