Mr. Mercedes Final Thoughts

Mr. Mercedes Journal #5

There's spoilers here, so if you read on, it's your choice.

If finished reading Mr. Mercedes the other day.  I liked it a lot.  And, I'm ready for the ghosts, vampires, monsters and evil clowns to come back to the Stephen King universe.  That is to say, the book is better than most detective stories; but it's not the same as an old car that is possessed by the spirit of her former owner.  Mr. Mercedes is a good read, but it's not delicious.

The book held me in suspense all the way to the end.  It did not leave me asking for more.

The Clunky Parts:

Sometimes it seems like clues come a little too easily for our main characters.  It's a lot of, "oh, how lucky we are -- another clue, right in time to keep both trains ticking along at the right pace to  have a big blow out at just the right spot."  It feels plotted.  Also, the ending, frankly, feels  contrived.  Hodges walks away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, after endangering the entire city?

King has said you always  have to deal with the problem, "Why not just call the police?"  Well, Hodges at one point decides to call the police, but they are all so amazingly excited about another turn of events, he chooses not to tell them what he knows because they won't be focused.  This comes across as pretty thin, plot wise.  Makes police seem cartoonish and single minded.  Goodness, they couldn't possibly think of two cases at once, could they?

I also think that King misses just how much respect us common people will give a police badge.  Twice in the novel King portrays people arguing with Hodges after he shows them his badge.  First it's the nosy neighbor.  He forces the group to explain who each of them are and questions them about why they are driving what they are driving and so on.  But when you meet a police officer and company, you really don't go about questioning everyone there.  You usually play it kind of safe around people who carry a badge.

Further, King has Hodges run in to a custodian at the final countdown.  There is an argument  that is simply unbelievable; and this isn't the moment things need to get unbelievable!  So a custodian is arguing with a man with a police badge?  Really?

What Makes The  Novel Work:

Characters.  I love the characters in Mr. Mercedes.  And for them, I'll be back!  The trio is a blast.  Awkward, feisty -- they have the chemistry of the original Star Wars cast as they banter.  Hodges is the most cardboard of the three; a burned out cop who comes back to deal with one last, open case.

King gives his main characters room, space and permission to grow and change as the novel progresses.  Once mousy, quiet and timid Holly becomes more engaging as she gets familiar  and comfortable with the other characters.  By the novel's end, she's changed/progressed dramatically.

Jerome, an intelligent young black man who likes to play with stereotypes falls for Holly.  Is this totally believable?  Nope.  But I like it, and sometimes the  nice thing about a novel is the writer gives us what we want, not what would really happen.

But what really works is  the killer  himself.  There is an  interesting relationship between Brady and his mommy.  Brady could  have stepped right out of Psycho.  The scary parts of Mr. Mercedes is when King takes us inside Mr. Mercedes head.  Not a fun place to be because the reader is able to identify with someone they don't want to identify with!

The letter Mr. Mercedes wrote to detective Hodges was great!  I mean, it was totally believable that a crazy guy wrote this.  And it gets under your skin.

King has never quite taken us inside the mind of a killer the way he does with Brady Hartsfield’s; but he came close with Annie Wilkes.  Annie acted on impulse, while Brady plots and plans his next  move.  Annie wasn't as self aware as Brady.

My final word: I liked it.  Now give us a haunted cruise ship or something.

In general this is not a genre I would read much; so it was a joy to have King introduce me to something new.  But I'm ready now for some creepy cats and hungry clowns.

Of course, right after finishing Mr. Mercedes, I read "In The Tall Grass."  That fit the bill for something creepy!

Honk's Review Of: In The Tall Grass

I enjoyed the recent short story segment "In the Tall Grass," written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill.  I would write a review, but honestly. .  . absolutely everything I would say about it was already said by my friend Bryant Burnette.  He posted a review that hit the nail right on the head at his blog "Ramblings Of A Honk Mahfah."

So, this is reposted from Ramblings Of A Honk Mahfah with Bryant's gracious permission.

A Brief Review of "In theTall Grass" (Part 1 of 2) by Stephen King and Joe Hill 

by Bryant Burnette


Here is what I'm prepared to tell you about "In the Tall Grass":

(1) It is a new novella written by Stephen King and Joe Hill.

(2) It is being published in two parts, the first of which appears in the June/July 2012 issue (on newsstands now!), the second of which will appear in the August 2012 issue.

(3) It is, based on Part 1, a good vintage-style high-concept horror story, of the sort which was once a King specialty. It has since, arguably, become something of a Hill specialty.

and 

(4) It is, based on Part 1, well worth your time.

What I'm about to say next may shock you. It probably won't, but it may, especially if you are very easily shocked (i.e., if you are shocked by things like low low prices at the Walmart, or when Don cheats on someone on Mad Men, or when eating beans gives you the poots).

So if those things shock you, you'll almost certainly be shocked by the following recommendation: do not read Part 1 of "In the Tall Grass"!

*gasp*!!!!!

That's right, I'm advising you NOT to read a Stephen King/Joe Hill story. Even more shocking, I'm advising you not to read a King/Hill story that I very much enjoyed.

*GASP*!!!!!

Why would I make such a blatantly contradictory recommendation? Simple: because Part 1 of this story ends with no resolution whatsoever, and it's going to be two fucking months before you get to find out what happens in that titular tall grass. So, really, it's not so much that I'm recommending that you not read the story; I'm just recommending that you wait two months and then read it all in one go.

"In the Tall Grass" is the story of a pair of siblings, Cal and Becky DeMuth, who are on a road trip. They are very close, and act very much as most twins I have known act. While tooling along in Kansas with the radio off and the windows down, they hear a child shouting for help. The child is apparently lost inside a big field of tall grass, and they decide to help.

That's all you're getting out of me.

I very much enjoyed the first part of the story. It's well-written, funny, scary, and ... incomplete. See, thing is, I just can't judge it in this form; without knowing how it turns out, I don't know how to feel about the story. Did I enjoy reading Part 1? Absolutely. Do I anticipate that Part 2 will reward my patience? I do.

But I suspect that most readers -- be they King fans, Hill fans, fans of both, or fans of neither -- will mostly be more satisfied if they digest "In the Tall Grass" as a complete work, not as a serial one.

This, of course, should not stop you from buying a copy of the current issue of Esquire. It's got other goodies, including a short but highly interesting interview with Hill wherein he talks about the process of collaborating with his father. There's also an illuminating interview with Bruce Willis -- see him on the cover? -- in which he sounds, frankly, like a total douche. Or, possibly, like the coolest guy ever. Maybe even both.

So, if you're inclined, give it a buy. And then sit on it for a couple of months; I'm guessing you'll be glad you did (in BOTH cases).