A Good Marriage by Stephen King

What happens when, on a perfectly ordinary evening, all the things you believed in and took for granted are turned upside down?

When her husband of more than 20 years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Audiobook, 3 hours, 33 minutes

Published September 30, 2014

 by Simon & Schuster Audio

3.5/5 stars

After I read a book with a similar plot Goodreads recommended A Good Marriage. I believed this was only available in audio however there is a kindle version also. I think I might have preferred reading the Kindle since I wasn’t a huge fan of the reader.

Already knowing what to expect I wasn’t surprised by the story, but was by the wife’s reaction and the series of events that take place afterwards. This is one of those books that asked the question, what would you do? Honestly I don't know, but then a part of me me wonders how a wife would not know something was amiss. I would like to think that I would seriously catch on to something of this magnitude, but alas, I can just speculate on the outcome. 

True to Stephen King fashion he twists and turns this book around with an ending that I did not see coming. Looks of thinking, silence and future scenarios take place. 

Just a word of warning to those that grab the Kindle, though it says 270 pages it is actually two stories that are on related, at least that is what I am told by others.

I obtained this book through CloudLibrary

Holly by Stephen King

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.

Hardcover, 449 pages

Published September 5, 2023

 by Scribner

4/5 stars

Stephen King is a hit or miss author for me. Some of his earliest works I really enjoyed, Misery, Pet Cemetery, Cujo, and Carrie, along with his Mr. Mercedes series. Some of his later works just didn’t float my boat. When Holly was released, I really did not pay much attention to it, but once I heard that Holly stood for Holly Gibney from the Mr. Mercedes series, I immediately ran out and bought the book. If you’ve read this series, then you know what I’m talking about, Holly was one of my favourite characters and in this book she is again joined with sidekicks, Jerome, Barbara, and Pete.

Holly is a book that you really need to pay attention to in terms of timeline. Well part of it is current it does jump back-and-forth within the same year, personally I feel it is a better read than trying to keep up in the audio version.

People disappear over the years with no explanation or closure. When a recent disappearance has a mother searching for her daughter, she enlists the help of Holly Gibney to find out what happened. What follows is a twisted story that was intricately woven and pieced together. It was addicting and entertaining to watch all these puzzle pieces fit together. I really enjoyed this book though  some of the subject matter is disturbing, which isn’t surprising given Stephen King‘s reputation.

Coming in at about 450 pages, it could have been shorter if King eased up on his political views, pandemic opinions, in terms of vaccinations/masks, which can be a turn off no matter what side of the fence you sit on. For that reason I am giving this a four out of five just because over that big span of pages I was tired of some of the repetition.

If you haven’t read the Mr. Mercedes series you will do fine with this as a standalone. However, I highly recommend going back and reading it because it is a very good series and gives you more of a background into Holly’s life her family and upbringing, which does play a part in the story paragraph

This book was part of my 2023 reading off my shelf challenge

Audio Review: The Outsider by Stephen King

An unspeakable crime. A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories. 

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

 As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

 Audiobook, unabridged/eAudiobook,

18 hours plus

 Published May 22nd 2018 by Simon Schuster Audio

****

I jumped at the chance to listen to this one in audio format when I realized Will Patton was the reader. He was also the reader for the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and he did a great job. I’ve heard other readers mention this so I will also remind anyone interested in this book that you should read the Mr Mercedes series first or if you have no intention of reading that series then jump right in (and that's all I'll say about it).

This book comes in at over 18 hours long, equivalent to about 561 pages. The blurb above does a great job outlining what this book is about. I found this to be a easy read even for the amount of pages, the chapters are short and to the point, the characters are authentic, the plot intriguing and the conclusion fitting - even if a little rushed.

Though I found the characters authentic there were a number of them and at times I found myself a little overwhelmed, but that could just be the audio version and my mind not paying close enough attention.

I am not a fan of horror and books that are heavy into supernatural stuff, so I’ve always shied away from Stephen King but I’ve found some of his books appeal to me these days, they have the mystery and suspense I enjoy.

Though I recommend The Outsider be warned that there are some graphic crime scene parts and hard to read.

Audiobook through Scribd

Waiting on Wednesday: End of Watch by Stephen King

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill  at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

This week I am waiting for:

Hardcover, 496 pages

Expected publication: June 7th 2016 by Scribner

Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney, who delivered the blow to Hartsfield's head that put him on the brain injury ward. Brady also remembers that. When Bill and Holly are called to a murder-suicide with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put not only their lives at risk, but those of Hodges’s friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Because Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Bill Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.

In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the supernatural suspense that has been his trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and up-all-night entertainment.

What are you waiting for?

Audio Review: Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Trilogy #2) by Stephen King

1978: Meet Morris Bellamy, the man who robs the safe of America's most famous reclusive writer, John Rothstein. But it isn't just the money he is interested in. Morrie is obsessed with the author's notebooks and is prepared to kill the author for them.

2009: Meet young Pete Saubers, whose father was knocked down by an out-of-control Mercedes in a job line-up. When he discovers a buried trunk of money and notebooks of a famous writer, he has the means to rescue his family from poverty. If he can keep it secret.

2013: Morrie is up for parole. And he's hell-bent on recovering the notebooks.

That's when retired detective Bill Hodges - who has set up a company called Finders Keepers - discovers the scheme.

Finders Keepers is spectacular suspense. It is also King writing about how literature shapes a life - for good, for bad, for ever.
Read by award-winning narrator Will Patton, who was nominated for an Audie Award in the Solo Narration - Male category for his work on both Mr. Mercedes and Doctor Sleep. 

Audible Audio

Published June 2nd 2015 by Simon & Schuster Audio 

source - library via overdrive

*****

I cannot believe that I have turned into a Stephen King fan.  He has the reputation as a horror writer (at least in my mind as I recall Carrie, Cujo and Pet Sematary).  11-23-63 was the start of my conversion, there seems to be a slew of mystery/suspense/thriller type book out there that I am just discovering by King. But at the same times King's books lend themselves perfectly in audio format (well at least the ones I have listened to so far do - Misery,  Delores Claiborne and Mr. Mercedes).

Will Patton is the read of of Finders Keepers and it's the reader that can make or break the audio, in this case Will Patton was brilliant.  His voice brought this book to life, I had a hard time turning my iPod off.  Of course the book is central and Stephen King has shown himself to be able to deliver.  Told in 1st person with 3 different pov's this reader was able to get inside each character, get to know them and what makes them tick.  There was lots of action and plenty of twists and turns making this an extremely suspenseful book that was highly entertaining.

There is the connection to Mr. Mercedes here but I think this could work as a stand alone, however with book 3 coming out June 2016 I recommend starting with Mr. Mercedes. 

Audio Review: Mr. Mercedes/Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

 I used to think of Stephen King as an author of horror/supernatural books that scared the daylights out of readers.  As a teen I remember reading Carrie, Pet Sematary and Cujo which all left such vivid imagines resulting in me not picking up any of his for literally decades.  When 11/22/63 came out it sound safe enough to read and I loved it.

Recently I thought to give an audio version a try, I did this with a little apprehension for the basic reason that audio book, when they have the right reader, breathes more emotion and life into the story.  A little scary when thinking of King books.  My first was Misery and loved it as well, check out my review.

Mr. Mercedes and Delores Claiborne are totally different genres (and its a really talented author who can do that).  Neither fall under horror, but both suspenseful and addictive reading/listening.

Delores Claiborne is a shorter audio (approx. 9 hours), it's a long monologue.  But what a story it is, totally addictive to the point I couldn't put it down.  An authentic story that shows what happened in a home of domestic violence.

Mr. Mercedes was equally addictive, but a little longer (approx 14 hours). Told from two different points of view, it digs into the mind of the good and the bad.  A brilliant start to a trilogy it introduces some very likable characters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
In a mega-stakes, high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely and winning heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands.

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable. 

Audible Audio

Published June 3rd 2014 by Simon & Schuster Audio 

source - public library

***** 


"Everything I did, I did for love..."

For thirty years, folks on Little Tall Island have been waiting to find out just what happened on the eerie dark day Dolores Claiborne's husband died --- the day of the total eclipse. Now, the police want to know what happened yesterday when her rich, bedridden employer died suddenly in her care. With no choice but to talk, Dolores gives her compelling confession ... of the strange and terrible links forged by hidden intimacies ... of the fierceness of a mother's love and its dreadful consequences ... of the silent rage that can turn a woman's heart to hate. When Dolores Claiborne is accused of murder, it's only the beginning of the bad news. For what comes after that is something only Stephen King could imagine ... as he rips open the darkest secrets and the most damning sins of men and women in an ingrown. Maine town and takes you on a trip below its straitlaced surface. 

(first published January 1st 1992)
Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
Release Date: 05-11-09

***** 

Misery by Stephen King

Misery Chastain was dead. Paul Sheldon had just killed her - with relief, with joy. Misery had made him rich; she was the heroine of a string of bestsellers. And now he wanted to get on to some real writing.

That's when the car accident happens, and he wakes up in pain in a strange bed. But it isn't hospital. Annie Wilkes has pulled him from the wreck, brought him to her remote mountain home, splinted and set his mangled legs.

The good news is that Annie was a nurse and has pain-killing drugs. The bad news is that she has long been Paul's Number One Fan. And when she finds out what Paul has done to Misery, she doesn't like it. She doesn't like it at all.

And now he has to bring Misery back to life. Or else...

Paperback, 369 pages

  (first published 1987) 

audio via overdrive (library)

12 hrs and 11 mins
*****

  

Tina over at Book Chatter has designated June 'Misery Read Along Month'.  I haven't read Stephen King in ages, and thought to give it a whirl.  The audio version was available from the library which I took as a sign and went for it.  My husband thought I was nuts, more so when I invited him to watch the movie with me.

Stephen King is a talented author, however I could count on one hand the number of his books that I have read.  My son is reading and collecting his books which got me inspired to give him another try.  HF is my usually genre, but sometimes you need a break from that, history doesn't always have that  'happy ever after' type of endings.  But then again does Stephen King? Face is his books are rather creepy, sinister and downright scary (to be blunt).

Someone asked me how the audio version was.  Well it was almost like watching a bad accident in progress, you know what's going to happen and ya can't look away.  That's exactly what Misery was like, I couldn't stop listening, I had to find out how this was going to end..  I listened to clues and hints as to what made Anne tick, what made her sweet one minute and deranged the next.  Hearing Paul's voice added the emotion and suspense that makes Stephen King's books what they are - hard-to-put down, creatively-unique and scary-beyond-reason, lol.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read X (examples: New Adult novels, historical fiction, a certain author, books about a certain topic, etc)

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

1. Not into vampires (or witches).  Has Twilight or Sookie turned you off vampires or you are just afraid to read about them.  Well here is a series for you.  Forget that some say this is an adult version of Twilight, it's SO much better. 

 2. What you've never heard of Eleanor of Aquitaine!?  Seriously?? Well have I got a book for you!

3. Not sure about Stephen King, think he is all horror and no substance, this is one of my favorites.

4.  Audio books are a favorite of mine, I always have one on the go (dog walking, running, driving and even housework).  All Margaret George books have been read this way, Memoirs of Cleopatra is my favorite coming in at 5 minutes shy of 50 hours. Don't knock it till you try it.  Not all books are 50 hour long, depends on the size of the book.

 

 5.  Chick lit isn't your thing, mine either.  But give this series a try, it's good for a smile and chuckle every once in a while. Also works well as an audio too - though be careful if you are listening to this walking down the street, you might get strange looks if you start laughing out loud.

6.  How about some non fiction?  It's not a dry as you might think. Julia Fox wrote a really interesting book called Sister Queens about Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile, check it out.

7.  Children's books, think they are just for kids? There are some great coming of age and award winning books that had me captivated, this is a great one to start with.  Works good to read to your kids too.

8.  Not into paranormal stuff.  Give The Ghost Bride a try,  you will get so taken in with the story that you'll forget you don't like this genre. 

9. Books made into movies. READ THE BOOK FIRST!  Some books just don't make the cut, Harry Potter was wonderful, so was The Book Thief, The Other Boleyn Girl - well I lasted 5 minutes in that movie and never looked back (the book is a favorite of mine).

10.  Afraid to start a series, sometimes it is nice to read about familiar faces again, provided they aren't released so far apart that the author passes in the middle of the series (The Wheel of Time, much to my boys dismay).  My favorite is the Graham Saga - check out my post from a couple days ago, you could even win a set of these books.