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A review by breezie_reads
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Mr. Mercedes is not your typical Stephen King read. It's a crime thriller that follows a disturbed man named Brady who, in the beginning of the book, ran a Mercedes through a crowd of people at a job fair, killing eight. He gets away with it. The book also follows the lead detective, Kermit William Hodges (or Billy Hodges to his coworkers), on the "Mercedes Killer" case, now retired. The fact that Mr. Mercedes got away with the murder of those people at the job fair haunts Detective Hodges even after his retirement. So when Mr. Mercedes reaches out to him to let him know that he's been watching and waiting and that he also thinks the retired, overweight detective should kill himself, Det. Ret. Hodges decides to take it upon himself and find out who this person is.
I haven't read many crime thrillers before. Crime novels aren't usually my go-to book, and if I had known before opening this that it was a crime thriller, I might never have read it at all, regardless of who the author is.
However.
The book is written in two perspectives: Brady's, and Detective Hodges (which I think is a really annoying name so most of the time I just mentally shortened it Hodge because that's less cumbersome). Brady's perspective was more interesting to read for me. I felt like nothing really happened when the book focused more on Detective Hodges. Well, nothing except a random affair with Janey. It might just be because I'm not middle-aged, divorced, and lonely, but I don't see how the affair between Janey and Hodges made sense enough for it to fit into the plot of the book. They literally knew each other for less than a day before jumping into bed? The banter was kind of cute(?) sometimes (like when Janey made fun of Hodges's "yeah" and I don't know, I thought the thing with the fedora was endearing), but it seemed like it was supposed to be more of comedic relief than anything else, and it just wasn't doing it for me. Especially the scene when they had first slept with each other. That entire interaction was unnecessary. If you know, you know.
Hodges involves his neighbor, Jerome, who is a 17 year old boy who does odd jobs for Hodges around the house/yard and helps him with his computer whenever he needs it. I don't see the justification of bringing Jerome into this. Well, okay, Hodges sucks at anything involving a computer, which makes sense considering he's 62 years old and it's only 2010. But even being completely unknowledgeable about computers, bringing Jerome in as far as he did into his illegal investigation made no sense. Especially when he kept telling himself, and Jerome, that he wasn't going to get him involved anymore. And then almost immediately afterwards gets him involved even deeper in something that even Hodges himself shouldn't be doing. And Hodges never tried to deny the fact that everything he was doing was extremely illegal.
I understand the desire to solve the case on his own. This was the most notorious killer of Hodges's career, and he couldn't find out who it was. Brady went home with no consequences and of course it bugged the shit of Hodges. And then he finds out Brady had been watching him? That he wanted him to kill himself? I get it. Now it's personal.
Jerome is the one who makes the connection about Brady being Mr. Mercedes. But the way he does it doesn't add up to me. A lot of people have two jobs. In this economy, you kind of have to. And back then? Yeah, it was even more necessary, especially if both jobs were only part-time gigs.
Brady works as an IT Technician for an electronics store, and he also works as an ice cream truck driver (hence the popular quote "Everyone likes the ice cream man.") Jerome realized that they were the same person and then knew immediately that Brady was the same guy who had run that Mercedes through the crowd of people at the job fair the year before, but we're never told HOW he made that connection. And that's what makes the whole revelation thing a little unbelievable to me.
Before starting this review, I had intended to mention Stephen King's treatment of his minority characters (Jerome is a young black man (with an apparently white name, according to Brady, and that seems to be the only reason Brady hates Jerome. Because he "wants to be white, with his white name and good grades." Like, what?)), but I decided against putting it into the actual review. I could go into a rant all of its own about how he writes minorities and how unnecessary and disrespectful it is, but I won't.
What I will do, however, is say that the biggest reason I had stayed with this book and the reason I had been as invested as I was in the story, was because I was interested in what Brady would do next, and if he would actually succeed in his plan to "go out with a bang."
I thought the parts of the book that were written in Hodges's POV were uninteresting and they kind of dragged for me. The whole "I'm going to do something big and kill even more people" wasn't even officially mentioned until Brady heard about the 'Round Here concert that was going to take place at the MAC. And then things REALLY sped up.
The synopsis of the book makes it seem like the entire thing is a "race against time, high speed chase" before Brady can commit to his grand scheme and blow up the theater, but that really only became a part of the plot in the last, what, 100 pages? 120 pages? The book wasn't what the synopsis had promised, and it left me impatient for when the "big bang" would actually happen. Which might have been the point, but I didn't appreciate it. Brady didn't even know he was going to blow up the concert until he heard about it. The synopsis seemed more like false advertising to me than anything else.
I haven't read many crime thrillers before. Crime novels aren't usually my go-to book, and if I had known before opening this that it was a crime thriller, I might never have read it at all, regardless of who the author is.
However.
The book is written in two perspectives: Brady's, and Detective Hodges (which I think is a really annoying name so most of the time I just mentally shortened it Hodge because that's less cumbersome). Brady's perspective was more interesting to read for me. I felt like nothing really happened when the book focused more on Detective Hodges. Well, nothing except a random affair with Janey. It might just be because I'm not middle-aged, divorced, and lonely, but I don't see how the affair between Janey and Hodges made sense enough for it to fit into the plot of the book. They literally knew each other for less than a day before jumping into bed? The banter was kind of cute(?) sometimes (like when Janey made fun of Hodges's "yeah" and I don't know, I thought the thing with the fedora was endearing), but it seemed like it was supposed to be more of comedic relief than anything else, and it just wasn't doing it for me. Especially the scene when they had first slept with each other. That entire interaction was unnecessary. If you know, you know.
Hodges involves his neighbor, Jerome, who is a 17 year old boy who does odd jobs for Hodges around the house/yard and helps him with his computer whenever he needs it. I don't see the justification of bringing Jerome into this. Well, okay, Hodges sucks at anything involving a computer, which makes sense considering he's 62 years old and it's only 2010. But even being completely unknowledgeable about computers, bringing Jerome in as far as he did into his illegal investigation made no sense. Especially when he kept telling himself, and Jerome, that he wasn't going to get him involved anymore. And then almost immediately afterwards gets him involved even deeper in something that even Hodges himself shouldn't be doing. And Hodges never tried to deny the fact that everything he was doing was extremely illegal.
I understand the desire to solve the case on his own. This was the most notorious killer of Hodges's career, and he couldn't find out who it was. Brady went home with no consequences and of course it bugged the shit of Hodges. And then he finds out Brady had been watching him? That he wanted him to kill himself? I get it. Now it's personal.
Jerome is the one who makes the connection about Brady being Mr. Mercedes. But the way he does it doesn't add up to me. A lot of people have two jobs. In this economy, you kind of have to. And back then? Yeah, it was even more necessary, especially if both jobs were only part-time gigs.
Brady works as an IT Technician for an electronics store, and he also works as an ice cream truck driver (hence the popular quote "Everyone likes the ice cream man.") Jerome realized that they were the same person and then knew immediately that Brady was the same guy who had run that Mercedes through the crowd of people at the job fair the year before, but we're never told HOW he made that connection. And that's what makes the whole revelation thing a little unbelievable to me.
Before starting this review, I had intended to mention Stephen King's treatment of his minority characters (Jerome is a young black man (with an apparently white name, according to Brady, and that seems to be the only reason Brady hates Jerome. Because he "wants to be white, with his white name and good grades." Like, what?)), but I decided against putting it into the actual review. I could go into a rant all of its own about how he writes minorities and how unnecessary and disrespectful it is, but I won't.
What I will do, however, is say that the biggest reason I had stayed with this book and the reason I had been as invested as I was in the story, was because I was interested in what Brady would do next, and if he would actually succeed in his plan to "go out with a bang."
I thought the parts of the book that were written in Hodges's POV were uninteresting and they kind of dragged for me. The whole "I'm going to do something big and kill even more people" wasn't even officially mentioned until Brady heard about the 'Round Here concert that was going to take place at the MAC. And then things REALLY sped up.
The synopsis of the book makes it seem like the entire thing is a "race against time, high speed chase" before Brady can commit to his grand scheme and blow up the theater, but that really only became a part of the plot in the last, what, 100 pages? 120 pages? The book wasn't what the synopsis had promised, and it left me impatient for when the "big bang" would actually happen. Which might have been the point, but I didn't appreciate it. Brady didn't even know he was going to blow up the concert until he heard about it. The synopsis seemed more like false advertising to me than anything else.
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Incest, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis