End of Watch: 3rd book of Mr. Mercedes trilogy

[Randall Flagg]

During an interview 4/21/2015 at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, Steven King revealed the working title for the final book in the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy.

"The Suicide Prince".

[webstar1000]

Any rough release date?

[frik]

June 2016.

Going by the release date of the previous two books.

sk

[webstar1000]

June 2016.

Going by the release date of the previous two books.

sk

Yep. Makes sense!

[The Great Buchinsky]

Was anyone at the event? If so was there any mention of Talisman 3 from King or Straub?

[Merlin1958]

Was anyone at the event? If so was there any mention of Talisman 3 from King or Straub?

Try this thread:


http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?19053-King-event-at-St.-Francis-College-on-April-21-2015&p=916234&viewfull=1#post916234

Good luck!!!

[herbertwest]

In one of those videos, Steve said that Brady will be back in the third volume
>>> http://www.liljas-library.com/article.php?id=4486

[herbertwest]

From Lilja's :

King Done With 1st Draft of The Suicide Prince
According to the moderator on King’s messageboard King has finished the first draft of The Suicide Prince and is now working on something new.

>>> http://liljas-library.com/

[killjoy72]

I'm always amazed at how quickly he can just crank this stuff out.

[SystemCrashOverRide]

I'm always amazed at how quickly he can just crank this stuff out.

It's a work ethic to aspire to, I love when I read articles where he describes how he treats it like a day job, with a word count or a set amount of time in mind that he must reach for the day.

[frik]

From Lilja's :

King Done With 1st Draft of The Suicide Prince
According to the moderator on King’s messageboard King has finished the first draft of The Suicide Prince and is now working on something new.

>>> http://liljas-library.com/

Talisman III :excited:

sk

[Bev Vincent]

Afraid not. Or a frayed knot.

[mae]

New title?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2015/06/10/stephen-king-judy-blume-usa-todays-best-selling-books/28752797/

It's good to be King again. Stephen King lands at No. 1 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list with Finders Keepers, the sequel to Mr. Mercedes, which peaked at No. 2 last year. (The full list will publish on Thursday.)

It's King's 17th debut at No. 1, and his 19th book to hit the top spot. In Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, the horror master has ventured into detective fiction. In Keepers, he writes about two men, one a convict, obsessed with a Salinger-like writer.

In a 4 (out of 4)-star review, USA TODAY's Brian Truitt wrote: "King continues to tweak the hard-boiled genre in spectacular ways in Finders Keepers."

On Twitter, King gave props to fans:

Thanks to everyone who bought FINDERS KEEPERS yesterday and said nice things.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 5, 2015

The third book in the trilogy starring private eye Bill Hodges will be called End of Watch, publisher Scribner says.

[you ever seen a ghost?]

this book has to be focused on Brady, right? It says in Finders Keepers how much he loves suicide.

[herbertwest]

New title?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2015/06/10/stephen-king-judy-blume-usa-todays-best-selling-books/28752797/

It's good to be King again. Stephen King lands at No. 1 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list with Finders Keepers, the sequel to Mr. Mercedes, which peaked at No. 2 last year. (The full list will publish on Thursday.)

It's King's 17th debut at No. 1, and his 19th book to hit the top spot. In Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, the horror master has ventured into detective fiction. In Keepers, he writes about two men, one a convict, obsessed with a Salinger-like writer.

In a 4 (out of 4)-star review, USA TODAY's Brian Truitt wrote: "King continues to tweak the hard-boiled genre in spectacular ways in Finders Keepers."

On Twitter, King gave props to fans:

Thanks to everyone who bought FINDERS KEEPERS yesterday and said nice things.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 5, 2015

The third book in the trilogy starring private eye Bill Hodges will be called End of Watch, publisher Scribner says.

I prefered "the suicide prince" :-(

[jhanic]

Ms Mod confirmed that the third title will be End of Watch.

John

[Randall Flagg]

Figures that the suits at Scribner don't want "Suicide" in a title.

[Merlin1958]

Figures that the suits at Scribner don't want "Suicide" in a title.

So, you going to change the titles of the existing threads, or start new ones?

[mae]

I'm surprised by the change, The Suicide Prince was a great and intriguing title. This is kinda like Dreamcatcher was first titled Cancer. And that title survives as a name of a section in the book. I hope this will be true here as well.

[Kingfan24]

I hope this title is meant to throw us off but I doubt it.

[Bev Vincent]

According to Ms. Mod: His wife is the one who convinced him to change the title.

[mae]

Again.

[SystemCrashOverRide]

I actually quite like "End of Watch" as a title. Looking forward to seeing the artwork and finding out more about this as it develops.

[Roseannebarr]

i can see where end of watch is coming from by reading the book, but i loved the original title suicide prince.

[Merlin1958]

i can see where end of watch is coming from by reading the book, but i loved the original title suicide prince.

Do you mean.....From reading Finders Keepers
or, do you already have a proof copy of the book?

[Bev Vincent]

There won't be proof copies of the 3rd book until next year.

[Merlin1958]

There won't be proof copies of the 3rd book until next year.

As I figured, but his post suggested otherwise, or maybe I'm just getting old. LOL

[mae]

We have cover:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F2EVsQgpL._SX500_.jpg

[Merlin1958]

We have cover:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F2EVsQgpL._SX500_.jpg

Nice scoop, my man!!! :clap::clap::clap:

[mae]

And Amazon has the date of June 7, 2016, and page count of 496:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1501129740/

[jhanic]

Thanks!

John

[Bev Vincent]

Large version: http://stephenking.com/promo/end-of-watch/eow-cover.jpg

[mae]

No direct-linking at SK.com, so: http://stephenking.com/promo/end-of-watch/cover-reveal.html The quality of the image is a bit iffy, like it's been blown up a bit (look at the jaggies on the K and N in KING). Maybe they'll upload a real hi-res version later.

But I really really like it! :excited:

[webstar1000]

Love the cover:)

[jhanic]

I wonder what's going on with the fish!

John

[Randall Flagg]

Another great scoop by Pablo!

[Ricky]

Wow, that's different. Not what I would have expected. I can't decide if I like it. :orely:

[herbertwest]

From the facebook official page :
"On the END OF WATCH cover: Watch out for that pink fish. I wouldn't touch it, if I were you."

>>> https://www.facebook.com/OfficialStephenKing/posts/659682190838033?notif_t=notify_me_page

[Randall Flagg]

No direct-linking at SK.com, so: http://stephenking.com/promo/end-of-watch/cover-reveal.html The quality of the image is a bit iffy, like it's been blown up a bit (look at the jaggies on the K and N in KING). Maybe they'll upload a real hi-res version later.

But I really really like it! :excited:
This one looks pretty good, but the jagged edges are noticeable:

http://www.thedarktower.org/custom/images/1444158600-eow-cover.jpg

[Bev Vincent]

Synopsis:

"IN ROOM 217 OF THE LAKES REGION TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY CLINIC, SOMETHING HAS AWAKENED. SOMETHING EVIL.

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."

[webstar1000]

You see... for me... this is A HUGE disappointment. I thought King was going to stay away from the supernatural and I was digging it. I mean come on... he had something great going I thought and there was no need to go this route. The evil brewing could have just been revenge and he was hiding the fact that he is awake and planning something. He did not need to have a new "power". I was afraid of this in the final scene of Finders Keepers. Oh well.. I am sure it will still be good but I wish King avoided it for the whole trilogy.

[herbertwest]

I actually love that he goes back to those roots !

[webstar1000]

I actually love that he goes back to those roots !

Goes back to his roots? Come one... after the amount he has written you didn't think the change was interesting and fun in it's own right? There was no need to go "back to his roots".. as he will AND can in his next book. I'm sure the book will be great but I think it would have been a better set without the supernatural element... as well perhaps attracting some new fans along the way. Is what it is though and I'm sure we all will be happy with it!

[jhanic]

I'm just not sure if I'm going to like it or not. One one side, I do really enjoy his supernatural novels, but I also liked the fact that it seems the Mr. Mercedes trilogy was not going to contain any supernatural events. I thought Rose Madder would have been a much better book without the supernatural happenings. (I'd have loved to see Norman get his just deserts in a court of law!)

John

[zelig]

Have been looking for the End of Watch thread and missed it for some reason. Anyway, found it now.

So, I really like the cover. I'm just surprised that it doesn't follow the same overall design elements as MM and FK. I thought for sure the cover of this one would look similar.

As far as the supernatural element goes, I tend to agree that I would have liked to have seen this one without that. But based on the end of FK, it was inevitable. We'll have to wait to read it to see how it turns out.

[Ari_Racing]

The water those fish are is red. Can that be blood?

[Bev Vincent]

Steve says to beware the pink one.

[CyberGhostface]

Slightly surprised that they broke off from the "minimalist" design they had going for with the umbrella and the book for the first two.

[Jon]

Pink fish, blue umbrella...is Steve telling us there is a baby on the way?

[Cordial Jim]

I was hoping he wasn't going to go the supernatural route as well (even though it was foreshadowed in Finders Keepers). "Deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room"? I don't know... I'm sure it will be great though. He hasn't had a stinker since Dreamcatcher IMHO. LOVE the cover! :)

[mtdman]

I really enjoyed Finders Keepers. So far 1-1 on the series. This book decides the whole thing for me. If it's more like FK, it'll be a win. If it's like MrM, loss.

[Ben Mears]

"Deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room"? :)

Sounds like a cross between Carrie White, Charlie McGee and Johnny Smith.

[Merlin1958]

I LOVE the premise and I am soooo looking forward to the book's release!!!



Of course, I am also an "Enigma, wrapped in a mystery"!!! LOL

[herbertwest]

From Liljas :
>>> http://www.liljas-library.com/article.php?id=4633&ref=rss


Second Description of End of Watch

End of Watch is a compelling and chilling suspense novel which sees retired detective Bill Hodges back on the trail of his nemesis Brady Hartsfield, the criminal the press called The Mercedes Killer. Foiled in his attempt to commit a second mass murder, Hartsfield is confined to a hospital brain injury unit in a seemingly unresponsive state. But all is not what it seems: Brady is able to influence both his physician and the hospital librarian to commit crimes in the outside world. Now, the technological genius has created a hypnotic electronic fishing game which compels users to commit suicide, and he is determined to target the three people who put him in hospital - Hodges and his sidekicks Holly and Jerome. Then he plans to initiate a suicide epidemic. For Hodges - and the city - the clock is ticking in unexpected ways...Both a stand-alone novel and the final episode in the Hodges trilogy, End of Watchis a tense read which takes the series into a powerful new dimension.

Sounds great !

[Merlin1958]

From Liljas :
>>> http://www.liljas-library.com/article.php?id=4633&ref=rss


Second Description of End of Watch

End of Watch is a compelling and chilling suspense novel which sees retired detective Bill Hodges back on the trail of his nemesis Brady Hartsfield, the criminal the press called The Mercedes Killer. Foiled in his attempt to commit a second mass murder, Hartsfield is confined to a hospital brain injury unit in a seemingly unresponsive state. But all is not what it seems: Brady is able to influence both his physician and the hospital librarian to commit crimes in the outside world. Now, the technological genius has created a hypnotic electronic fishing game which compels users to commit suicide, and he is determined to target the three people who put him in hospital - Hodges and his sidekicks Holly and Jerome. Then he plans to initiate a suicide epidemic. For Hodges - and the city - the clock is ticking in unexpected ways...Both a stand-alone novel and the final episode in the Hodges trilogy, End of Watchis a tense read which takes the series into a powerful new dimension.

Sounds great !


:biggrin1:

[zelig]

Original title makes sense now.

[jhanic]

I'm refusing to read these advance summaries. I want to be surprised.

John

[Cordial Jim]

Interesting... very interesting! I like what he has done here to cap this wonderful trilogy off. Brady Hartsfield will surely go down as one of the best King villains ever. What a scary dude!

[Merlin1958]

Interesting... very interesting! I like what he has done here to cap this wonderful trilogy off. Brady Hartsfield will surely go down as one of the best King villains ever. What a scary dude!


He's a "good", bad-dude for sure, but I'll take, Flagg as the all time Big-Baddie!!! Big Bad Brady will surely be right up there with my favorite "Real Life" villain, Burnsie from "Black House". You just can't top a twisted pedophile for a real slime ball!!! LOL

[Brainslinger]

I'm refusing to read these advance summaries. I want to be surprised.

John

I wish I had. That summary goes into more detail than I'd have liked.

Seems interesting though. I get what people are saying about keeping off the supernatural element. I actually favour the supernatural in novels but it was a nice change to read thriller mystery novels without that element. BUT, we got that in Mr. Mercedez and Finders Keepers (mostly), so I actually welcome it in the third novel.

[mae]

Looks like there will be a special hardcover boxed set of the three novels in June:

http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy-Boxed-Set/Stephen-King/9781501142062

A magnificently packaged boxed set of hardcover editions of Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch, the Edgar award–winning trilogy starring Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, Jerome Robinson, and the diabolical Mercedes Killer, Brady Hartsfield—with unique new jackets and case.

Scribner |
1344 pages |
ISBN 9781501142062 |
June 2016

List Price $90.00

http://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9781501142062/mr-mercedes-trilogy-boxed-set-9781501142062_hr.jpg

[Priest]

Is that the final design ? Or only a placeholder ?

[Randall Flagg]

Final design.

[Priest]

uff... disappointing ... really ...
there have been so many nice designs for trade editions, and thats all they came up with ? for additional 90bucks ? Naah...


Truly hope that there will be other editions that can top that -> nobody is looking @ you Brian James Freeman

[webstar1000]

uff... disappointing ... really ...
there have been so many nice designs for trade editions, and thats all they came up with ? for additional 90bucks ? Naah...


Truly hope that there will be other editions that can top that -> nobody is looking @ you Brian James Freeman

I am... Brian?????????? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOOL

[frik]

Final design.

That is disappointing.
I did pre-order a stet if the price doesn't come down I think I might cancel.
Most likely not even 1st/1sts.

Just wait and see: Cemetery Dance will come up with an amazing production!

sk

[Bunyip]

I'm not going to bother with the boxed set. 3 X 1st in the nice CD covers will be enough at this stage. I don't see the value, and they don't look that cool to be honest!

[Brian861]

Final design.

That is disappointing.
I did pre-order a stet if the price doesn't come down I think I might cancel.
Most likely not even 1st/1sts.

Just wait and see: Cemetery Dance will come up with an amazing production!

sk

I ordered it was well but I've got this craziness about needing everything (although my collection will never amount to the ones owned here). I'm sure some where down the road a small publisher will do it justice. I've really enjoyed the series thus far.

[zelig]

UK cover is revealed. Animated version is cool.

http://stephenkingbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Web403x600.gif

[becca69]

How cool would that be if the actual DJ was animated! Someone needs to come up with that tech!

[Brian861]

Super cool. Thanks for the share, Paul!

[Br!an]

How cool would that be if the actual DJ was animated! Someone needs to come up with that tech!

I don't see that happening with a dustjacket for a while. Though they do have the ability to change the image depending on point of view.

I could see an animated slipcase or traycase working though.

[Merlin1958]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Randall Flagg]

The animated DJ could be done today, but the cost isn't working any time soon for a $30 book.

[Lilja]

Got the UK trade paperback of Finders Keepers yesterday and it has an excerpt from End of Watch at the end. It's 10 full pages and a few lines on the 11th page. The paperback is out March 22 in the UK.

http://liljas-library.com/img/other/fiderspap_1.jpg

http://liljas-library.com/img/other/fiderspap_2.jpg

[Brian861]

What did ya think of the excerpt?

[Lilja]

I read it today and it was very good. I'm quite eager to read the rest :-)

[Brian861]

I read it today and it was very good. I'm quite eager to read the rest :-)

You're a lot more patient then me, brother! I would have had it read the second I received it :).

[Lilja]

:-) So would I if I had been home to do it. Imagine. I know it was at home while I wasn't. The horror :-)

[Brian861]

:panic: explains the wait for sure!

[Lilja]

:-)

[zelig]

I wouldn't read it because I would be too eager to read the rest. So I would wait until the entire story is in my hands. Lilja, when you get the proof feel free to send it to me. :evil:

[Lilja]

Haha, well, it's just as hard not to read the 10 pages you got as it is to not read them :-)

[Brian861]

I wouldn't read it because I would be too eager to read the rest. So I would wait until the entire story is in my hands. Lilja, when you get the proof feel free to send it to me. :evil:

Excellent point, Paul! But I'm weak :cry:

[Brian James Freeman]

Just FYI, our S&S sales rep tells us the Bill Hodges Trilogy Hardcover Box Set has been pushed back to the end of June or early July. We'll post when we hear more. The regular hardcover edition of End of Watch is not affected by this change.

Also, here's a tiny little tease for those who bought the Bill Hodges Trilogy Box Set through our online store... this is a small part of the art print you'll be receiving with your shipment:

http://www.cemeterydance.com/images/misc/MrMercedesArtPrintTease.jpg

Brian

[Brian861]

:thumbsup:

[mae]

Amazon has the back cover:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81jGpURc7XL.jpg

[skyofcrack]

:15 second commercial.
http://cdn.stephenking.com/eow-video/preorder1080.mp4

[Bev Vincent]

Received my hardcover "review" copy of EoW today.

[needfulthings]

It appears that there will be 2 different box sets of Bill Hodges Trilogy? White covers & Black covers & does anyone know will these books all be printed as 1st editions?
:evil:HOLLY SHIT... DOUBLE DIP.:doh:

[Brian861]

No clue on that but I personally don't see a need for the white covers if they're going to be just the same as the unboxed editions. Of course they'll probably have some little variant then it'll be a much have. I have the box set on order so hopefully it'll be the black ones. You have any pics, Bruce of said covers?

[needfulthings]

No just if you Google Bill Hodges box set you will find two different color dust jackets pictured.

[Brian861]

No just if you Google Bill Hodges box set you will find two different color dust jackets pictured.

Interesting indeed. And seeing how they have the smiley face that comes together on the spine; definitely a variant I'd say. Good marketing strategy as I'm sure it's well know folks will want both variants. Agree that it would suck if only EOW was a 1st/1st. I reckon one could acquire 1st copies of the other books and replace the DJs with variant ones. Or would that be a no-no :orely:

[needfulthings]

I feel the print run on these will be on the low side...How many people except NUTS like us are going to double dip on books that they have already read? Also it will depend if the book under the dust jacket is different then the true 1st editions ( I know that all 6 books in my Green Mile box sets are all 1st editions.:rolleyes:) The only BRIGHT:idea: side I see right now ...If you Google Amazon U.K. They also picture the U,S.A. books. (I HOPE THAT IS TRUE)

[Brian861]

You don't seem quite sure of that, Bruce on your Green Mile copies, lol. Valid points regarding the box set/s :-/.

[needfulthings]

http://imageshack.com/a/img921/9434/uIFbCS.jpg

[Brian861]

:thumbsup:

[Randall Flagg]

It appears that there will be 2 different box sets of Bill Hodges Trilogy? White covers & Black covers & does anyone know will these books all be printed as 1st editions?
:evil:HOLLY SHIT... DOUBLE DIP.:doh:
Pics, link please.

[Br!an]

http://stephenking1sts.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy-Boxed-Set.jpg
http://i5.walmartimages.com/dfw/dce07b8c-d703/k2-_6d9792b2-10bc-4a10-8bb3-cdc66a74d459.v2.jpg

[zelig]

Even though there are pictures out there showing the black version, for some reason I'm not convinced there will be two versions. The only online merchants I could find that show the black version are Target (http://www.target.com/p/the-bill-hodges-trilogy-boxed-set-the-bill-hodges-trilogy-combined-hardcover/-/A-50778963#prodSlot=medium_1_1&term=bill+hodges+trilogy) and Overstock (http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy-Boxed-Set-Mr.-Mercedes-Finders-Keepers-End-of-Watch-Hardcover/10762938/product.html). Amazon, B&N and BAM show the white version. I didn't check any others. So the the only way to know for sure is to place an order with Target or Overstock and see what you get. ISBN is the same on each version.

[needfulthings]

:unsure: Somehow I don't think I want to take that $90.00 MSRP ($53.92)GAMBLE.

[zelig]

:unsure: Somehow I don't think I want to take that $90.00 MSRP ($53.92)GAMBLE.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I've been hesitant to place an order. If they have a return policy then I guess we have that as a failsafe if the set doesn't match the picture.

[zelig]

End of Watch Signed Hardcover Sweepstakes (http://stephenking.com/promo/end-of-watch/sweepstakes/)

[webstar1000]

US ONLY. :(

[Bev Vincent]

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive excerpt: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/27/stephen-king-end-watch-excerpt

[zelig]

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive excerpt: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/27/stephen-king-end-watch-excerpt

Do you know if it's in the print edition as well?

[NoAttitudeThisTime]

This info is after the excerpt: To read the rest of this excerpt, pick up Entertainment Weekly’s Ultimate Summer Preview issue, on newsstands now (and also available here), or subscribe online at ew.com/allaccess.

[zelig]

Thanks!

[needfulthings]

:wtf: Not even a front cover blurb?
http://imageshack.com/a/img921/691/wf8tUs.jpg

[zelig]

That's surprising.

[Brian861]

That's surprising.

Really. All we get is just some guy playing with his hose :-/.

[you ever seen a ghost?]

does anyone have this yet? what issue is it in?

thanks in advance!

[zelig]

Looks like it's the "June 3/10" issue. I ordered one from the EW website as I won't have a chance to visit a bookstore any time soon. Hasn't arrived yet.

[mae]

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/books/end-of-watch-review-stephen-king-delivers-scary-finale-to-latest-trilogy-1.11860612

Stephen King once confessed that there were times in his life when he thought “all the clamoring voices” in his head would make him insane. That may not have happened — yet — but this prolific author has never had any trouble making his characters insane, the most memorable of whom, at least in recent memory, might be Brady Hartsfield.

Readers first met Brady in King’s 2014 crime thriller, “Mr. Mercedes,” the critically acclaimed and Edgar Award-winning first installment in the Bill Hodges trilogy, which concludes this month with the series’ outstanding final novel, “End of Watch.”

“End of Watch” unfolds six years after Brady killed eight and maimed several others in “Mr. Mercedes,” where he drove a stolen Mercedes-Benz into a crowd outside a city job fair. Later in that book, he would’ve killed hundreds more with a bomb at a rock concert if it weren’t for Hodges, a retired police detective, and his quirky sidekick, Holly Gibney.

Before that bomb went off, Holly put Brady’s lights out with Hodges’ trusty weapon: a ball-bearing loaded sock called the Happy Slapper. Ever since the blow (and throughout the second novel in the trilogy, “Finders Keepers”) Brady has appeared to dwell in a “twilight world”at a local brain injury clinic.

To most who meet him, the murderous invalid seems more likely to be found “poking himself in the eye with his fork” than plotting mass murder. But Hodges, a frequent and suspicious visitor who’s now battling a nasty form of cancer, has never quite bought it.

“I was sure of it then and I’m sure of it now,” he tells Holly early in “End of Watch.” “He just sits there, but inside he’s the same human wasp that killed those people at City Center and tried to kill a whole lot more at Mingo Auditorium.”

His concern, we soon learn, isn’t without merit. It turns out that Brady’s quack doctor has been pumping him full of an experimental drug “developed in a Bolivian neuro lab.” Now, the latent killer has tapped into something preternatural inside his damaged brain: a mysterious power that gives him lethal control over his victims’ thoughts.

And he’s got a plan to make sure they start thinking like cult leader Jim Jones’s suicidal followers.

“End of Watch” gives us King at the height of his powers. Masterfully plotted, the novel is propelled toward its page-blurring conclusion by two deadly forces: Hodges’ advancing disease and Brady’s relentless murderous impulse. “At first it will be just the ones who were closest to doing it anyway,” Brady muses on his mass-suicide scheme, “but they will lead by example and there will be many more. They’ll march off the edge of life like stampeding buffalo going over a cliff.”

The viral spread of ideas and behavior online is a critical component of that plan, and in “End of Watch,” King, a deft social-media user himself, describes the power and peril of our hyper-connected world. “You can find anything on the Internet,” King writes. “Some of it is helpful. Some of it is interesting. Some of it is funny. And some of it is . . . awful.”

Later, he perfectly articulates how Internet troll culture can harm the vulnerable. “Ordinary fears, the ones kids like this live with as a kind of unpleasant background noise, can be turned into ravening monsters,” he writes. “Small balloons of paranoia can be inflated until they are as big as floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

There’s much for fans of hard-boiled detective novels to like in “End of Watch.” We’re reminded, for instance, that bodies “never look more dead than in police photos,” and when an informant offers Hodges, a former alcoholic, a drink, he begs off in a way any tough would admire. “When it comes to booze,” he says, “I spilled more than you’ll ever drink, honeypie.”

“End of Watch,” as any King novel might, delivers at least one scene that may keep you up at night, but there are also several laughs here. One of the best arrives early in the book, when Hodges considers postponing his cancer treatment until he can lay his suspicions about Brady to rest. His doctor poses a question: “If you were standing on top of a burning building and a helicopter appeared and dropped a rope ladder, would you say you needed to think about it before climbing up?”

It’s hard not to imagine the delighted look on this virtuoso author’s face as he typed his hero’s slick reply. “I might,” Hodges says, “if the helicopter in question only had two gallons of gas left in the tank.”

[Bev Vincent]

Characters with unfinished business inveigle themselves into his head, King said in a telephone interview. He’s currently toying with going back into his Bill Hodges trilogy, though “End of Watch,” coming out next month, is meant to be the final installment. “There’s a character named Holly I keep thinking about,” he said.

Source: J. K. Rowling Just Can’t Let Harry Potter Go (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/theater/jk-rowling-just-cant-let-harry-potter-go.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1)

[mae]

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article81311937.html

Early on in End of Watch, the final chapter in Stephen King’s crime-fiction trilogy that began with the Edgar Award-winning Mr. Mercedes and continued with Finders Keepers, the retired police detective-turned-private investigator Bill Hodges receives some bad news from his doctor: “It’s pancreatic cancer, and I’m afraid we caught it ... well ... rather late in the game. Your liver is involved.”

At the same time, Hodges’ arch-nemesis Brady Hartsfield has made a startling recovery. Hartsfield is the psychopath who kick-started the three-book saga five years earlier by plowing his car into a crowd of people, tried to kill thousands more with a bomb during a pop concert at the Mingo Auditorium arena and is now lying in a semi-vegetative state in a traumatic brain injury clinic. He’s bedridden inside his hospital room 217 (readers of The Shining, take note!). He can’t speak and can barely move. But his sick mind is sharp and cunning, and as a side effect to some experimental drugs he was given, he has developed a touch of telekinesis — he can rattle window blinds and turn water faucets on — and other, more troubling abilities.

Brady has also had time to plan his revenge on Hodges and the rest of the world, which he intends to carry out from the confines of his bed: “In the ten years between his graduation from high school and that disabling moment in the Mingo Auditorium, Brady’s fascination with suicide — including his own, always seen as part of some grand historic gesture — continued. This seed has now, against all the odds, fully blossomed. He will be the Jim Jones of the twenty-first century.”

King has long been investing inanimate objects with supernatural evil: A 1958 Plymouth in Christine, cell phones in Cell, a laundry press machine in the short story The Mangler. In End of Watch, he does the same for tablets and the Internet, turning them into a conduit through which a computer genius can manipulate people to commit suicide. The concept is a bit hokey, but King invests it with so many careful details that you go with it anyway. Besides, the book moves too quickly to give you time to ponder its implausibility, and it is filled with the sort of devious, teasing sentences that make it practically impossible to stop reading (“‘I’ll make sure of it,’ Hodges says, but that is a promise he’s not able to keep.”)

End of Watch won’t go down as a landmark in the crime-fiction genre: As gifted as he is at intricate plotting, King’s no match for Elmore Leonard or John D. MacDonald. But the book leaves a surprisingly deep, melancholy mark, crystallizing the themes that have become prevalent in King’s recent work. 11/22/63, Doctor Sleep, Revival and the short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams all dealt with characters lamenting their past and confronting their looming mortality. Hodges’ prognosis would pulverize a lesser man. But he’s got a case to solve. “I need to think about this,” he tells his doctor after he’s prescribed chemo and radiation treatments. He lies to Holly Gibney, his crime-solving partner since Mr. Mercedes, so as not to worry her. “Good news, actually. It’s an ulcer, but just a little one. I’ll have to take a bunch of pills and be careful about my diet.”

But the specter of impending death haunts Hodges, depriving him of sleep and physical comfort, as he squares off against a lunatic who is hypnotizing strangers via screen savers and pushing them to take their own lives by exploiting their existing depression. King throws in occasional asides that explore the tragedy of suicide compassionately but without romanticizing it, and the irony is bittersweet, coming from the perspective of a 68-year-old writer whose personal life has seen its share of low points.

“[T]he thought that comes to him is too complicated — too fraught with a terrible mixture of anger and sorrow — to be articulated. It’s about how some people carelessly squander what others would see their souls to have: a healthy, pain-free body. And why? Because they’re too blind, too emotionally scarred, or too self-involved to see past the earth’s dark curve to the next sunrise. Which always comes, if one continues to draw breath.”

End of Watch isn’t a horror novel, although King is still able to rattle the reader whenever he wants, with ease (“The next day when he left the house, Moretti found a dead dog stretched out on the welcome mat. Its throat had been cut. Written in dogblood on the windshield of his car was YOUR WIFE & KIDS ARE NEXT.”). The novel sometimes seems rushed: There are stretches in which the characters spout so much expository dialogue at each other you feel like you’re reading a screenplay.

But you tear through this book so quickly, the flaws are easy to forgive. End of Watch hurtles toward a conclusion you anticipate and dread in equal measure — that wonderful, terrible anxiety King’s constant readers have been relishing for more than four decades now. “He’s not done with you yet,” reads an ominous message Hodges receives on his computer in End of Watch. We’re lucky. King isn’t done with us either.

[Dan]

They already have these out for sale at the OKC airport. I would have bought one, but I am traveling out and didn't have a way to keep it protected.

[biomieg]

Finished the book five minutes ago - a bit of a slow starter (for me at least) but once it got going it ended up being quite the pageturner, with a bittersweet ending. Bravo Mr. King!

[burial]

I received Polish ARC few weeks ago... for me it's much better than Finders Keepers...

[Bev Vincent]

The Bill Hodges Trilogy game, featuring questions written by Robin Furth and Gagnam-Style music!

http://stephenking.com/promo/end-of-watch/game/index.html

[mae]

The book is out today! :nana:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXfCobnuu4M

And we have no forthcoming King books left to anticipate :(

[biomieg]

At least we now have an edition of The Shining that is as complete as it could possibly be to look forward to!

[webstar1000]

At least we now have an edition of The Shining that is as complete as it could possibly be to look forward to!

I agree BUT.. I won't read it!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaha We might have to get a copy of it and share it around so we do not care about it's condition. lol

[mtdman]

I started listening to it on Friday night, only about half way through so far. I'm not a big fan of Wil Patton as a narrator. I'm not sure if his narration has an influence on the book for me, but I do not find Kermit, Holly, or any of the 'good guy' characters likable. I find myself rooting for Brady though, and that holds true for all 3 books so far. I've read a couple reviews about the book, which talk about how great his characters in these books are written. IMO I'd strongly disagree. Compared to the work he has done in other books, I find these characters pale. They are cliched characters and not really well developed. Except for Brady, and even the guy in Finder's Keepers. I feel like King has a hard time writing for good guy characters, but seems to develop the bad guy characters really well. On the other hand, the plot of this book is pretty well thought out and developed, which is nice, and probably the redeeming quality of this triology. At least that has kept my interest throughout the series. Overall, compared to his other works, this series has been a bit 'lightweight' compared to some of my favorite works by King. Which to be honest, has been the case with many of his newer works in the past 10 or so years.

That all being said, it's not a bad book, and the series isn't a bad series. They are still very enjoyable stories and well worth the time to read/listen. And better than a lot of other modern fiction as of late.

[mae]

At least we now have an edition of The Shining that is as complete as it could possibly be to look forward to!

I agree BUT.. I won't read it!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaha We might have to get a copy of it and share it around so we do not care about it's condition. lol

I'm a pervert. I read my limited editions.

[Brian861]

I started listening to it on Friday night, only about half way through so far. I'm not a big fan of Wil Patton as a narrator. I'm not sure if his narration has an influence on the book for me, but I do not find Kermit, Holly, or any of the 'good guy' characters likable. I find myself rooting for Brady though, and that holds true for all 3 books so far. I've read a couple reviews about the book, which talk about how great his characters in these books are written. IMO I'd strongly disagree. Compared to the work he has done in other books, I find these characters pale. They are cliched characters and not really well developed. Except for Brady, and even the guy in Finder's Keepers. I feel like King has a hard time writing for good guy characters, but seems to develop the bad guy characters really well. On the other hand, the plot of this book is pretty well thought out and developed, which is nice, and probably the redeeming quality of this triology. At least that has kept my interest throughout the series. Overall, compared to his other works, this series has been a bit 'lightweight' compared to some of my favorite works by King. Which to be honest, has been the case with many of his newer works in the past 10 or so years.

That all being said, it's not a bad book, and the series isn't a bad series. They are still very enjoyable stories and well worth the time to read/listen. And better than a lot of other modern fiction as of late.

I'm really enjoying EOW so far (reading not listening). I really also enjoy Patton as a reader as well. Sorry to hear you're not enjoying him and that in fact it might be throwing it off for you. I'd agree about the 'bad guys' in this series as far as character development. I just figured that's were the focus is for the series and I don't mind it. One could probably totally skip Finders Keepers and not miss much. My least favorite of the three. Outside of the 3 main characters and a little development of some minor ones we see later, I don't really see what it has to do with books 1 and 3. More of a stand alone IMO.

[mtdman]

I finished it last night. The ending wasn't bad, but it was a bit on the tame side. Overall not a bad book, but I still was pulling for Brady throughout. I think I liked Finder's Keepers better.

[NoAttitudeThisTime]

Brady is such an evil mofo. King is brilliant with these human monsters. I really liked EoW, thought it was better than FK. However, despite King saying he wants to revisit Holly again, I do hope that King will get back to more Revival-type stuff or something entirely different. As much as I enjoyed The Bill Hodges Trilogy, they are a bit on the light side and not King's strongest work.

[skyofcrack]

I really liked this trilogy. Although the ending of EOW was very predictable. I think I would have preferred Brady using Bill's weakened condition of cancer to control and force him to commit suicide OR for Bill to have a moment of clarity and kill himself, taking Brady with him

[Roseannebarr]

I really liked this trilogy. Although the ending of EOW was very predictable. I think I would have preferred Brady using Bill's weakened condition of cancer to control and force him to commit suicide OR for Bill to have a moment of clarity and kill himself, taking Brady with him

Agreed. I thought that was going to happen too.

[zelig]

FYI, there is an End of Watch excerpt in the new paperback of Cell. It's the Pocket Books movie tie-in edition.

[Ricky]

Finished it yesterday. I had a feeling that SK was going to kill off Hodges, but wish the "eight months later" section didn't feel so tacked on. I wish we could've gotten some insight into Bill during his final months so it made his death more gradual, even though there were lots of hints that it was coming. This just felt like one minute Hodges was feeling optimistic about beating the cancer and then BAM! Dead.

Overall, I liked it better than Finders Keepers, but not as much as Mr. Mercedes. Mr. Mercedes had the most suspense for me. Plus, the final stand off with Brady in EOW felt a little too short and anticlimactic. I was thinking it would've been more suspenseful and higher stakes if Brady were to somehow "call" all the Zappit-connected teenagers to one place and stage a mass suicide like the ones he was so fascinated with. I think that would've been more engaging rather that picking them off one-by-one.

Also, loved Holly in this one.

[Cwalker]

Maybe I'm too easy, but I enjoyed all three pretty much equally. There was one thing that bothered me quite a bit at the end though...

When Bill and Holly were going down the list of all the reasons why Brady needed to die, neither one mentioned Janey. Brady causing the death of Bill's last great love and the only family member that treated Holly well didn't even make the list??? Come on...it haden't been thatlong.

[Brian861]

I finished it early this morning as well and I agree on the ending. But despite all that, I really liked this book and still think FK could have been left out and EOW could have just been a sequel to MM. I wouldn't mind seeing/reading Holly and Jerome again at some point.

[Brian861]

Maybe I'm too easy, but I enjoyed all three pretty much equally. There was one thing that bothered me quite a bit at the end though...

When Bill and Holly were going down the list of all the reasons why Brady needed to die, neither one mentioned Janey. Brady causing the death of Bill's last great love and the only family member that treated Holly well didn't even make the list??? Come on...it haden't been thatlong.

Great point, Chris. She kinda got lost in the shuffle. To the point that I didn't even think of that until your post.

[Ricky]

Maybe I'm too easy, but I enjoyed all three pretty much equally. There was one thing that bothered me quite a bit at the end though...

When Bill and Holly were going down the list of all the reasons why Brady needed to die, neither one mentioned Janey. Brady causing the death of Bill's last great love and the only family member that treated Holly well didn't even make the list??? Come on...it haden't been thatlong.

Yes, thank you! There were so many times that I thought Bill would mention Janey (either verbally or in thought) but it never happened. I think it was, what, six years between the end of MM and beginning of EOW? Still, I thought that with all the reflection Bill did in this one, at least some of it would be about Janey.


still think FK could have been left out and EOW could have just been a sequel to MM.

Agree. FK could've been a standalone if you just cut out the Hodges parts.

[zelig]

still think FK could have been left out and EOW could have just been a sequel to MM.

Agree. FK could've been a standalone if you just cut out the Hodges parts.

FK is still my favorite of the three.

[Brian861]

still think FK could have been left out and EOW could have just been a sequel to MM.

Agree. FK could've been a standalone if you just cut out the Hodges parts.

FK is still my favorite of the three.

I just didn't care for it all, Paul but respect that you really enjoyed it. What is it that you liked most about it over the others?

[zelig]

still think FK could have been left out and EOW could have just been a sequel to MM.

Agree. FK could've been a standalone if you just cut out the Hodges parts.

FK is still my favorite of the three.

I just didn't care for it all, Paul but respect that you really enjoyed it. What is it that you liked most about it over the others?

I think it was the storyline. I like books about books and publishing. I found the idea about an author who has all this unpublished material to be very interesting. I don't recall the details, but if you look in Cara Laughs for the FK thread which I started, in the first post I go into some details about what I liked. MM was okay. Decent story. The reason I wasn't a fan of EoW was simply the supernatural element. I used to like that sort of theme in a book but not anymore.

[Brian861]

I think it was the storyline. I like books about books and publishing. I found the idea about an author who has all this unpublished material to be very interesting. I don't recall the details, but if you look in Cara Laughs for the FK thread which I started, in the first post I go into some details about what I liked. MM was okay. Decent story. The reason I wasn't a fan of EoW was simply the supernatural element. I used to like that sort of theme in a book but not anymore.

I'll check it out, Paul. Thanks.

[Tommy]

I finished it a little while ago and did enjoy it by the end but I too thought that Bill would kill himself with Brady inside him and I think that could have been a better, more devastating ending but I still enjoyed the nicer ending.


He really emphasizes the hospital room number Brady is in, it's mentioned at least a dozen times. I know it's significance but what is King getting at by repeating it so many times?

Also, he uses the name Frederika Bimmel again. He used it in Dr. Sleep and now in EOW. I love the homage to Silence of the Lambs but it's a little strange.

[Cook]

I know I'll catch crap for this statement, but here goes....
SO FAR after being halfway thru, End of watch is by far the worst SK story of all time.
I will finish it because I can't not finish a SK book, but this story SO FAR is absurdly ridiculous.

[webstar1000]

I know I'll catch crap for this statement, but here goes....
SO FAR after being halfway thru, End of watch is by far the worst SK story of all time.
I will finish it because I can't not finish a SK book, but this story SO FAR is absurdly ridiculous.

I totally agree. HATED IT... It was like he just didnt care....

[webstar1000]

still think FK could have been left out and EOW could have just been a sequel to MM.

Agree. FK could've been a standalone if you just cut out the Hodges parts.

FK is still my favorite of the three.

I agree. It is a good book and the best of the three!

[Ari_Racing]

I liked it but when I finished it I was really sure that LOTS of people were going to complain about the book. It's understandable.

[NoAttitudeThisTime]

Liked it too, but not his best book. Or rather, the trilogy is not his best work, but I found nothing wrong with them at all. They are definitely not bad, just different and more light in many ways

[mae]

Paperback cover:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91YCnE6esQL.jpg

[Brian861]

Pretty neat.

[mae]

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-bill-hodges-trilogy-or-timing-is-everything/

STEPHEN KING’S newest novel, End of Watch (the last book in the Bill Hodges trilogy), opens with a cliché — “It’s always darkest before the dawn” — and although this might be seen as a tired gesture made by a hack writer who possesses little creativity, clichés do, sometimes, have their place. For instance, the old truism “timing is everything” seems appropriate to End of Watch, not just because it offers a play on the title of the novel, but also because this particular cliché captures the essence of King’s newest book. Time is a crucial element here: there is a race against the clock that propels readers to find out if the hero, Bill Hodges, will be able to defeat his nemesis, Brady Hartsfield, before the latter sets off a dangerous chain of events. Time and memory are also vital because this book (and the entire trilogy) relies upon references to King’s earlier writing. Finally, time takes center stage because coincidence and serendipity combine with metatextual repetition to provide a narrative that gestures beyond cause and effect toward something more strange, elusive, and inexplicable.

King himself has noted that he finds it worthless to plan detailed outlines for his novels in advance — the story has to be organic, and any problems that his characters encounter cannot simply be resolved through some sort of deus-ex-machina intervention that would drive the Constant Reader (or, say, Annie Wilkes of Misery) insane. This suggests that coincidence, rather than divine intervention, populates King’s tales as a sort of narrative compromise. Coincidence, however, is not always a matter of mere chance. Most seeming coincidences can be traced back to origins in specific earlier moments; the conjunction of two apparently unrelated or unbelievable events can thus be seen as having an interconnected genesis. This lack of magic within End of Watch warrants observation, not because of the overall absence of magic within this text (there is actually quite a bit of magic that propels the story and its numerous coincidental threads toward the conclusion), but, rather, because it seems as if King has become enslaved, as an author, by his fixation upon the pervasive power of time and timing.

End of Watch shares key similarities with its predecessor Finders Keepers beyond a shared cast of characters. Finders Keepers, for example, echoes the plot of King’s earlier story The Shawshank Redemption; more specifically, the antagonist of Finders Keepers, Morris Bellamy, like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank, endures his prison sentence with the anticipation and excitement of knowing (or, rather, believing) that a hidden treasure (in this case, the uncollected notebooks of his favorite author) will be waiting for him outside the prison. In order for King to have written this book, he could not have done so without his previous work; without having previously explored the endurance of a prisoner and the power of obsession for “Number One Fans,” Finders Keepers would not be the book that it is. The same is also true of End of Watch. Just as King opens Needful Things with the statement “You’ve been here before,” the Constant Reader has watched timing and coincidence bring about the downfall of evil in King’s work long before Bill Hodges triumphs over Brady Hartsfield because of a single, serendipitous phone call. End of Watch is thus eerily similar to The Dead Zone, in which Johnny Smith attempts to assassinate the diabolical presidential candidate Greg Stillson: although Johnny fails in his assassination attempt, a fortunate and well-timed photograph showing Stillson using a child as a human shield to protect himself from Smith’s bullets serves as the crucial means of ensuring that Stillson will not become president.

The point here is that as King has noticeably “gone back to the well” with his last two novels, this might suggest that King is losing his edge, recycling old story lines and even milking the intertextual references that populate his works. Indeed, the blatant Easter egg of having Brady Hartsfield, the now semi-comatose Mercedes Killer from Mr. Mercedes (the first book of the Bill Hodges trilogy), reside in Room 217 of the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic of Kiner Memorial Hospital (a room number that has been familiar for King’s readers for almost 40 years) does not necessarily seem wholly inspired, especially since this reference would hardly have worked if not for King’s immense popularity and the extreme level of familiarity that his Constant Readers have with his prior writings. As such, it sometimes feels like King is becoming a slave to his previous references. Yet being a slave to history is not always a bad thing; to be sure, the Constant Reader has willingly revisited Castle Rock several times throughout King’s oeuvre, and the sense of familiarity offered by End of Watch could be considered comforting to the established reader.

One of the earliest examples of fortuitous timing in the novel occurs when Barbara Robinson endures a near-death experience. As the younger sister of Jerome Robinson, one of the people whom Brady Hartsfield blames for his current condition, Barbara becomes a target of Brady’s revenge when it turns out that Brady is not as brain-dead as everyone thinks. In fact, Brady has developed supernatural mental abilities that allow him to enter into the minds of individuals and influence them to take their own lives. Indeed, timing here is crucial to the development of the plot of End of Watch because Brady cannot reveal that he has recovered from his near-vegetative state — such a revelation would surely ruin his plans for revenge, especially against the individual at the top of his shitlist: Bill Hodges. Brady infiltrates Barbara’s mind while she is walking in the “black” part of town, and the timing of her presence in this location could not be any better for Brady. He begins to speak to her regarding her own identity as “blackish,” implying that she is an impure black woman (since Barbara comes from a stable and somewhat privileged home) and that she should be ashamed of her tainted ethnic identity stemming from her “white” privilege. These lines of persuasion ultimately shame Barbara and convince her to end it all by stepping into traffic — only to be saved by a young man who, coincidentally, found Barbara attractive and had his eyes on her as she walked into the street; moreover, this auspicious magnetism would have never occurred if not for a fire alarm at this heroic gentleman’s school that brought him to the same street where the vulnerable Barbara attempted to kill herself. Again, the critical and providential timing of this scene is a boon for Barbara, but it could be said that this is a burden for the reader since any sense of relief is erased because, arguably, King’s use of coincidence begins to become a bit overwhelming. Certainly, just as King’s story becomes a slave to timing, so too does the reader: such ostensibly predetermined movements appear to eliminate the spontaneity that is often expected and cherished within literature.

Again, there appear to be too many “coincidences” that line up too perfectly throughout the text and wrap the story up rather too neatly in several places. As already noted, Barbara Robinson is saved by a well-timed fire alarm at a school across town; additionally, Bill Hodges dies of pancreatic cancer at the end of the story, but not before he is able to see Brady Hartsfield die (and on Bill’s birthday no less, almost like how Bryan Smith, the man who ran down Stephen King in 1999, likely committed suicide on King’s birthday the following year). Bill’s death, as sad as it is, also possesses a fortuitous timing since he does not leave this world before his friend and business partner, Holly Gibney, almost completely learns to manage her extreme anxiety (which would have undoubtedly crippled her to the point of institutionalization had Bill died any earlier).

Furthermore, as Brady, the “suicide prince” (the original working title of this book), uses his newfound abilities to push people over the edge and commit suicide, he is aware that the timing of his persuasions and influences are critical and that, sometimes, orchestration is the true motor of coincidence. While Brady might, in theory, command the muscles of his potential victims by fully entering into their minds and controlling their bodies (an idea that owes a debt to King’s Dark Tower series, specifically via the characters Susannah Dean and Jake Chambers [and his animal companion, Oy]), Brady finds more pleasure in ultimately corrupting their minds. For him, there is a sickly sweet power in convincing his victims that suicide is their only option; it is an art for Brady — he understands that “[s]mall balloons of paranoia can be inflated until they are as big as floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

The entire conclusion of End of Watch also depends on time and timing: an impending snowstorm that is mentioned a good hundred pages prior to the conclusion looms in the background until the flakes eventually begin to fall and provide an obstacle for Bill and Holly in their attempt to end Brady’s life. This storm ultimately gives Brady the upper hand in dealing with his adversaries, until Jerome Robinson, in an extremely well-timed appearance with a beneficial tool at his disposal — a snowplow with a large blade in the front that deflects bullets — proves to be the deciding factor in the showdown between his friends and the suicide prince. Yet none of this could have happened if this final scene did not take place on Bill’s birthday: a loud and well-timed text from his daughter gives Bill and Holly, who had been taken hostage by Brady, enough of a distraction to escape their captor and, eventually, leave with their lives intact. Everything comes together because events and coincidences take place in the right places at the right times.

Even though there is a notable weakness in End of Watch because of these constant and seemingly clunky coincidences, and despite its heavy metatextual dependence upon familiarity with King’s earlier writings, the novel nonetheless stands up as an enjoyable read. As the end of this trilogy, everything is wrapped up neatly, and the Constant Reader will not be spending his or her time burning impatiently for more tales focused on Bill Hodges. The story is done, the good guys win (mostly), and while King may have become enslaved by a fixation on time, one cannot completely consider this work as a contrived and overly manipulated story; it is a narrative that may offer little supernatural magic, but there is something magical about looking back on the events of a life — whether real or fictional — and seeing just how beautifully everything comes together (for better or for worse).

¤

Patrick McAleer is the author of Inside the Dark Tower Series and The Writing Family of Stephen King. He is also the co-editor of two collections of essays on Stephen King: Stephen King’s Modern Macabre (with Michael Perry) and Stephen King’s Contemporary Classics (with Phil Simpson).

[Stockerlone]

Stephen King - Mind Control / End of Watch
German HC - Publisher Heyne
http://www.thedarktower.org/gallery/data/742/medium/PICT3809.JPG

[Randall Flagg]

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-bill-hodges-trilogy-or-timing-is-everything/

STEPHEN KING’S newest novel, End of Watch (the last book in the Bill Hodges trilogy), opens with a cliché — “It’s always darkest before the dawn” — and although this might be seen as a tired gesture made by a hack writer who possesses little creativity, clichés do, sometimes, have their place. For instance, the old truism “timing is everything” seems appropriate to End of Watch, not just because it offers a play on the title of the novel, but also because this particular cliché captures the essence of King’s newest book. Time is a crucial element here: there is a race against the clock that propels readers to find out if the hero, Bill Hodges, will be able to defeat his nemesis, Brady Hartsfield, before the latter sets off a dangerous chain of events. Time and memory are also vital because this book (and the entire trilogy) relies upon references to King’s earlier writing. Finally, time takes center stage because coincidence and serendipity combine with metatextual repetition to provide a narrative that gestures beyond cause and effect toward something more strange, elusive, and inexplicable.

King himself has noted that he finds it worthless to plan detailed outlines for his novels in advance — the story has to be organic, and any problems that his characters encounter cannot simply be resolved through some sort of deus-ex-machina intervention that would drive the Constant Reader (or, say, Annie Wilkes of Misery) insane. This suggests that coincidence, rather than divine intervention, populates King’s tales as a sort of narrative compromise. Coincidence, however, is not always a matter of mere chance. Most seeming coincidences can be traced back to origins in specific earlier moments; the conjunction of two apparently unrelated or unbelievable events can thus be seen as having an interconnected genesis. This lack of magic within End of Watch warrants observation, not because of the overall absence of magic within this text (there is actually quite a bit of magic that propels the story and its numerous coincidental threads toward the conclusion), but, rather, because it seems as if King has become enslaved, as an author, by his fixation upon the pervasive power of time and timing.

End of Watch shares key similarities with its predecessor Finders Keepers beyond a shared cast of characters. Finders Keepers, for example, echoes the plot of King’s earlier story The Shawshank Redemption; more specifically, the antagonist of Finders Keepers, Morris Bellamy, like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank, endures his prison sentence with the anticipation and excitement of knowing (or, rather, believing) that a hidden treasure (in this case, the uncollected notebooks of his favorite author) will be waiting for him outside the prison. In order for King to have written this book, he could not have done so without his previous work; without having previously explored the endurance of a prisoner and the power of obsession for “Number One Fans,” Finders Keepers would not be the book that it is. The same is also true of End of Watch. Just as King opens Needful Things with the statement “You’ve been here before,” the Constant Reader has watched timing and coincidence bring about the downfall of evil in King’s work long before Bill Hodges triumphs over Brady Hartsfield because of a single, serendipitous phone call. End of Watch is thus eerily similar to The Dead Zone, in which Johnny Smith attempts to assassinate the diabolical presidential candidate Greg Stillson: although Johnny fails in his assassination attempt, a fortunate and well-timed photograph showing Stillson using a child as a human shield to protect himself from Smith’s bullets serves as the crucial means of ensuring that Stillson will not become president.

The point here is that as King has noticeably “gone back to the well” with his last two novels, this might suggest that King is losing his edge, recycling old story lines and even milking the intertextual references that populate his works. Indeed, the blatant Easter egg of having Brady Hartsfield, the now semi-comatose Mercedes Killer from Mr. Mercedes (the first book of the Bill Hodges trilogy), reside in Room 217 of the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic of Kiner Memorial Hospital (a room number that has been familiar for King’s readers for almost 40 years) does not necessarily seem wholly inspired, especially since this reference would hardly have worked if not for King’s immense popularity and the extreme level of familiarity that his Constant Readers have with his prior writings. As such, it sometimes feels like King is becoming a slave to his previous references. Yet being a slave to history is not always a bad thing; to be sure, the Constant Reader has willingly revisited Castle Rock several times throughout King’s oeuvre, and the sense of familiarity offered by End of Watch could be considered comforting to the established reader.

One of the earliest examples of fortuitous timing in the novel occurs when Barbara Robinson endures a near-death experience. As the younger sister of Jerome Robinson, one of the people whom Brady Hartsfield blames for his current condition, Barbara becomes a target of Brady’s revenge when it turns out that Brady is not as brain-dead as everyone thinks. In fact, Brady has developed supernatural mental abilities that allow him to enter into the minds of individuals and influence them to take their own lives. Indeed, timing here is crucial to the development of the plot of End of Watch because Brady cannot reveal that he has recovered from his near-vegetative state — such a revelation would surely ruin his plans for revenge, especially against the individual at the top of his shitlist: Bill Hodges. Brady infiltrates Barbara’s mind while she is walking in the “black” part of town, and the timing of her presence in this location could not be any better for Brady. He begins to speak to her regarding her own identity as “blackish,” implying that she is an impure black woman (since Barbara comes from a stable and somewhat privileged home) and that she should be ashamed of her tainted ethnic identity stemming from her “white” privilege. These lines of persuasion ultimately shame Barbara and convince her to end it all by stepping into traffic — only to be saved by a young man who, coincidentally, found Barbara attractive and had his eyes on her as she walked into the street; moreover, this auspicious magnetism would have never occurred if not for a fire alarm at this heroic gentleman’s school that brought him to the same street where the vulnerable Barbara attempted to kill herself. Again, the critical and providential timing of this scene is a boon for Barbara, but it could be said that this is a burden for the reader since any sense of relief is erased because, arguably, King’s use of coincidence begins to become a bit overwhelming. Certainly, just as King’s story becomes a slave to timing, so too does the reader: such ostensibly predetermined movements appear to eliminate the spontaneity that is often expected and cherished within literature.

Again, there appear to be too many “coincidences” that line up too perfectly throughout the text and wrap the story up rather too neatly in several places. As already noted, Barbara Robinson is saved by a well-timed fire alarm at a school across town; additionally, Bill Hodges dies of pancreatic cancer at the end of the story, but not before he is able to see Brady Hartsfield die (and on Bill’s birthday no less, almost like how Bryan Smith, the man who ran down Stephen King in 1999, likely committed suicide on King’s birthday the following year). Bill’s death, as sad as it is, also possesses a fortuitous timing since he does not leave this world before his friend and business partner, Holly Gibney, almost completely learns to manage her extreme anxiety (which would have undoubtedly crippled her to the point of institutionalization had Bill died any earlier).

Furthermore, as Brady, the “suicide prince” (the original working title of this book), uses his newfound abilities to push people over the edge and commit suicide, he is aware that the timing of his persuasions and influences are critical and that, sometimes, orchestration is the true motor of coincidence. While Brady might, in theory, command the muscles of his potential victims by fully entering into their minds and controlling their bodies (an idea that owes a debt to King’s Dark Tower series, specifically via the characters Susannah Dean and Jake Chambers [and his animal companion, Oy]), Brady finds more pleasure in ultimately corrupting their minds. For him, there is a sickly sweet power in convincing his victims that suicide is their only option; it is an art for Brady — he understands that “[s]mall balloons of paranoia can be inflated until they are as big as floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

The entire conclusion of End of Watch also depends on time and timing: an impending snowstorm that is mentioned a good hundred pages prior to the conclusion looms in the background until the flakes eventually begin to fall and provide an obstacle for Bill and Holly in their attempt to end Brady’s life. This storm ultimately gives Brady the upper hand in dealing with his adversaries, until Jerome Robinson, in an extremely well-timed appearance with a beneficial tool at his disposal — a snowplow with a large blade in the front that deflects bullets — proves to be the deciding factor in the showdown between his friends and the suicide prince. Yet none of this could have happened if this final scene did not take place on Bill’s birthday: a loud and well-timed text from his daughter gives Bill and Holly, who had been taken hostage by Brady, enough of a distraction to escape their captor and, eventually, leave with their lives intact. Everything comes together because events and coincidences take place in the right places at the right times.

Even though there is a notable weakness in End of Watch because of these constant and seemingly clunky coincidences, and despite its heavy metatextual dependence upon familiarity with King’s earlier writings, the novel nonetheless stands up as an enjoyable read. As the end of this trilogy, everything is wrapped up neatly, and the Constant Reader will not be spending his or her time burning impatiently for more tales focused on Bill Hodges. The story is done, the good guys win (mostly), and while King may have become enslaved by a fixation on time, one cannot completely consider this work as a contrived and overly manipulated story; it is a narrative that may offer little supernatural magic, but there is something magical about looking back on the events of a life — whether real or fictional — and seeing just how beautifully everything comes together (for better or for worse).

¤

Patrick McAleer is the author of Inside the Dark Tower Series and The Writing Family of Stephen King. He is also the co-editor of two collections of essays on Stephen King: Stephen King’s Modern Macabre (with Michael Perry) and Stephen King’s Contemporary Classics (with Phil Simpson).


The >1,800 word review is even worse than the novel.
It might have been easier to say:
"King doesn't use a Deus ex machina one time, he uses it constantly (Constant Reader)"