‘Finders Keepers’ by Stephen King

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

Obsessed with the books of author John Rothstein, Morris Bellamy breaks into the writer’s house with a view to stealing a stash of notebooks that could contain an as-yet unpublished novel. Years later, as Bellamy is coming to the end of a jail sentence, schoolboy Pete Saubers discovers the notebooks in a trunk hidden within the roots of a tree. As well as the notebooks, Pete finds a pile of money and decides to use it to help his struggling family. Unfortunately, when Bellamy gets out of prison, he wants the notebooks  back…

This is the second book in the Bill Hodges series, which also features Holly Gibney. The story follows on from Mr Mercedes, though it works fine as a standalone. Now running a detective agency, Bill and Holly are asked to investigate the possibility that Pete Saubers knows something about the money donated to his family.

I particularly liked how King uses one of his regular tricks—making one of the characters a writer—to show examples of that person’s work. The trick works better in books like Misery but it’s always interesting to see how he comes up with ‘excerpts’ from a fictional author. While Finders Keepers is a great story, I’d say it didn’t grab me as much as the first book. Nevertheless, the characters and their various dilemmas keep the plot moving along at a steady pace and the final section races to a thrilling conclusion.

Another great read from a great author.

Back to the Blog