Let me just say that probably due to Covid, this was the weakest book in the Finders Keepers detective series repertoire by Stephen King and also one of the few Stephen King audiobooks where I’ve skipped some content parts as I simply do not care for US Trump complaints, political complaints or any other type of Stephen King agendas that showed how unsatisfied he was with the election.

• Finders Keepers * Stephen King Book Review
• Stephen King – The Outsider (Finders Keepers)
• End of Watch (The Bill Hodges Trilogy Book 3) – Stephen King
• Stephen King – If It Bleeds
• Mr. Mercedes * Stephen King

I’ve “known” Holly as a side-character in most of the Bill Hodges series and while she becomes a more prominent figure in the later novels, in this one she carries the burden on her own. She’s still anxious, still has the occasional panic attacks but you get to see who she was as a child, with her overbearing mother who now dies of Covid because she refused to get vaccinated and shows that she both tried to crumple her daughter’s business but also cared enough to keep her young life poems and poetry she’s written.

The main bulk of the story revolves around disgusting tea tastings, a wheelchair bound couple, some raw meat and a SAW like monitoring environment and missing kids.

What I liked about the book were the bad guys. Completely unexpected Trumps. The octogenarians are a cute, devoted, eloquent couple of semi-retired academics who don’t shy away from social situations. They’re also racist and homophobic, and that’s not the worst of it — the worst happens in their basement.

The Covid-19 pandemic, racism and homophobia, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Donald Trump’s effect on the country’s zeitgeist and political discourse are all very present in the narrative, which mostly takes place in 2021 (jumping back and forth during that year) but also goes back in time to show Rodney and Emily Harris’ history of atrocities.

And booster vaccines are coming. First for people with bad immune systems and people over sixty-five, but I’m hearing at school that by fall it’ll be everyone.’ ‘That sounds right,’ Holly says. ‘And bonus! Trump’s gone.’ Leaving behind a country at war with itself, Holly thinks. And who’s to say he won’t reappear in 2024? She thinks of Arnie’s promise from The Terminator: ‘I’ll be back.”

I gave the book 2 stars as I enjoyed the gruesome tea intro scene mid-way through the book where a young poet is looking to get an introduction through one of the killers to have a mentor and while the scene is pleasant from the outside, the sparkly eyes of the octagenarian and the comments about the tea and about the author’s race made it very uncomfortable to read through – the poem she chose was a story of a struggle but not because of her Black heritage but because she ran into a real killer. Not everything is about race.

Good Points: Decent horror, some cannibalism, kidnapping and murder. Good friendly story about parenting and deceptive tactics used by overbearing parents. TRISTIS PUELLA – the room of a sad girl. That really made me laugh a bit. When Holly was describing her life, her posters, her bed, everything screamed no friends and a very sad life. She was thinking how anthropologists would see her life and how they would name it in their books – TRISTIS PUELLA.

Bad points:

Covid goes against the plot development and slows everything right down. I don’t want to read about someone who forgot to put on their face mask and how the world is nasty for spreading germs.

Just when you think you’ve seen the worst human beings have to offer, you find out you’re wrong

He mentions masks/covid/sanitizer/elbow salute/vaccination and double vaccination so may times, you feel like you are reading a guidebook on how to prevent catching Covid and the terrible consequences if you don’t mask/vax. We have all been there and have lived that shit… have washed our hands millions of times a day, put masks and double masks, vaxxed and talked to people about Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca Vaccines. I don’t want to be reminded of it in a crime/mystery fiction every step of the way.

COVID is mentioned 78 times (every 5.5 pages)
Mask is mentioned 63 times (every 7 pages)
Trump mentioned 14 times (every 31 pages)
Vaxxed mentioned 13 times (every 34 pages)

Partially DNF (skipped through a lot)