mystery – Tony's Horror Corner

Review Time: “The Outsider”

“The Outsider” was my 67th Stephen King book, and it is his most recently published novel. It was an absolute thrill ride from start to finish. Ill warn you when spoilers are on the horizon.

Quick synopsis: Flint City (a fictional city in Oklahoma) detective Ralph Anderson makes an extremely public arrest of Terry Maitland. Terry is a very well-known and respected member of the community. He coaches little league baseball and football and works as an English teacher. Ralph arrested Terry for the brutal murder of a child.

DNA evidence and eye-witness accounts all point to Terry, but Terry claims he was in Cap City (another fictional city in Oklahoma) for a literary convention on the same day the murder occurred. Video evidence and statements from other teachers who were at the convention with Terry support his defense.

Ralph and his team are stuck with conflicting evidence and one impossible question: How can someone be in two places at once?

“The Outsider” was released just two months ago, (May 2018), but this 560-page thriller is an amazing and fast paced page turner. It felt like vintage King but also gave Constant Readers the new modern touch King has acquired.

The characters were amazing as usual, the story was tight, and the villain was great. A beautiful yet horrifying novel. It is the best novel King has put out since “11/22/63.” King takes some shots at Trump and even throws a diss out to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of “The Shining.”

Warning: Spoilers Below! Scroll to the bottom to see some future “Outsider” info and my rating, (you’ll see the “End Spoiler” marker).

Have you read “The Outsider” yet? If so, keep reading, if not, scroll down and why did you ignore the spoiler blocker??

So, if you’re here, I’m assuming you’ve read “The Outsider.” First, the description of the murder: BRUTAL. Second, as I said before, King’s usual amazing characters sucked me right in once again and, of course I was upset when a few died. Damn you King! (Just Kidding).

Third, the mystery King lays out is extremely intriguing, and the villain, the Outsider, El Cuco or El Cucuy, is one hell of a creep. He/she/it, is a sicko but is definitely up there on the list of my favorite King villains (hmmm maybe a future post). The back-story King weaved in is characteristically disturbing.

As usual, King ties in other stories, specifically the Hodges Trilogy, “Mr. Mercedes,” “Finders Keepers,” and “End Of Watch.” Holly Gibney, Bill Hodges protégé, is recruited to help Ralph Anderson in discovering how Maitland could have been in two places at once.

Holly, having dealt with the supernatural before with Brady Hartsfield, must convince Ralph that even the impossible can be reality. Holly relays the events of the Hodges trilogy to Ralph and his team, bringing up major nostalgic feelings for constant readers.

The final confrontation was a tad anticlimactic, but it also included one of the most terrifying scenes in the novel.

SPOILERS OVER, if you haven’t read “The Outsider,” do not read above, but feel free to read everything beyond this point.

“The Outsider” was heart-pounding, unique, creepy, and just downright amazing. It is so good; a TV adaptation is already in the works. Media Rights Capital, writer Richard Price, and executive producers Jack Bender and Marty Bowen are teaming up for a 10-episode series of the #1 bestseller.

MV5BMjQyNzYxOTMwN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDU2MTcwMzI@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,735,1000_AL_

Bender and Bowen worked together on the Mr. Mercedes series, the TV adaptation of King’s Hodges Trilogy. Richard Price is best known for his working writing for shows and movies like “The Wire,” “Sea of Love,” “Ransom,” and “The Color of Money.”

Anyway, this is a review, so to finish it off, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: my rating. It is a no-brainer and from what I’ve seen in other reviews, many agree.

Drumroll please…

5 out of 5

Review Time: “’Salem’s Lot”

I reread Stephen King’s second novel, “’Salem’s Lot,” and I am very glad I did. Here’s my review of my second trip to the Lot:

Talk about a creepy novel. I read “’Salem’s Lot” for the first time four years ago. At the time, it was my 4^thKing novel. I am on #64 (“Rose Madder”) now, so yeah, it was time to reread King’s classic Vampire tale and wow, am I glad I did.

“’Salem’s Lot” was the second novel King ever published. Released in 1975, this chilling 439 page novel tells the story of writer Ben Mears returning to his childhood hometown, Jerusalem’s Lot, looking for inspiration for his next novel.

While there, he learns two strangers have purchased the haunted Marsten House overlooking the town. Strange things start to happen around the Lot; dogs hang from funeral fences, people get sick and others go missing.

Ben falls in love with Susan Norton, befriends a Doctor: Jimmy Cody, a teacher: Matt Burke, a priest: Father Donald Callahan, and a young boy: Mark Petrie. Together they witness the destruction of their little Maine town and decide to fight back.

As usual, King’s characters are superb. Ben Mears is an excellent protagonist, and the amazing antagonist combo of Barlow and Straker are cunning and chilling.

Susan is a strong character although if King rewrote this book today, I’m sure he would do a better job making readers feel attached to her.

Matt Burke is possibly one of the most underrated and underappreciated characters King has ever written.

Dr. Jimmy Cody turns into a very likable and strong character, but King waited until over halfway through to bring Cody to the novel’s center.

Callahan is awesome. He’s a priest at the local Catholic Church in the Lot, and he ends up being a very brave and awesome character. *Spoiler* Callahan also makes an appearance in another King series. *End Spoiler*

Mark Petrie is a great character too. King has shown an uncanny ability to write strong younger characters, and Mark was truly the first of many.

King wrote an excellent Vampire tale here, and the slow burn he applies to readers throughout the novel’s entirety is incredible.

This is probably one of King’s scariest novels to date just by pure creepiness and suspense. You’ll be rocking goosebumps the whole time reading it.

The way King makes his constant readers feel like they are citizens of the town is amazing. He writes from the perspective of the entire Lot at times, giving quick glimpses into everyone’s lives; the good, the bad, the ugly, the innocent, and the sinister.

“’Salem’s Lot” has been adapted into two, three-hour TV movies. One in 1979 and another in 2004. Neither do the book justice (as expected), but they are both worth watching for different reasons.

The 1979 “’Salem’s Lot” was a very creepy film, a great horror movie itself, but overall a poor adaptation of the novel. The movie eliminated a lot of the characters and changed Matt’s name to Jason *(this pisses me off a lot more than it should, but COME ON why do that?? What is the reasoning for that??)*… sorry, rant over.

Anyway, the movie also turned Barlow into some weird, bald, blue creature which is just… wrong… creepy… but wrong. This movie gave us an awful Callahan which was lame too.

Overall the 1979 movie was creepy and definitely captured the atmosphere of the book, but the changes left me disappointed, so I give it a 6 out of 10.

The 2004 “’Salem’s Lot” stuck to the book a lot better than the original. Rob Lowe was an excellent Ben Mears in appearance only, and this movie actually kept Matt’s name (hallelujah). They did, however, change the beginning and ending which both weren’t great in the movie but were in the book (surprise surprise), so why change it you know?

We got a much better, more true Barlow and Callahan in the 2004 movie, but it was actually pretty boring at times and I never felt bored reading the novel, so there was definitely a disconnect somewhere. Overall it was a decent adaptation but a cheesy and boring film so I gave it a 6 out of 10 also.

Anyway, back to the important matter here; the incredible novel:

I absolutely loved King’s take on vampires and the slow burn was the perfect way to write it. He even wrote prequel and sequel short stories to “’Salem’s Lot” in his 1977 collection of short stories, “Night Shift.” “Jerusalem’s Lot” tells the tale of the Lot’s haunted past while “One for the Road” tells readers a story only a few months after the events of “’Salem’s Lot.”

I have “’Salem’s Lot” ranked 7^th in my Stephen King rankings, and the reread only solidified that position. This is truly a masterpiece and I highly recommend everyone check it out.

5 out of 5

Review Time: “Dolores Claiborne”

I finished my 63rd Stephen King novel in only three days. Here is my review for the beautiful testimonial novel “Dolores Claiborne:”

“A person can always find something to be grateful for, no matter how dark things get.” – Dolores Claiborne.

Dolores Claiborne lives on Little Tall Island in Maine with her husband Joe and three children, Selena, Joe Jr. and Pete. Dolores is a housemaid and caretaker for the wealthy Vera Donovan.

Dolores has worked for Vera for a long time, but at the start of the novel, we learn Vera has fallen down the steps of her home and died. Dolores has been accused of murder.

This 305-page novel released in 1992, takes place mostly in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s with some bits in the 1990’s.

The novel was adapted into a film in 1995 starring Kathy Bates as Dolores. Kathy also portrayed another strong (yet psycho) woman in the adaptation of King’s novel “Misery.”

The film was very good. There were some major differences from the novel, but nothing that took away from the overall story.

Kathy bates was a PERFECT Dolores Claiborne. I love Kathy in everything she does, and both King adaptations I’ve seen her in, she has absolutely nailed. Jennifer Jason Leigh played adult Selena and she did a great job too.

Overall the movie was good and gives readers a nice visual for the novel. I’d recommend checking it out. (After you read the book though!)

Back to the novel:

“Dolores Claiborne” is written like a testimony. Dolores Claiborne’s testimony to prove her innocence. The first 301 pages are written in what almost feels like one breath. No chapters and no real pauses or stopping points. Its Dolores talking, and members of the Little Tall Police Department listening and recording.

The last four pages are clippings from newspapers describing events as an epilogue to Dolores’s story.

The narration may seem weird or almost boring, and it did take me a few pages to get into it, but I quickly came to appreciate it. I mean REALLY appreciate it. King was able to write his usual vivid descriptions and amazing characters but all through Dolores.

Not only were the descriptions and characters amazing, but the story was incredible as well.

!!!!!SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

The testimony is split into thirds. The first third is about Dolores’s time taking care of Vera, who at this point is an old woman that frequently soils herself and has horrible nightmares and visions of dust bunnies preparing to attack her.

The second third is about Dolores’s life with her abusive, selfish, drunk husband Joe St. George. In this section of the testimony, Dolores confesses and describes how she killed him.

Dolores Claiborne is a certified badass.

She grew up fighting and working hard for everything. She married Joe straight out of high school and had three children with him. After marriage she learned Joe wasn’t the pretty-boy she had thought.

One night, Joe hit Dolores across the back extra hard and she decided she’d had enough of that and broke a creamer jar over his head… Joe never hit her again.

The hitting stopped, but Joe began to manipulate their daughter Selena and started to force himself on her. Dolores finally saw the signs just before it was too late and again stood up to Joe and got him to stop.

Joe went behind Dolores’s back and took the money from the college accounts of all three children and transferred it to an account in his name only. Dolores learned of his thievery and decided she’d had enough of Joe St. George… period.

“Sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.” – Vera Donovan

She plotted to kill him and kill him she did. Her plan occurred and succeeded on July 20^th, 1963, the night of the full solar eclipse. The same eclipse another King character experiences on her father’s lap in the 1991 novel “Gerald’s Game.”

“Gerald’s Game” is another great and disturbing novel with a strong female lead. It was adapted into a very good movie on Netflix in 2017 by director Mike Flanagan. Flanagan recently signed on to direct the film adaptation of “Doctor Sleep,” King’s sequel to “The Shining.”

Sorry, I got side-tracked again, back to Dolores:

Dolores has visions of this character, this little girl named Jessie, during the eclipse. King masterfully and very subtly ties in the two novels together through overlapping themes and the eclipse.

After the death of Joe, Dolores is freed, but she loses the love and trust of her daughter.

In the last third of the novel, Dolores tells the story of the day Vera died and how she was pegged as a murderer even though she was innocent. The similarities between Vera and Dolores and the secrets each has lived with add some nice little twists during the novel’s conclusion.

The novel was short and easy to read but beautiful. Like I said earlier, Dolores Claiborne is a certified badass. King knows how to write strong female characters and showed it here.

I actually really enjoyed the testimonial narration and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this novel. I highly recommend you check it out.

“In the end, it’s the bitches of the world who abide… and as for the dust bunnies: frig ya!” – Dolores Claiborne.

4 out of 5

Review Time: “Cell”

“Cell” was my 62nd Stephen King novel. It was quick and pretty interesting but didn’t have enough to make it great for me.

A signal known as The Pulse is released through all cellphones into the brains of everyone who uses them. This signal drives the victims insane, making them primal.

“Cell” was released in 2006. This 350-page novel is King’s unique twist on zombies. As usual, King weaves in a very intriguing story with some incredible characters as well as an extremely creepy villain, Raggedy Man.

This novel had a very fun, very exciting start. Lots of gore, lots of action, lots of suspense.

The middle of “Cell” was a bit dry for me. It had a lot of explanations that played in later, but the actual events flew by almost too quickly. King, usually a very descriptive writer, decided to give an almost synopsis-like depiction of the characters journey from place to place.

The main character and main protagonist, Clay Riddell, a striving comic artist, was leaving a meeting in Boston where his artwork for a comic called “The Dark Wanderer” (sound familiar?) was just purchased, when The Pulse happened.

Clay does not own a cellphone. He makes friends and quickly gets out of Boston and heads north in search of his son.

Clay is easy to love. He is humorous, smart, and determined. The friends he makes along the way are great too. Specifically, Jordan. Like I said, King is great with characters.

“Cell” had plenty of moments where King would slow it down and spend some time in one area, and those moments were always awesome. Gaiten Academy, where we meet Jordan, being a personal highlight for me.

Jordan is a loyal and extremely smart young boy attending Gaiten Academy. He also didn’t own a cellphone but is a computer genius of sorts. Jordan’s character quickly became a favorite of mine due to his strength, courage, and brains. His theories on the phone crazies prove to be very useful and important.

Gaiten is also where we first see the creepy torn up leader of the phone crazies: Raggedy Man.

King does what everyone knows he’s good at: describing someone who will haunt you. Raggedy Man is that someone. He is a phone crazy but seems more aware. His physical description alone is creepy as hell, but some of his actions really made his scenes scary.

The end though… WOW. King packed a HUGE punch. The whole Kashwak scene was just INSANE! Talk about going out with a bang. The last few pages could have been done differently, but overall, I actually sort of liked the cliff-hanger.

“Cell” was adapted into a movie, starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, released in 2016. I watched it shortly after finishing the novel…

I wasted 97 minutes of my life.

Within the first five minutes of the film I was already angered. Changing small details that didn’t need to be changed, the effects were poor for a 21^st century movie, and the acting was Cheetoh’s level cheesy.

Don’t waste your time on the movie but do read the book. The book is at least cool.

“Cell” was pretty good, it just wasn’t great. I talked to a few people who follow my Stephen King Instagram page and discussed my issues. The last 100 pages or so made it better for me.

It felt like “The Stand’s” little cousin, but not nearly as good. There were a few “Dark Tower” nods that made me smile but the novel probably could have used another 100 pages and it would have been great.

This does seem to be a novel that people either love or hate, so read it and find out for yourself.

In the end, I give “Cell” a 3 out of 5, but it is a high 3… would probably be about a 7 out of 10 if we’re getting technical.

3 Out Of 5

Review Time: “Insomnia”

WOW “Insomnia” was my 61st Stephen King book and it’s the first one I am writing an official review for. So, here goes nothing:

READ THIS NOVEL

There, review done. Just kidding. Seriously though, read it. Preferably after you’ve read “IT” and “The Dark Tower” series.

“Insomnia” takes place in the fictional Maine town of Derry, where “IT” is set. “Insomnia” has a lot of references to the 1986 novel and it’s also pretty much a “Dark Tower” novel without having “The Dark Tower” in the title.

“In some ways – a lot of ways, actually – Derry wasn’t like other places.”

This novel quickly, slid itself into my top 5 King books (I will make a post about my King rankings soon). The “IT” and “Dark Tower” references alone made this an above average King book, but those weren’t even the half of it. After finishing, and wiping the tears off my face, I stared at my ceiling for a good ten minutes just digesting it.

Needless to say, I didn’t pick up my next read, “Cell,” until after a few days, and I still can’t stop thinking about “Insomnia.” The last time I had to do that with a King novel was after the “The Dark Tower” series finale.

“Insomnia” left me speechless. The book had EVERYTHING. King was like a witch throwing ingredients into a cauldron. He threw in a dash of horror, a little fantasy, a bit of drama, some politics, a touch of violence, a lot of emotion, a triple dose of excitement, and a whole lot of suspense. As usual, the characters and descriptions were superb.

This 787-page giant hit shelves in 1993. 787 pages seems like a lot, and there are a few instances where King seems to drone on or dialogue just crawls, but in all honesty, every word is necessary. Throughout the entire novel I never found myself anywhere close to boredom.

Quick synopsis: Ralph Roberts, the 70-year-old protagonist of the novel, begins to suffer from insomnia following the death of his wife. Ralph begins to see auras surrounding his neighbors. Little does he know these auras have a deeper meaning and they’re not just pretty colors

!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!

Alright, here’s where the real review comes in *insert sly smile emoji here.*
Like I said before, I can imagine King just pulling snippets from every genre and every book he has written and sprinkling pieces into “Insomnia.” Okay, maybe not every book, but a few of them.

King made me cry within the first 100 pages describing the death of, Ralph’s, wife, even though we as readers had little to no interaction with her. Seriously how does he do it? Pretty sure I cried three times throughout this novel, so we’re not done with the water works yet.

Later Ralph has a confrontation with a neighbor who is spouting nonsense about colors, little bald doctors and the Crimson King… YEAH, THE CRIMSON FREAKING KING!

Ralph starts suffering from insomnia and begins seeing auras (colors) around people. He soon discovers these colors correspond to moods or intentions. Each aura has what Ralph describes as a balloon string, attached to the head.

The descriptions King puts into Ralph’s visions are so vivid. I absolutely loved reading these. Some people who weren’t fans of the novel describe them as acid trips. Now, I’ve never done acid so I wouldn’t know, but I found these visions to be very cool and honestly beautiful.

Ralph sees three little bald guys (doctors) and had a lengthy 45+ page discussion with two of them. He names the doctors after the three Fates in Greek Mythology. Clotho and Lachesis, who serve The Purpose, and Atropos, who serves The Random.

The Purpose is where everyone has a designated time of death and Clotho and Lachesis will show up, cut your balloon string and send you to your death peacefully. Atropos on the other hand, slices the string and you die in some sort of random act of violence, tragedy or accident: The Random.

“We are all bound together by the Purpose. That’s ka-tet, which means one made of many.”

The Crimson King has been working on Ralph’s neighbor for years and influenced him to go against the Purpose and Random and fly a plane, with a bomb inside, into the Derry Civic Center where a pro-women’s rights activist is speaking to a crowd of 2000+.

King sprinkles in large amounts of pro/anti-abortion and pro/anti-women’s rights political arguments throughout “Insomnia.” The politics are often cited as an area of complaint for some, but to me, they made the novel feel grounded and real.

Anyway, the Crimson King doesn’t care about pro or anti-women’s rights. He cares about a 4-year-old boy who got dragged to the convention center with his mother. This boy is Patrick Danville. Patrick is destined to save the life of a man trying to get into the Dark Tower.

For “Dark Tower” fans, this is the same Patrick Danville from the 7th “Dark Tower”, and the man he is destined to save? Yeah, that’s Roland. Crazy right? I mean I was absolutely mind-blown.

Little Patrick sits inside the civic center drawing a picture while the activist is speaking. His picture is of Roland outside the Dark Tower with the Crimson King at the top. I can’t even express how excited I was reading that passage. OH MY GOD.

“His name is Roland, Mama. I dream about him, sometimes. Him’s a King, too.” – Patrick Danville.

Before the Civic Center we get a mini adventure into the depths of Derry through a little cave at the base of a tree: Atropos’ lair. Here we see a maze of all the trophies he collects from those he kills, one of which is little Gage Creed’s shoe… yeah I got a bit misty reading that passage.

Anyway, Ralph redirects the plane saving Patrick and defeating the Crimson King… for now. Ralph marries his neighbor and they live happily for a few more years… until Ralph gets hit by a car while saving a little girl. COME ON, KING, WHY?!?!?! Yeah, I bawled. I mean cried my freakin’ eyes out.

Sorry this review got a little lengthy but “Insomnia” is THAT good. All I want to do is talk about it, and I hope when you read it, you’ll feel the same way. King is incredible and once again delivers a beauty.

5 out of 5

Stephen King’s poem “The Bone Church” to be adapted for TV

The next few years are shaping up to be pretty exciting for Stephen King fans after the rights to his narrative poem “The Bone Church,” were picked up by Cedar Park Entertainment. It looks like we’ll be seeing King’s name on our TVs or computer screens once again.

“If you want to hear, buy me another drink. …There were thirty-two of us went into that greensore, Thirty days in the green and only three who rose above it.”

Chris Long and David Ayer, founders of Cedar Park Entertainment, acquired the rights to Stephen King’s narrative poem “The Bone Church.” Long and Ayer plan to turn the eight-page poem into a TV series.

Chris Long is no stranger to King’s work. He was an executive producer on Audience Network’s adaptation of “Mr. Mercedes.” Long was programming chief at Audience for 18 years but left to form Cedar Park with Ayer.

David Ayer is best known for his work directing the DC comics film “Suicide Squad” as well as the hit Netflix movie “Bright.” After “Bright’s” success, Ayer signed a deal with Netflix to direct and write “Bright 2.”

v1.bTsxMjU3NzQzODtqOzE3NjUwOzEyMDA7MTUwMDsyMjIy

Stephen King wrote “The Bone Church” in the 1960s but didn’t publish it until 2009 in “Playboy Magazine.” The poem was later revised and republished in his 2015 short story collection “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.”

“The Bone Church” is a tale of a drunk man telling a story about when he and 31 other explorers trekked into the jungle in search of the mythic Bone Church. Throughout the story, the narrator asks for more drinks and describes the deaths of every traveler except himself and two others. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 29 deaths.

As a poem, “The Bone Church,” is a different read but the style doesn’t take away from the creepy nature of the tale. This eight-page poem is guaranteed to give you chills. It is just one of 20 short stories in the “Bazaar of Bad Dreams” anthology. Other notable stories include:

“Ur” about a mysterious pink Kindle that contains books, newspapers, and other written works from other dimensions, and the future. This tale even has some connections to King’s magnum opus, “The Dark Tower.”
“Obits” is another good one about a young man who discovers he can kill people by writing their obituaries prematurely.
In “Mile 81” a young boy explores an abandoned rest stop and discovers a car that eats people. Sounds silly, I know, but it has little hints of King’s other car related novels, “Christine” and “From a Buick 8.”

Almost every story in “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” is a hit and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some others getting their own adaptations soon.

“The Bone Church” joins a long list of King stories set to hit TV screens or movies theaters:

“Castle Rock” debuts this summer.
“IT” part one was a huge success in September 2017. Part two begins filming this summer.
In January, Mike Flanagan, director of the adaptation of King’s novel “Gerald’s Game,” signed on to adapt “Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to King’s famous novel “The Shining.”
“Mr. Mercedes” season one was a huge hit. Season two began filming in February.
The rights to a re-adaptation of King’s famous novel (and my personal favorite) “Pet Sematary” were picked up by Paramount in December 2017. The new movie is slated for an April 19, 2019 release.
Last, but certainly not least, following the film’s flop in the summer of 2017, “The Dark Tower” will be rebooted for TV thanks to Amazon.

In case I lost you up there, here is a list of the novels and short stories. These should get you ready for the adaptations out currently and all the hopefully amazing movies and TV shows we will see in the coming years!

“The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” (2015) (495 pages) (Collection of short stories)
- “The Bone Church” (8 pages) (no release date for TV show yet)
“IT” (1986) (1138 pages) (TV movie 1990) (film 2017, part one. 2019, part two)
“Gerald’s Game” (1992) (332 pages) (film 2017)
“Mr Mercedes” (2014) (436 pages) (TV show 2017)
- “Finders Keepers” (2015) (431 pages) (season 2 of Mr. Mercedes set for 2019)
- “End of Watch” (2016) (429 pages)
“The Shining” (1977) (447 pages) (Film 1980) (TV movie 1997)
“Doctor Sleep” (2013) (529 pages) (presumable 2019 or 2020 release)
“Pet Sematary” (1983) (374 pages) (film 1989) (remake 2019)
“The Dark Tower” (series of 8 novels) (1981-2004) (over 4000 pages) (film 2017) (TV show coming soon on Amazon)

You should know by now what I am about to say: read the books before seeing the movies or watching the shows! I know there is a lot of material listed there, but you can do it. Some were listed in previous posts anyway, so you should have a head start… right?

Buckle Up: “Mr. Mercedes” Season Two Begins Filming

Filming for the second season of the “Mr. Mercedes” series began on the 12th, so get your copies of Stephen King’s “Bill Hodges Trilogy” now.

Season two of the hit TV series “Mr. Mercedes” started filming on February 12, in Charleston, South Carolina. “Mr. Mercedes” is based on Stephen King’s murder mystery and suspense thriller series known as the “Bill Hodges Trilogy.”

Season one of “Mr. Mercedes” was adapted from the first novel (obviously) in the series, titled (you guessed it) “Mr. Mercedes.” The 10-episode series aired in 2017 on the Audience network, owned by AT&T.

Audience? Yes, I was confused at first too, but I found it and it was totally worth it! The show is not only one of the most accurate adaptations of a King novel, but everything about it was superb.

“Mr. Mercedes” garnered an 8.1/10 rating on IMDb and an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Those are both really good numbers in case you didn’t know.

The show is directed by Jack Bender who has worked on the shows “Lost” and “Game of Thrones” (yeah nothing big). David E. Kelley adapted the story for television, and Stephen King himself co-produced the show with Kelley and Bender. King even makes a little cameo in one episode.

“Mr. Mercedes” is a dark and twisted thrill ride. A psychopath drives a stolen Mercedes through a group of people waiting in line to get jobs, killing 8 of them and injuring countless others.

Retired Detective Bill Hodges played by the one and only Brendan Gleeson, decides to come out of retirement when he receives threatening emails from the “Mercedes Killer” aka Brady Hartsfield, played by Harry Treadaway. The emails contain the wacky smiley faces you have seen and will see.

Brady, clearly mentally unstable, but extremely smart, taunts Hodges into a manhunt. Hodges enlists the help of his young neighbor Jerome Robinson, played by Jharrel Jerome, and Holly Gibney, played by Justine Lupe. Holly is a relative of the women whose Mercedes Brady stole. Together, the three gather clues and attempt to find Brady before he can kill again.

20768155_470061530018536_1014292855984262889_n-2

Book two of the Bill Hodges Trilogy, presumably what season 2 of the show will be based on, is titled “Finders Keepers.”

In “Finders Keepers,” another psychopath (see a theme?) named Morris Bellamy, kills a famous author he was obsessed with, (a little reminiscent of King’s famous novel and movie, “Misery.”), and steals money from the authors safe as well as notebooks of unpublished novels. Bellamy buries the money and notebooks in a chest underneath a tree but before he can reap the rewards of his heist, he gets arrested and placed in jail for a different crime.

Years later, Pete Saubers finds Bellamy’s chest and uses the money to help his family recover from the financial hole they were in after Pete’s father was injured during the Mercedes Massacre (from “Mr. Mercedes”).

Bellamy gets released from jail and returns to dig up his chest, only to find it missing (Obviously he’s not happy). Meanwhile, Hodges, Holly and Jerome have started a private investigation company called Finders Keepers. They are called upon to help protect Pete and his family from Morris, who wants the contents of his chest back.

As I said before, filming for season two just started, so it is not yet known who will portray the new characters. Gleeson, Jerome, Lupe, and Treadaway are all set to reprise their roles, and Bender, Kelley and King are all producing/directing/writing season two as well.

Book three, and the final novel of the “Bill Hodges Trilogy” is called “End Of Watch,” (maybe, hopefully, there is a season three in our future?).

In the previous two novels, King surprised fans with a lack of anything supernatural, opting instead to thrill the readers with suspense, amazing and deranged characters, and intense storytelling.

In “End Of Watch,” however, we see King comfortably and seamlessly insert supernatural aspects and marry them with what worked for the previous novels. Brady Hartsfield has developed the ability to transfer his consciousness into other humans and electronic objects.

The members of Finders Keepers; Hodges, Holly and Jerome, are back and investigating a series of suicides around the (fictional) city of Bridgton, Ohio (where the previous novels also took place). The trail leads the three to a final showdown that has readers on the edge of their seats throughout the entire novel.

The final novel in the “Bill Hodges Trilogy” has a different feel from the first two, because of the supernatural aspects, but King is still able to keep it as intense and believable as he did with the first two… and book three may even bring a few tears out of you.

Anyway, before I get into too many spoilers, read the books! There are only three, and they aren’t even big! You will tear through them, I promise. After you read them, watch Mr. Mercedes season one and then get yourself ready for season two, and hopefully season three in the future! Remember, “The books are almost always better than the movie.” Or in this case, show.