Mr. Mercedes: A police thriller with a little big touch of Stephen King

Much has been said in this blog (well, not really, but I do say it all the time) about the fact that Stephen King is more than a mere horror novelist. To me that’s just as false as pigs being able to fly. In Mr. Mercedes, Mr. King shows us all what he is capable of in the land of police thrillers, applying his own quality touch to a detective story. A retired police officer versus a mass killer in the making: is there any better pen for this one than King’s?

That’s an easy question. And the answer is no, probably not. Because of the way he develops each character, because of the way he leads us into the story (from both perspectives, police and criminal) and somehow he manages to keep a high suspense level. And there’s a new thing that surprised me even more: the present tense. The novel is written in the present tense, a narrative resource that SK had never used before. And I think that, given the whole idea of the plot, that little detail was more than a half court buzzer beater. You know, when they say that the devil is in the details, King was probably there already waiting for him.

Apart from the fact that the story doesn’t waste time getting to the point, which is pretty alluring, being told by the both sides (police, Bill Hodges, and mass murderer, Brady Hartsfield) does help to build the momentum. Specially towards the end. It’s not something new in a King novel for the villain to be someone that you can talk to everyday. Well, there’s enough proof in real life stories that is not easy to see a serial killer coming, that it could be your neighbor. However, there’s something in this specific book that goes beyond that. In some way, it reminded me of an earlier short story by SK called “Morning deliveries” (published in King’s 1985 collection ‘Skeleton Crew’), about a milkman that leaves poison in the milk bottles for his customers to drink. In Mr. Mercedes, it’s the ice-cream guy.

It’s hard for me to find a weak spot on this one, you know, being a SK fan and all. But I can easily imagine how this book may not appeal to long time King readers. First of all, it doesn’t bring anything supernatural to the table. Nothing. None. No freaky clowns, no vampires, no werewolves, no aliens, no devil, no other dimension creatures... You may be expecting for it to happen (like it certainly does in ‘Revival’, for example), but that’s as far as you’ll get in that regard. Also, if you want to get picky about it, you could argue that the plot is nothing but a common detective story. Nevertheless, I think it’s the combination of that and King’s storytelling versatility that end up in a really nice story. Actually, the beginning of a trilogy. Oh, yeah. 

I have said it so many times already that I’m gonna have to find different ways to do it in order not to become too repetitive; Stephen King certainly can write pretty well in whatever genre he wants and don’t give a heck about it. That’s it. Mr. Mercedes is a very good novel, with depth characters development, entertaining and, most importantly, that SK touch that makes everything better.

My rating for the book: 4 stars. 

More of Stephen King in this blog: Revival, Doctor Sleep, Rage (in Spanish).