Finders Keepers (2015) · Author: Stephen King · Series: Bill Hodges Trilogy #2 · Genre: Crime/Thriller · Audiobook · Preceded by Mr. Mercedes, followed by End of Watch

Stephen King's Finders Keepers is the second volume in the Bill Hodges trilogy, and it is a blast — an awesome thriller I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. If this had been a physical book, it would have been a page-turner in the truest sense. I could not stop listening.

The setup: In 1978, petty criminal Morris Bellamy breaks into the home of John Rothstein — a reclusive literary giant, an amalgam of Updike, Roth and Salinger — and murders him for a fortune in cash and a trove of unpublished notebooks featuring the legendary Jimmy Gold character. Morris buries the treasure, then lands in prison for a life sentence. Thirty-five years later, teenager Pete Saubers stumbles on the buried trunk in his own backyard and begins anonymously saving his struggling family with the cash — while falling in love with Rothstein's lost stories. When Morris is finally paroled, he comes looking for what is his, and retired detective Bill Hodges, with Holly Gibney in tow, gets pulled into a collision between a fanatical reader and a desperate kid.

What works: King plays one of his favorite games here — the dangerous relationship between a writer and an obsessed reader — with echoes of Misery. Morris Bellamy is a genuinely chilling antagonist: a reader so possessive of a fictional character that he will kill for him. The dual timeline keeps the tension wound tight, and the middle-section shift to Pete's perspective turns the book into a lean, propulsive thriller. Hodges and Gibney — that very appealing trio of crime-solvers from Mr. Mercedes — are back and as good as ever; Holly in particular is a gift that keeps giving across this trilogy.

The verdict: This is King at his most readable — expertly plotted, funny when it wants to be, and flat-out gripping when it needs to be. The New York Times called it a page-turner and so do I. It sits comfortably as the best book in the Hodges trilogy for many readers, and it's easy to see why. If you liked Mr. Mercedes, do not skip this one.

Rating: 4.5/5 — a thoroughly entertaining thriller and a standout King listen.