Mr. Mercedes

A Novel

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

2015 Audie Award Finalist for Fiction and Solo Narration—Male

In a mega-stakes, high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely and winning heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands.

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the "perk" and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

©2014 Stephen King (P)2014 Simon & Schuster

holds your attention

generally can't go wrong with Stephen King. this is no exception. Narrator did a very good job

Great book

King keeps them coming, and this is just another future classic. Audio performance was pretty good.

Riveting!!

King is always fantastic, but this is a different take for him. What makes this amazing book even better is a stellar performance from that narrator who embodies the lead character.
An absolute winner!

Holly Gibney amazing!

I read The Outsider and If It Bleeds first so I had an idea who Brady Hartsfield was and the events that took place in this novel but I wasn’t prepared to absolutely fall in love with Bill Hodges and Jerome Robinson. Jerome is a supporting character in If It Bleeds and Holly’s got her own book now called appropriately Holly which I will read after the sequels to Mr. Mercedes- Finders Keepers and End of Watch.
This book literally kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I enjoyed it. I’ll keep this spoiler free but I will say, there are some very disturbing content of this book so a trigger warning should be mentioned. 5 stars!

Love this narrator

Love this narrator! Read the Holly series and this gives more background into those, love the characters!

Great

Exciting on the edge of my seat could not put it down the Uthor did it again

Great reading, great story, great characters

Narrator was awesome. He was also awesome as a narrator for The Mist! Overall a solid book and performance.

I miss Frank Muller

Will Patton is imprinted on my brain as the voice of James Lee Burke. He does a fine job with Stephen King as well. But oh my, do I miss Frank Muller.

Well read but a little too predictable

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes but not enthusiastically and with caveats not to expect Kings best.

Would you recommend Mr. Mercedes to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes but not enthusiastically and with caveats not to expect Kings best.

What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration adds depth and personality to the characters.

Any additional comments?

This is a little too predictable for Stephen King, granted there are a few good plot twists, but a lot of predictability. Ending is very anticlimactic for King. Not his best, but not his worst either. I do not regret listening.

Solid mystery

Which character – as performed by Will Patton – was your favorite?

I liked his take on the two main characters, Hodges and Brady. He failed a bit for me with some of the female characters, not least of which because touches of their voices were reminiscent of Brady (the villain) and I started to sort of hear Bill Murray's Caddyshack voice for some of the ladies.

Any additional comments?

This isn't King's best book, but he sets the standard so high it isn't really fair to hold him to it. It is a very solid mystery, with nicely realized characters (both heros and a villain), and he lets those characters interact and be entertaining and make mistakes. You always have the feeling things will turn out all right in the end, so you don't get that existential dread that many of King's supernaturally adjacent books have. That might be a negative, as you don't feel things as keenly, or a positive, as you can just enjoy the snappy dialog and climactic encounter. This book could easily stand alone, but knowing it continues and concludes as a trilogy (and knowing the third book is supposed to bring in that classic King-sian horror/supernatural twist) definitely makes me curious to pick up the next two books. Definitely recommended for those who like their King in doses smaller than a doorstop, who are not TOO creeped out by mother/son romance, and who can handle blue language.