Mr. Mercedes (novel)
Mr. Mercedes is a crime novel by Stephen King . The book was published on June 3, 2014 and represents the first part of the Bill Hodges trilogy , which was continued with Finderlohn (2015) and Mind Control (2016).
action
A queue of unemployed people is waiting in front of a job fair when suddenly a gray Mercedes rushes into the crowd, killing eight people and seriously injuring several. Bill Hodges, a recently retired detective (= simple detective), receives a letter from a mysterious person who claims to be responsible for the incident and who calls himself "Mr. Mercedes".
Divorced, lonely, and suicidal, Hodges often contemplates suicide . The incident with the Mercedes killer took place near the end of his career and was still unresolved at the time of his retirement. The ominous Mr. Mercedes knows details of the murder case and also mentions Olivia Trelawney, from whom he apparently stole the Mercedes. Olivia had committed suicide shortly after the incident because she felt guilty. Hodges continues to investigate the case instead of leaving it to his former police colleague Pete Huntley.
Brady Hartsfield, who turns out to be the person behind the name Mr. Mercedes, is a psychopath in his late twenties who lost his father at the age of eight. As a young boy, he killed his mentally disabled brother on the orders of his mother. Since then he has lived alone with his mother, an alcoholic , at home and has an incestuous relationship with her . For a living he works in an electronics store and a wheeled ice cream parlor, from where he watches Hodges and his neighbors, including seventeen-year-old Jerome Robinson who does chores for Hodges.
While doing research on the wealthy Olivia Trelawney, Hodges meets her sister Janey, who assigns him to investigate Olivia's suicide and the theft of the Mercedes. Shortly afterwards, Hodges starts working for Janey and the two start a relationship. With the help of computer savvy Jerome, Hodges finds out how Brady stole the car and got Olivia (whom he met while working in the electronics store) to commit suicide by sending her sound files with weird noises onto her computer that sounded at unpredictable intervals. At the funeral of Janey and Olivia's recently deceased mother, Hodges meets Janey's unpleasant relatives, including Janey's mentally unstable cousin Holly. After the funeral, Mr. Mercedes blows up Hodges' car without realizing that he is not in it. However, Janey was in the car and is killed by the explosion. Plagued by remorse, Hodges becomes even more eager to solve the case without the aid of the police. Holly helps Hodges and Jerome with the investigation.
Hartsfield accidentally kills his mother with poisoned hamburger meat he prepared for Jerome's dog. With her body in the house, he plans to blow himself up at a huge concert for young girls by pretending to need a wheelchair and hiding in this explosive. Jerome, Hodges and Holly discover Hartsfield's true identity and search his computers. In doing so, they find out that he is on the way to the concert and pursue him to stop it. However, Hodges is held up by a heart attack and therefore cannot enter the concert area with Holly and Jerome. Holly spots Hartsfield and knocks him out. Hodges is saved by the concert staff.
Jerome and Holly receive a medal from the city for their rescue act during the concert. Hartsfield wakes up in the hospital and asks about his mother.
Link to other works
When Hodges looks at the mask of the Mercedes killer that he wore during the rampage, it reminds him of the face of Pennywise , the antagonist from Stephen King's novel Es .
Adaptation as a series
Based on the book, a television series of the same name with three seasons so far has been broadcast on Audience since 2017 . In Germany, the series is available on StarzPlay and the first season is available on DVD .
literature
- Stephen King : Mr. Mercedes. ( Bill Hodges series, Volume 1). Translated from the English by Bernhard Kleinschmidt. Heyne, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-453-26941-5 .
Web links
- Mr. Mercedes in KingWiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stephen King - Mr Mercedes release date and synopsis - Upcoming4.me. March 5, 2014, accessed October 21, 2018 .