I think it’s time for the good people of Buckeye City and Mr. Stephen King to burn Mingo Auditorium to the ground. Clearly the place is haunted or cursed and it’s a magnet for killers. It’s time to turn the page and start anew. I like Holly Gibney and have enjoyed watching her character grow over time, but this new adventure is just kind of boring with a side of messy.
A serial killer is stalking the greater Buckeye City area. It’s not Holly’s case, but she’s interested in it and has thoughts about it. Her actual case is being bodyguard for an outspoken women’s rights activist who’s on a multi-state speaking tour. Someone’s targeting her and things are starting to escalate. So Holly goes on a boring road trip with the unlikable speaker and her overworked personal assistant. Meanwhile Buckeye City is all a flutter because the police department and the fire department are holding a charity softball game and it involves a lot of trash talking. At the same time, the notorious Mingo will kickoff the tour of a famous gospel singer. The gospel singer takes Holly’s pal Barbara the poet under her wing, invites her to join the tour as a backup singer, turns one of Barbara’s poems into a song, and insists Barbara sing it with her as a duet. She also wants Barbara to join her tour. That seemed like a lot.
Anyway, all the story lines come crashing together at an abandoned hockey rink close to the Mingo. But it’s still all the Mingo’s fault. It should be demolished and Mr. King needs take a break from Holly and the gang for a while because Holly deserves better than this.
I can’t think of a QOTD. So tell me something interesting or a weird fact you know.
About the Author
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch, the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York TimesNotable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties(cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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