Mr. Mercedes
2013
- horror
- mystery
- crime
- fiction / horror
- fiction / general
- fiction / suspense
- serial murderers
- mercedes automobiles
- fiction
- horror stories
The story
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.
What it’s like
Gritty Midwestern noir in a cold, rust-belt key: frost-grey pre-dawn streets, sodium-lamp parking lots, the flat fluorescent wash of a job-fair hall, and a retired detective's cluttered house lit by a TV's blue glow. The voice is brisk, colloquial and wry, moving through close-third chapters that often switch to the killer's sour, self-regarding interior, so the reading feels like a series of tight, cold-open scenes rather than long descriptive passages. Vibe: bleak, propulsive, darkly funny in places, with a grim undertow of dread. Pacing is fast and cliffhanger-driven, though it slows for ordinary domestic detail, drinking, and sad routines. Violence is present and unflinching: the opening attack is graphic in its aftermath, and later threats and killings are described plainly, with some gore. Sexual content is limited and not central. Emotionally it is a study of a worn-out ex-cop finding purpose again, and of an alienated young man's resentful, escalating cruelty. Best for readers who enjoy hardboiled crime with a supernatural-tinged thriller pulse, and who can handle a villain's chilling point of view.
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