End of Watch (The Bill Hodges Trilogy Book 3)
£4.70
The final stand-alone novel in King’s wonderful Hodges trilogy, also featuring Holly Gibney, is now released with a stunning new cover look.
The cell rings twice, and then his old partner in his ear . . . ‘I’m at the scene of what appears to be a murder-suicide . . . Come and take a look. Bring your sidekick with you.’
Bill Hodges, who now runs a two-person agency called Finders Keepers with partner Holly Gibney, is intrigued by the letter Z written with a marker at the scene of the crime.
As similar cases mount up, Hodges is stunned to discover the evidence points to Brady Hartsfield, the notorious ‘Mercedes Killer’. It should be impossible: Brady is confined to a hospital room in a seemingly unresponsive state.
But Brady Hartsfield has lethal new powers. And he’s planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.
The clock is ticking in unexpected ways . . .
BRADY IS BACK
AND SO IS HODGES
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by Ajoobacats
Five years after the end of Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges Book 2), The Mercedes Killer, Bradley Hartsfield has been in a neurology rehabilitation ward. Not expected to survive his injuries, Hartsfield continues to live in a state that allows him to avoid prosecution. However, rumours of strange occurrences in his room are rife and Bill Hodges is not convinced Hartsfield is as helpless as he’s making out.
When more deaths occur, Hodges is convinced something isn’t right but can Hartsfield really be responsible when he’s unable to do basic things for himself?
As much as I enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, I found this third one harder to take seriously. However, if I buy into the premise of hypnosis and subliminal messaging etc, this is an entertaining read to say the least, but it wasn’t particularly scary. Horrifying from the point of view of what Hartsfield tried to achieve but not chill inducing, goosebumps giving, hair-raisingly scary.
I may have wanted to love this book and certainly for a lot of the main characters this was a dignified end, but I felt it dragged a little too much as the plot tries to sweep us away with possibility, almost on the point of over-labouring it.
Despite my reservations after reading the book, I could not have passed on it after reading and enjoying the first two. However, my quest for a hair-raising read will continue.
by Micko
Great read and good ending to finish the trlogy,onto the next book in order, looks like holly will become a main protagonist
by Charley
Good storyline, fantastic characters, pity about poor old Hodges!
by James
Having read the first two and few other Stephen King books recently I have been at odds with this one. It hasn’t flowed for me like Mr Mercedes or Finders Keeps and I think this might be because I don’t like the way the Brady character has been developed. Of course this is subjective and I’ll no doubt finish it, I’m at the 70% stage but am already thinking of the next read.
by hamptoncherry
If this book was written by someone else I would say it a very solid crime story with a peppering of supernatural. Because it is written by King and I have read some very very good books by King, I will say it is OK. As far as the Mercedes trilogy goes – I didn’t like the first book, was OK with the second and is OK with the third. In the final book of the trilogy we will see all the characters from the previous ones, plus some more unfortunates thrown in as victims of the stubborn mass murderer who refused to die.
I think King is it his best when he writes about people faced with the problem they would not be normally equipped to deal with, not ordinary crime, not ordinary adversary. This canvass works wonders to show the inner working of the human soul, it’s fears, hate, love and courage. It is sort of there in the End of Watch, but somehow restricted and slightly dim. To me it was not flowing like Doctor Sleep, for instance. Still if you liked the first book you will undoubtedly enjoy the end of the trilogy too.
by Pamela Scott
I enjoyed End of Watch. I really didn’t like Mr Mercedes at all and loved Finders Keepers. End of Watch falls somewhere in the middle.
There are some good moments in this book, as Hodges and Holly move ever closer to finally closing the case that brought them together and changed them in profound ways.
Some things didn’t work for me. I didn’t completely buy into the fact Brady had some sort of special powers, that may or may not have been triggered by his brain injury. A psychotic murder with mind control powers? Nope, not for me. I would have enjoyed the book a lot better is Brady had made some kind of miraculous recovery from his brain injury or had been fooling everyone from the start.
Cynicism aside, there are some great set pieces in End of Watch as Brady determine to finish what he started when he got behind the wheel of a Mercedes so many years before. There are some chilling, unsettling moments as his single-minded madness is revealed.
End of Watch is a satisfying novel and worth a read.
by l.st.louis
The Bill Hodges trilogy reaches a dramatic conclusion .The characters are like old friends by the en of book three and you do not want to leave them .The story is piping from start to finish .
by AMO
Gripping and hauntingly disturbing. A fine cat and mouse with a skilfully laid trail to the satisfying denouement. King is consummate crafter of the page turner, this trilogy is no disappointment and my first meeting with his detective fiction. I devoured his horror as a teen and have returned to the master as my tastes had evolved with Randell and Vines.