Finder’s Keepers

By: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: June 2015
ISBN: 978-1501100079
Reviewed by: Ellen Feld
Review Date: June 25, 2015

What happens when you have a crazed fan, a stack of unread manuscripts from said fan’s favorite author, and an unlucky teen who happens to get in the way? In the hands of author Stephen King, you get an intense, nail-biting thriller that will take over every crevice of your mind.

Author John Rothstein is an elderly man who, after writing the famed Jimmy Gold trilogy, retired to New Hampshire where he lives as a recluse. Rumors abound about additional Jimmy Gold books. Rothstein’s number one fan, Morris Bellamy, will do anything to get those manuscripts including killing Rothstein. The story opens with Rothstein’s death at the hands of Bellamy but before Bellamy can read his bounty, he is arrested for another crime and sentenced to life in prison.

Before his arrest, Bellamy managed to bury his treasure in an old trunk and as he rots in prison, the only thing that keeps him going is the thought of one day getting out and reading more Jimmy Gold books. Unknown to Bellamy, a young teen, Pete Saubers, who has the misfortune of living in Bellamy’s old house, stumbles upon the trunk and, together with a stash of cash that was also stolen, finds the manuscripts. Like Bellamy, Saubers is a big John Rothstein fan and devours the unpublished stories of Jimmy Gold, careful to hide the manuscripts from everybody, lest he be accused of stealing them. At the same time, he slowly and anonymously dishes out the cash to his parents. Of course, the reader of Finder’s Keepers knows that Bellamy will get out of jail one day and that he will go after Saubers. And that’s where the story really explodes.

I’ve been a long time fan of King’s, dating back to the Cujo and Pet Semetary days. The last few books of his that I have read, however, haven’t kept my interest like those previous books. I’m happy to report that Finder’s Keepers grabbed me on the very first page and while I finished the book last night, it still hasn’t let go. King slowly, methodically, builds the tension from the time of Rothstein’s murder in 1978 to present day where Bellamy and Saubers will meet.

Finder’s Keepers is the sequel to Mr. Mercedes, but you needn’t read the first to dive right into this newest offering. There are numerous references to the first book, and some chilling scenes between the villain from that first book and Hodges, a detective out to save Pete Saubers, that nicely sets things up for a third book, but again, King guides the new reader through those characters/events so there’ll be no problems following along.

Quill says: Finder’s Keepers is Stephen King at his absolute best. I loved it!