“When Penny Dahl calls the
Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter,
Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very
complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But
something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn
her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney
and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married
octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But
they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept,
book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will
prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they
are patient, and they are ruthless. Holly must summon all her formidable
talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors.”
Early in his prolific career,
I read an article that took King to task for setting his tales of terror in a very
specific period in history or, if I may borrow a Doctor Who phrase, a fixed
point in time. The general complaint was that by using pop cultural references,
by using current brand names, by saying what year the tales are set, his books
become less universal, less likely to stand the test of time. That three
hundred years from now (if we survive), people reading his tales will not
understand the references he makes. As someone pointed out recently on a
Facebook page dedicated to King, they had recently watched the 1976 movie
version of King’s first novel, 1974’s Carrie. The poster said the film held up
because it plot could take place today, nearly fifty years after the
publication and film, that because the book and film avoided pop cultural references,
it holds up.
Here with Holly, King sets his
tale at a very exact era in recent American history –the COVID years. He also
takes on a former president he has been very vocal about in disliking, along
with that former president’s acolytes. COVID plays a central part of the story,
which is set after the events of the novella If it Bleeds. Holly, who through
various tales, has grown from a shy, recluse woman on the autism spectrum, to a
brave and ethical women running the private investigation company Finders
Keepers, which was started by her late friend, Bill Hodges.
King, also, has never been one
to keep quiet his political feelings. They’re there through most of his works,
sometime subtle, but of recent years, mostly there on the page (see Gwendy’s
Final Task for where that really busted through). So the virus and Donald Trump
become secondary background characters in King’s dark and often creepy tale of
murder and cannibalism. But for some of his Constant Readers, this open display
of political theater has angered them. Some, like maybe King’s early critics,
hate the idea that the legendary writer has decided to add his liberal politics
to what should be an horror tale that could’ve taken place in 1974 or 2023.
That it’s no longer a universal tale, but a story (maybe a historical genre
tale?) set in one period of time and place. Who knows if this is good or bad?
King does not care –he’s now 75, very rich, and no longer needs to pander to
anyone but himself.
Those aspects aside, the book
is good, with villains you want to hate. Holly Gibney remains a character you
love or hate, though, but she is growing and that’s good. The more the
character evolves the more real she becomes. Both Jerome and his sister Barbara
become more supporting characters here, though both go through some dramatic
personal changes (and writers like to have characters that write, so I can see
why King took the Robinson’s in that direction. I mean, both his sons have
become writers, and his wife has had novels published, so it only seems logical
these characters move this way as well.
Overall, Holly is a good
mixing of horror, mystery, historical realness, and procedural private eye
work. It may never reach a wider audience than his Constant Readers, but King
remains at the top of his game. King has stated he plans a large short story
collection planned for 2024, and at least one more adventure featuring Holly. And
what of a second sequel to The Talisman? King has said he has ideas, including
a long letter sent by co-writer Peter Straub before he passed last year with even
more ideas for a third book. But King seems a bit unsure at the moment. Perhaps,
it’s because a third book would mean a few years of commitment and lengthy
book, as well. The “epic” books are on the way out, as publishers are less and
less interested in long books.
But it still would be worth the wait.
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