“When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to ‘kill thirteen innocents and one guilty’ in ‘an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,’ Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help. Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.”
Holly Gibney has grown a lot since her first appearance in Mr. Mercedes. She starts out as shy, mentally ill middle aged women and through various novels and short fiction has developed into a force to be reckoned with. In Never Flinch (likely to be the last tale featuring here, though one never can guess with the prolific King) continues the theme of Holly dealing with unstable, split identity villains. There is a lot of psychological complexity here, as well, which is probably why the detective and procedural fiction does so well.
A hallmark of King’s works involves issues with the culture wars (probably more so in the 21st Century than the twentieth), and, as always, addiction and recovery, which threads themselves through out a lot of his tales –something that really dates back to 1974’s Carrie. And then there is the abusive parents, which King seems to love to write about (Trig’s father here, but Holly still hears her late mothers voice every now and then)
King acknowledges in an afterword that Never Flinch didn’t meet his own expectations for it, saying only that he was “happy enough” with the finished product. That said, it’s not a bad book; it’s enjoyable and very well done. But, as his wife Tabitha said after reading the first draft and told her husband “you can do better”, I felt the book lacked certain strength. The Holly titles are great way to introduce new readers to King, especially the ones turned off by his supernatural horror tales, but for me, Never Flinch never really becomes a great detective tale. It’s a bit predictable, in some cases, dark in other places. But it’s still worth the read.
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