Set a couple years after Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers brings us back to the motley group of unofficial private investigators that saved the kids at the ‘Round Here concert. Only this time, a teenage boy has stumbled across a treasure that could spell his demise.
I can say with certainty that I definitely preferred the first book in this trilogy to the second, and that’s largely because it seems as if it’s a little too difficult to feel anything for the characters of Finders Keepers. In startling contrast to what I’m used to seeing from King, Pete and his family are unusually flat characters. The most exciting moment involving his family was towards the end, and even that turned out in an oddly un-King-like way, which I find to be extremely disappointing. I won’t go into details, as that brings spoilers into play. If you read it, you’ll see what I mean. It did succeed in drumming up a little bit of emotion, at least.
As far as our main cast of characters go, Hodges and the crew don’t really show up until nearly halfway through the book. Normally, this wouldn’t be so bothersome; however, this is the Bill Hodges Trilogy, and as such I expected Hodges to play a much larger role earlier on than he did. Admittedly, though small and late in the book, it was nice to see some growth in regards to Holly. Jerome had the least screen time (page time?), which is a crying shame because next to Holly, he’s my second favorite.
In comparison to Mr. Mercedes, the plot of Finders Keepers was also startlingly inferior. Rather than having thousands of lives on the line after a massacre, we are only dealing with a handful of murders, most of which are insignificant and have little effect on the plot as a whole.
As always, I adore King’s writing, but this probably falls into my pile of least favorite King works. If it wasn’t for the last few pages and the foreshadowing therein, I might not even open up End of Watch. Fortunately, King has created a beautifully ominous segue into the final book of the trilogy so I’m looking forward to it at least.
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