The Bill Hodges Trilogy Boxed Set: Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch Hardcover – June 28, 2016

First things first, this box set is beautiful. I’m glad that I waited to purchase the books until this set came out. It’s a great, juicy storyline displayed in a handsome box set. The cover arts are beautiful. Love how the spines create their own little design as well. It’s the perfect addition to my ever growing Stephen King collection.***Spoilers ahead***Mr Mercedes starts with Brady tearing through a crowd with a stolen car. You know this travesty is coming (says so in the summary) but it was a hard read. Especially since SK created such a lovable down on his luck guy just hoping for a chance to get a job and is willing to help this poor also down on her luck girl and her baby. You just want him to succeed. Making it difficult to watch (well read) his death, especially since he tried sheltering the woman and her child with his own body. So it starts out rough and keeps at this pace. You read about Brady’s messed up childhood, about the strange beginning of the mother-son relationship, where she encourages him to kick his own brother down the stairs. How she cures her honeyboy’s headaches with a good ol’ jerk off; this was also disturbing to read through. It was beautiful justice when the mother dies on the very meat her son poisoned and planned on using on the poor Robinson dog, Odell. I was truly sweating and believing that dog was a goner, SK has been known to say that killing the dog is one of the worst things a writer can do. But instead he(accidently) kills his own mother with the gopher poisoning. But her death doesn’t really slow down his crazy; instead he propels himself further into his next and final act of mass destruction at a boys concert where thousands of young girls will be. Truly a nail biting moment, ending with our lovely Holly smashing his skull in, saving everyone at the concert and getting revenge for her two cousins.Finder Keepers was so suspenseful that I had to put the book down a few times to get my anxiety levels under some control. You never know how far or which way Mr Stephen King will go, he holds nothing back and that’s why he is one of the greatest authors (imho). There are many people complaining about “another obsessed fan over an author” book but this is such a far cry from the novel Misery that it’s like comparing apples and oranges. The brief relationship between the author and Mr Morris is a few pages in this novel.The ret. det. doesn’t return until around 150 pages in but I feel like this adds more wood the suspense-fire. You really get to know the family and the son. You begin to worry about what they are worried about. It makes you care if they live or die. You want them to get out of debt, get back on their feet and remain a family.There is so much betrayal, blackmailing and total essence of the evil that it’s hard to guess how things are going to end up- who will die or thrive. I really enjoyed the ending. It is definitely my favorite book of the trilogy.End of Watch was nowhere near as suspenseful as the second one but it was a good ending to a great trilogy. Its Bills Hodges vs cancer and Brady; it’s a time crunch to stop Brady from unleashing a mass suicide epidemic and not succumbing to his cancer. The good guys do succeed in the end and it’s an honestly realistic, however I was hoping Bill Hodges would be able to beat the cancer. I knew there was only a slim chance he would survive, but I was hoping. Hodges got his closure though. "And though he dies, la resistance lives on."***END SPOILERS***I know my review does not do the story justice. But I do heavily recommend it to mystery and Stephen King fans. I am really happy with this purchase.

Love Stephen KingThese 3 series of books are worth the time you spend reading them so glad I ordered them

Mr.Mercedes is probably my most favorite Stephen King book, it keeps you on the edge of your seat if you like its premise and the characters feel great and recognizable,Finders Keepers is a weird sheep, all throughout the book I tried to connect it to the first book, but the truth is, it does feel like a stand-alone in the series, not the best, but still a good read,End of Watch ties the series and is a great way to close those books, I liked it more than Finders Keepers but still a bit less than Mr.Mercedes, overall a best read for King fansThat addition feels great, and the binding is not sawn, for those who have other Scribner books of Stephen, the quality is largely the same, maybe after a few rereads some pages might fall off, but with care, they should not, the page stacks are glued well overall, this is an easy recommendation for any Stephen king fan, that edition is awesome, 10/10

I ordered these to go along with several UK imported Hodder rainbow books. The set looks great with the rest of my King collection.

I've been on a mission to collect all of the latest Hodder paperback editions of Stephen King as I love the artwork and colors on these versions. Unfortunately, sometimes when you order books from sites, you don't always get the exact cover/edition that's being shown in the photo. Not the case here. I love this set of paperbacks and the unique covers that match with the rest of my Hodder paperback collection and was excited that Amazon delivered exactly as advertised. Highly recommend this set if you're a collector like me!

I'm a SK fan, but I must say I'm enjoying his books without monsters probably more than with. I bought this trilogy after reading The Outsiders and Holly because I love the character Holly and wanted to catch up on what I missed about her. Highly recommend.

The media could not be loaded. I love the box set of these books. The book covers of the individual books a fantastic as well. The stories in the books are great too. ``

Exceptional story lines. Interesting and a real page-turner, for sure.