Stephen King

A Novel

End of Watch

End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3)

Man Stephen King was out there writing shit like this in 2016? White people huh 

Ipshita Kanungo

Which gives us a chance to be the first to get shot or blown up by a mad Arab shouting allahu akbar, he thought. How nice for us. 

The fabulously suspenseful and "smashing" (The New York Times Book Review) final novel in the Bill Hodges trilogy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers! For nearly six years, in Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, Brady Hartsfield has been in a persistent vegetative state. A complete recovery seems unlikely for the insane perpetrator of the “Mercedes Massacre,” in which eight people were killed and many more maimed for life. But behind the vacant stare, Brady is very much awake and aware, having been pumped full of experimental drugs...scheming, biding his time as he trains himself to take full advantage of the deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Brady Hartsfield is about to embark on a new reign of terror against thousands of innocents, hell-bent on taking revenge against anyone who crossed his path—with retired police detective Bill Hodges at the very top of that long list....

Lara Engle

This was a fitting end to the Bill Hodges trilogy. It had a decidedly Stephen King air, but stayed true to the characters we've grown to love in the previous books. I really enjoyed how each book in this trilogy had its own personality. None of the three felt exactly like any other. But, they all hold together as an overarching tale across a seven-year timespan. At times, King made the connections and motivations too obvious, explaining too much, but I don't think it threw the pacing or the tension too far out of whack. Still an enjoyable read, and a trilogy I could see myself revisiting in the future.

Arturo Hernández

The last episode of an entertaining trilogy. You will like these characters until the end. Technology, suicide and black mirrors. This attempts to feel new, but somehow it sounds like something you've read before. It's good though.

Tina Rawls

3rd book in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. A solid 4 stars on the Stephen King curve. All three are good reads and make an excellent tale.

Mary Garza

Última lectura del año 
Extrañaré a Bill, Holly y Jerome 😭

James Eaton

I will not spoil anything about the trilogy (because they are worth reading for yourself). 

If you enjoyed Mr Mercedes, then you should read all three in this series. It was a fun ride and I loved how each book added more and more SK elements (paranormal, odd, spooky, etc).

Jayme Bosio

A good way to end the series, but Mr. Mercedes is still my favorite of the three.

Celeste Richardson

End of Watch is the finale of King’s Bill Hodges trilogy, and this last installment felt more like a King novel than its predecessors. There was more of a supernatural, or perhaps preternatural, influence here that harkens to King’s most famous works, like IT and The Shining and Carrie. That unearthly element is what I look for and expect from King, so that was a welcome addition to the series in my opinion. 

“Payback is a bitch, and the bitch is back.”

My problem with this book is twofold: it’s predictable and overly convenient. This has been my problem with the entire trilogy. Predictable has never been a term that I would contribute to a King novel, but somehow I was able to predict almost every major “twist” in this series. King is such an amazing writer, but I feel that he has a hard time properly balancing a mystery, foreshadowing enough without showing his hand. While the predictability is disappointing, what drives me absolutely bonkers is how conveniently some of the actions in this series took place. A cell phone alert right when a baddie needed distracting. A flask in a pocket deflecting a bullet. There were so many little conveniences at just exactly the right time sprinkled throughout the entire trilogy, and it felt like lazy writing choices. I just expect better from an author who has in recent years become one of my favorites.

“It’s about how some people carelessly squander what others would sell their souls to have: a healthy, pain-free body. And why? Because they’re too blind, too emotionally scarred, or too self-involved to see past the earth’s dark curve to the next sunrise. Which always comes, if one continues to draw breath.”

However, I still enjoyed this series, and that is in large part due to the characters. I loved Holly from her first appearance in Mr. Mercedes, and her character development has been beautiful to behold. Bill Hodges didn’t thrill me when he was introduced, but I grew to love him over the course of the series. Both Hodges and Holly were definitely the stars of this book, and I loved seeing how their relationship bloomed into a strong partnership. There are other characters I loved, and I even found the main baddy and his drones pretty fascinating, but Hodges and Holly are the soul of the trilogy, and they’re what kept me reading. King did a beautiful job building their friendship over the course of these books.

“Being needed is a great thing. Maybe the great thing.” 

I also found the inclusion of a suicide epidemic interesting in a horribly believable way. I appreciated King’s inclusion of the number for a real suicide prevention hotline, and his author’s note about suicide at the end of the book. It’s a terrible, heartbreaking epidemic that is plaguing our world, and we should all do whatever we can to reach out to those who are contemplating ending their lives. The problem with that is so many people do a great job of hiding their hopelessness right up to the point of acting on it. The signs aren’t always there, but reaching out in kindness to others is a start.

“Because things can get better, and if you give them a chance, they usually do.”

If you’ve always wanted to read King but have too afraid to pick up his horror works, this trilogy might be just the thing for you. Especially if you haven’t read dozens upon dozens of mysteries and have become difficult to surprise, as I have. Be warned: this final book will make you seriously reevaluate how much time you spend staring at a screen, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Dana

Absolutely incredible from beginning to end!

Sabetha Danes

Not going to lie, the end of this trilogy made me cry. I knew it was coming but all the same it was heartbreaking to read the last chapter. 

End of Watch finds us back to the story of Mr. Mercedes. This final installment is has the same pacing and excitement level as the first book. We stick with our main gang of not investigators, and discover the lives of more people involved in the concert, and job fair from book one.

The character growth in this wrap up is spot on. I would love a full series that has Holly as the main character. Her struggles, and all that she is overcoming, awesome growth there. More of her adventures at the agency would be A+ content!

King has such a masterful way of writing thrillers, and dripping in a little paranormal that makes you feel like it could really happen. It's subtle, and disregarded by the average character in the story, but that makes it all the more terrifying. Brady is a excellent villain because he is just a guy, who had a messed up life, and messed up thoughts. We've all seen these guys in the news, so it makes his story resonate stronger than if the paranormal aspects had been thicker.

While I didn't really care for the second book, this trilogy is still going to be on my list of one of my must read recommendations from King.

The cell rings twice, and then his old partner in his ear... 'I'm at the scene of what appears to be a murder-suicide. I'd like you to come and take a look. Bring your sidekick with you, if she's available...' Retired Detective Bill Hodges now runs a two-person firm called Finders Keepers with his partner Holly Gibney. They met in the wake of the 'Mercedes Massacre' when a queue of people was run down by the diabolical killer Brady Hartsfield. Brady is now confined to Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, in an unresponsive state. But all is not what it seems: the evidence suggests that Brady is somehow awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill's heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. The clock is ticking in unexpected ways ... Both a stand-alone novel of heart-pounding suspense and a sublimely terrifying final episode in the Hodges trilogy, End of Watch takes the series into a powerful new dimension. The extract above is abridged from End of Watch.

claire

i don't really like the writing style and i only managed to read the first half before giving it up. the plot itself is intriguing but i couldn't bring myself to read the entire book. 

Daniel Santos

What a great trilogy that was! Perfectly ended, by the way. I believe this is certainly one of King’s masterpieces.

ashwitherow

** spoiler alert **
           I was debating whether to give this book four stars or five stars, but the only reasoning I had for giving the lesser mark of four was that sometimes the next action to happen was something I foreseen. I’m not usually very good at predicting the next move in books, so it has to be quite obvious for this to happen. And it did. That Jerome would return to rescue Hodges and Holly was predictable. However, this didn’t take away from the suspenseful writing and overall story. We knew Bill would likely pass away also, but it still brought tears to my eyes.

Britney Ly

All I can say is "Wow". From the beginning, I was hooked by King's writing. The manner in which he described the events that occurred gave me shivers because the reader really felt like they could understand most of the characters. The character development on Brady was insane (quite literally) and his actions and thoughts shocked me. All the characters introduced were amiable and their personalities drew you in. End of Watch is the finale to the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and a damn fine one at that. Bravo.

A satisfying end to the trilogy! Liked it better than Mr. Mercedes, but not as well as I liked Finders Keepers.

This and Mr. Mercedes are more closely connected, while Finders Keepers is more of a side story that doesn't really tie in to the others aside from Bill, Holly, Jerome, and Barbara having parts in all of them, and a couple references to the events in Finders Keepers here and there. It really could have worked as a direct sequel to Mr. Mercedes, but since FK is my favorite of the three, I do appreciate that it was written!

Only very minor/unspecific spoilers, but cutting just in case:

The main thing I didn't like was how (view spoiler)[the first two books were very much crime thrillers based in reality, while this one had an element of fantasy/superpower stuff. It's justified by "some scientific studies think this is possible," blah blah blah, but it almost feels like the rules of this universe were changed just for this last book. Of course, King doesn't write strictly within the confines of reality in general, but the first two books seemed to operate within reality, so the last book to all of a sudden have this element was a bit jarring. (hide spoiler)]

I loved the ending to this series. I don't want to say anything that would spoil it, but this beats the second book in leaps and bounds. I did not want to stop Listening to the audiobook because of both the narrator and the story. Whoever found the narrator for the audiobook did a perfect job, his voice has the right amount of gritl to engage you in the story and add another layer of creep.

I definitely recommend the audiobooks.

Lori Keenom

Great story. I didn't want it to end. Was a great ending to the this trilogy. Can't believe the ending though, was not prepared for that. Read it you won't regret it.

b.andherbooks

Brady fucking Hartsfield. You sly, horrible bastard. I was on the edge of my seat seeing how Hodges, Holly, and Jerome would duke it out with the evil one himself in this series ender. I'm excited to see this series adapted for TV as well.

End of Watch A Novel

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