Detective Tale of Horrible Academics

 Holly by Stephen King

Beef Sirloins from the book, The Grocer’s Encyclopedia (1911) By Public Domain

Stephanie Lawton, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Surprisingly, this was the 2^nd book featuring cannibalism that I’ve read already this year. While it’s not King’s best book, this was a quick and engaging read with one of his favorite characters: Holly Gibney. I can see why he likes Holly—she’s incredibly intelligent, analytical, persistent, and idiosyncratic. She’s probably a bit like King himself, and I do enjoy the novels and stories I’ve read that feature her. This book also has some other interesting and engaging side characters as well. Readers of King’s supernatural stories might not really enjoy this one as much, but I think that as King continues to crank stories out, his ability to create entertaining and enthralling thrillers and mysteries has improved. Furthermore, it was interesting to read a novel that was so timely, taking place during the Delta variant’s rise in COVID during the summer of 2021. At times, the talk of vaccines and masks got a little old, but COVID and germs do play a part in the narrative (as King mentions in the author’s note at the end of the novel). The one thing I didn’t enjoy as much was the Harrises—the villains of the story. Maybe that was the point, but I kind of found them to be a bit more of a caricature than characters (Especially Rodney, despite his great nickname as Mr. Meat). Nevertheless, they were pretty mean and horrible, just more overtly so. Overall though, I was glad to read this book. It was a really entertaining mystery, and it was difficult to put down at times. I found myself continuing to read to find out more about what was going to happen in the story’s arc.