A very enjoyable departure from King's scarier works. This mystery felt like something Michael Connelly would write except with a lighter tone than Bosch. The characters were very well-written and the plot kept moving and kept me interested. I will definitely read the other books in the series. ( )

I was disappointed. King is a very experienced writer and this is an Edgar award-winning book.While it had a couple of fresh twists, the killings by car and the driving a person to suicide ( ok Christine and Gaslight, so not completely fresh) , I expected more than a very well done typical suspense story. Killer writes the detective, always a turn off for me ( )

I don't think this was one of his best, and I've read a LOT of S.K. I did appreciate the last hurdle of the book involving Jerome and Holly. Those two really brought better character in to the story. The overall story was okay. The gut punch death, the twisted family dynamic of the guilty and the drive for the retired cop. ( )

This is certainly not one of Stephen King's best books, but still a decent read. It took me a while to get it read--it does lag somewhat here and there. The fact that there is nothing supernatural or special about the characters or their actions that we all expect from him creates a confusion in the reader. When you expect something "otherworldly" to occur, it doesn't. It's as though he holds himself back. While I did enjoy reading it, because Stephen King is a great author, I do believe that he should stick to horror and/or his fabulous exposés of the human condition in inhuman environments. ( )

(2014) A very good non-monster book by King. Someone drives a Mercedes into a group waiting to get into a job fair and many are killed & wounded. Somehow the driver gets away and begins the quest by a retired police detective to find the bastard and bring him to justice. Along the way he enlists the support of a teenage computer nerd and a 40 year old mental case of a woman who was related to the owner of the stolen Mercedes. They track down the killer's home and find his basement with several computers protected by specific voice command. Hodges manages to get into the computers and learns that the killer is planning on suicide bombing a boy band concert in town. They do manage to find him in the arena and the mentally unbalanced woman takes him out with a blow to the head with a sap provided by Hodges. Stops the bombing and Hodges survives a heart attack at the same time. Great ending. Couldn't put it down in the last 30 pages.KIRKUS REVIEWIn his latest suspenser, the prolific King (Joyland, 2013, etc.) returns to the theme of the scary car¥except this one has a scary driver who's as loony but logical unto himself as old Jack Torrance from The Shining.It's an utterly American setup: Over here is a line of dispirited people waiting to get into a job fair, and over there is a psycho licking his chops at the easy target they present; he aims a car into the crowd and mows down a bunch of innocents, killing eight and hurting many more. The car isn't his. The malice most certainly is, and it's up to world-weary ex-cop Bill Hodges to pull himself up from depression and figure out the identity of the author of that heinous act. That author offers help: He sends sometimes-taunting, sometimes?sympathy-courting notes explaining his actions. (?I must say I exceeded my own wildest expectations,? he crows in one, while in another he mourns, ?I grew up in a physically and sexually abusive household.?) With a cadre of investigators in tow, Hodges sets out to avert what is certain to be an even greater trauma, for the object of his cat-and-mouse quest has much larger ambitions, this time involving a fireworks show worthy of Fight Club. And that's not his only crime: He's illegally downloaded ?the whole Anarchist Cookbook from BitTorrent,? and copyright theft just may be the ultimate evil in the King moral universe. King's familiar themes are all here: There's craziness in spades and plenty of alcohol and even a carnival, King being perhaps the most accomplished coulrophobe at work today. The storyline is vintage King, too: In the battle of good and evil, good may prevailÂ¥but never before evil has caused a whole lot of mayhem.The scariest thing of all is to imagine King writing a happy children's book. This isn't it: It's nicely dark, never predictable and altogether entertaining.Pub Date: June 3rd, 2014ISBN: 978-1-4767-5445-1Page count: 448ppPublisher: ScribnerReview Posted Online: May 7th, 2014Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15th, 2014