Stephen King ‘Finders Keepers’ Review

Written by: Wayne C. Rogers

I personally feel that Finders Keepers by Stephen King is even better than Mr. Mercedes.  I found myself engrossed within the novel after the first few pages.

As many of you already know, the story deals with Morris Bellamy who murdered his favorite author, John Rothstein because the writer took the character in his trilogy, Jimmy Gold, in a slightly different direction from what was expected.  Bellamy felt the author had sold out and punished him for it.  The young man at the time also stole a lot of money and dozens of personal notebooks from the author’s safe and then killed his two accomplices.  A few weeks later, Morris has buried his treasure, had a fight with a young man whom he thought would help him to sell the notebooks, and ends up in prison for life after having raped a woman while angry and drunk.

Move ahead in time.

Teenager, Pete Saubers, and his family now live in the house where Morris and his family used to reside.  His dad was one of the people injured in the Mr. Mercedes crimes and has been out of work for several years.  One day, while taking a back path through the nearby woods, Pete finds the trunk with the hidden treasures.  He uses the money to help his family out of debt and keeps the notebooks for himself, quickly becoming a fan of the “Jimmy Gold” novels, as well as the unpublished ones.

Jump ahead a few more years.

Morris Bellamy has finally gotten of prison and wants his money and notebooks.  He soon discovers that the young man he had a fight with over the selling the notebooks of John Rothstein, is now preparing to buy them from Pete.  The hidden money has run out, and Pete needs a lot to send his younger sister to a private school.  The notebooks have to go even though he hates giving them up.  What he isn’t prepared to do is fight Morris to the death for the notebooks.

But, that’s exactly what he will have to do.  After thirty-five years in prison, Morris is old, but no pussycat.  He killed once, and he’s ready to do it again.

Of course, the team of Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson are back from Mr. Mercedes and quickly find themselves involved in attempting to keep Pete alive and to put Morris back in prison.

Nothing turns out the way they hoped.

Like other of King’s books, this novel was a pleasure to read and had a more than satisfactory ending.  In fact, since the author plans on doing a trilogy, the ending leads into the third upcoming book.

One of the many things that Stephen King does to absolute perfection is create believable children and teenagers in his novels.  He has a particular magic for this and succeeds tremendously with Finders Keepers.

Another thing is that King always manages to pace his novels with suspense, allowing the reader to take the dark journey with him from beginning to end.  The reader is seldom permitted to be bored, though some claim that many of his books are simply too long.

Finders Keepers is a winner, though not in the same league as 11/22/63 or The Green Mile or It or some of his first novels.  Still, you won’t be disappointed in this novel a try, especially in preparation for the third book to come by next year.

Order it here. 

Rating: 5/5