End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3) by Stephen King

In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. 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.

I enjoyed returning to the main characters we had been introduced to in the first book: Hodges, Holly, Jerome, and, yes, maybe even Brady. While I can’t say that the trilogy has turned me into a mystery/crime reader, I did come to appreciate the genre at least a little bit.

And, I must admit, part of the attraction of the third book is that it returns us to the kind of universe we’ve come to expect from King. Things are not as they seem, and something unexplainable is just around the corner. A solid read, I felt that End of Watch tied up all the loose ends, and gave us a strong and satisfying ending.

Still, I’ll miss Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson.





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