I recently read the book Mr Mercedes, this was my first Stephen King book, and it lived up to the “Stephen King hype”. Do you like grounded psychological horror? Do you like getting into the mind of the villain? Well this book is certainly for you, as this book is a mystery there WILL be mild spoilers, so if you hate spoilers, you have been warned.

This book is about a massacre at a job fair where the main villain stole a car and drove it into a crowd of innocent job finders. About 7 years after this the same villain who killed those job finders, who we find out is named Brady, but is mostly referred to as Mr.Mercedes, sent a letter to an ex-cop, about how frustrated he thinks the cop must be that he never finished the case, reminding him of all the cases he let go cold. These letters he sent attempted to prompt him push by push to commit suicide. This man had no mercy, he was ruthless and would do anything to get into the minds of the victims he was taunting. He thought he was invincible, you soon find out that he isn't, when he learns this, his new goal in life is clear, to kill who he referred to as, the “fat ex-cop”.

The first thing I noticed after the introduction of the main “villain” Mr.Mercedes, is his psychopathic traits. He perfectly matches all of the traits of psychopathic behavior and makes a very convincing psychopath. I find that most media try to portray a true psychopath but usually fall short in many ways. But this book nailed the psychopath, the lack of empathy and his disregard for human life, along with a poor perception of moral judgment. His actions alone exemplify this, but once the book allows you get into his head, his thoughts match the psychopath perfectly too. Something that highlights these traits is a point in the book in witch he figured out that the fat-ex-cop had somewhat of a sidekick, and this sidekick had a dog, a dog he was going to poison. Already pretty evil, but in his attempt to poison the dog, he accidentally poisoned his mother, who was searching around the house and found what looked like a delicious beef patty. He saw his mother die in front of him, die very painfully, and did nothing. Afterwards he didn't even cry, he just put his mother’s body into his bed and continued working on ways to kill the ex cop. He saw his mom struggle for life right in front of him and he didn't care. If that doesn't show disregard for human life I don't know what does.

I also love the character of the ex-cop, especially the way you observe him develop. The impression you get of him is a lazy perhaps even depressed old man, with nothing better to do than watch television and play around with his old gun. It really puts you in the shoes of a tired man locked in a cycle of nothing new, the same boring old thing every day, just living in boring repetition, until, that is, he finds the note. I think the note is more than just a note in this case, for him it is meaning, reason, reason for him to get up in the morning, reason for him to get off his chair and go outside, reason for him to do something other than his same cycle everyday. There was a turning point that I had noticed, one that in my opinion highlights the growth the cop has gone through. Everyday since he retired he watched the same shows, at the same time. He obsessed over never missing a show, ever, but there is one point in the book where he settles down to watch the show, and only seconds after he settles down, he gets up, This is when he truly breaks the cycle, when he truly stops just being alive, and starts living. So this is how I think in a way, Mr.Mercedes succeeded in doing the opposite of driving the cop insane with his letter, he instead revived him, gave a dead life a reviving breath.

Now I feel like I cannot fairly review a King book without bringing up his masterful style of writing. Whenever I read my imagination goes to a movie in my head. Sometimes making this movie in your head proves to be very hard for one of two reasons: one, a book describes things for too long, not leaving anything to the imagination and it makes the movie pause as you read the exaggerated description of the color of a wall, or two, the descriptions are too short, this is the best out of both evils, but it is still evil, because without description I can't get a good image in my head of what's happening, and I have to fill in a lot of blanks, making the movie pause, and if what I fill in is wrong it can be weird to reimagine a entire scene. But what King does is a wonderful middle ground between them, giving you just enough description to imagine the scenario accurately , but just little enough to make the movie in your head continue, being both consistent and fast. That is what I love about Stephen “The King” King’s novels, because when you read there is nothing worse than having a cloudy image of the book, or what I call a “smudged lens”. With king the lens is crystal clear!

In conclusion, this is probably one of this best books I have ever read for all the reasons listed. The way it lets you just get into the mind of the psychopath and experience life through his eyes is truly unique. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great psychopathic fiction grounded in reality. This is a must read for anyone interested in the work of King!