Wordsmith and beloved storyteller, Stephen King, delivers his latest tale this week. Released by Simon & Schuster, the story allows the readers and King to spend some time with one of his favourite characters, private investigator, Holly Gibney.

Holly has become a beloved character, appearing in the End of Watch trilogy, The Outsider and a novella in the If It Bleeds collection. This time around Holly finds herself hired by a desperate mother to locate her missing daughter, Bonnie Dahl. What Holly discovers are chilling all too human monsters that are portrayed all too realistically.

The story moves back in forth in time until the timelines converge as King delivers some strange news to Holly and her close friends, siblings Jerome and Barbara. King allows us to check in with a number of familiar characters even as we are introduced to the horrifying couple that are Roddy and Em Harris.

Set in the recognizable world of COVID and the divisive beliefs that sprang up around it, and politics, Holly has her hands full as she begins to piece together a number of clues that will lead Holly and the reader to a horrifying climax.

King makes sure to spend time with the supporting characters that we’ve gotten to know over the course of the previous novels, checking in on their growth and their personal journeys. He balances it with the terror of the Harrises and their victims, one of whom may be the young woman that Holly has been hired to find.

Falling solidly into the crime thriller genre that King has dipped into more and more often of late, Holly is an engaging read that like so many of King’s books sprang to visual life in my mind’s eye, almost so that I didn’t even see the words anymore, just the story playing out. His books often fire my imagination like that.

I love that King loves to spend time with Holly because she’s a wonderful character, and of all of King’s creations, she’s the one I see the most of myself in. I think I would love to sit and talk movies with her and discuss some of our favourite scenes and comfort viewing.

She has a number of issues to come to terms with throughout the novel, not just the hunt for the missing Bonnie Dahl, and while I love every moment with her, and enjoy the way her mind works, I loved the time King gave us with Barbara and the journey she finds herself on, those may be my favourite sequences in the book.

Will we see more investigations with Holly? I certainly hope so, but I guess that depends on our good ole Uncle Steve. There are a number of interesting themes and ideas at work here, there’s a commentary on COVID and those who don’t believe in it, and King wraps it all up in his wonderful and captivating knack for storytelling and fantastic character moments.

King has been an author that I’ve followed since my early teens (I still remember my first King book) and I’ve enjoyed each of the journeys he’s taken me on, and cannot wait to see what he delivers next, because that’s the curse of a good storyteller, your audience always wants more.

Holly is available from Simon & Schuster Canada now!