Holly

You might like this book if you liked…

• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
• Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin
• The Maid by Nita Prose

Holly by Stephen King

Holly is a mystery novel following Holly Gibney, an autistic woman turned investigator in the Bill Hodges series, and the lead investigator in The Outsider. Holly receives a call from Penny Dahl, a distraught mother whose young adult daughter Bonnie has gone missing. Despite having just lost her own mother to covid, Holly agrees to look into Bonnie’s disappearance. It doesn’t take Holly long to discover that Bonnie is only one of several missing individuals over nearly a decade with eerily similar lifestyles and circumstances. Holly finds herself circling the trail of an elderly couple, Rodney and Emily Harris, who have been keeping a dark secret locked away in their basement. They have used their cleverness and their old age as a disguise for years, and Holly is left with only scraps as she tries to uncover what the Harrises have been up to for nearly a decade.

Holly takes place during the autumn and winter of 2021 – when covid was still at the top of people’s list of concerns, and many people still masked, but vaccinations were available. It was only two years ago, but already my memories had started to fade on some of the details, and this book definitely brought it all back. I was blown away with the details that Stephen King wove into the narrative – so many different thoughts and perspectives on covid and masking and vaccinations, the January 6th attack, the 2020 election results, the unrest after several high-profile shootings. And then of course all of the little daily interactions stemming from covid – unmasking if all parties were fully vaccinated, sanitizing rooms after visitors, the people that didn’t wear their masks correctly. It really took me back to that time, and I definitely think it helped pull me into the narrative.

Of course the characterization in this book is just as fantastic as I would expect out of a Stephen King novel. Holly is layered, with her quick thinking and cleverness, and deep-rooted insecurities from her complicated relationship with her mother, and her passion and empathy for others. I loved seeing the ways her strengths and weaknesses worked with and against each other. What impressed me the most, though, was the thought put into Emily and Rodney’s characters. They consistently show a deep love for one another, and put each other first. It iss a stark contrast for their utter disregard for other human lives, and that makes them fascinating villains that I could empathize with even while I wanted them caught and killed.

Overall, I’ll give Holly a 10 out of 10. Everything in this book was done well, from the worldbuilding to the characters to the mystery and plot itself. I think anyone interested in a good mystery will appreciate this one.