A few thoughts about Mr. Mercedes.

Mr. Mercedes is a novel by Stephen King. It’s a straight up detective story, so there are no supernatural or science fiction elements. That might be unexpected, however like most King stories, it’s mostly entertaining escapism. King isn’t much interested in sharing insights into the human condition or challenging his readers. His goal seems to be to tell a good yarn for the shear joy of it, and with Mr. Mercedes, he succeeds yet again.

My biggest complaint is that King is too fond of using slang and colloquialisms in an attempt to give his stories an added layer of color. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it works well. But King has a tendency to overdo it, and I often notice odd words and phrases coming out of his characters’ mouths that are so unlikely that I’ll have to suppress a groan. For instance, in this story, a retired detective seeks the advice his teenage yard boy concerning a computer issue, and because of the specific issue, the detective has to let the young man know about an old case he was working on before he quit the force. I’ll accept that a seventeen-year-old might refer to the case presented to him as a “Sherlock Holmes mystery,” but when the detective gives a few more details, the teen proclaims that the case is at least a “two pipe problem.” For me, that is just too cute by half. But that’s King. It’s part of his style.

The thing I liked best about this particular novel is that King gave us not one, but two socially withdrawn characters who are crippled by depression and extreme anxiety. Some of the plot points might be a bit over the top, but King’s depictions of these two women are remarkably accurate in my view. One of the women turns out to be a hero. As someone who suffers from PTSD and social phobia, I greatly appreciated these characters.