End of Watch, Stephen King

Title: End of Watch
Series: Bill Hodges trilogy #3
Author(s): Stephen King
No. of pages: 380
Genre: Thriller
Publication date: June 7th 2016
Date read: July 19th 2018

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Summary

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.

In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense. No one does it better than King.
(Goodreads)

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Review

End of Watch is the third and last book in the Bill Hodges trilogy and let me just tell you: it was the perfect ending. Because of the first two books you really got to know the three (four?) main characters and I really came to care for all three of them. I just didn’t want anything to happen to them! King managed to build a strong friendship between three  people from three different generations, from different families and with different personalities. Although it doesn’t happen that often in real life, their friendship and care for each other felt very real to me. King really is the king of creating friendships in his stories – friendships that you just want to be a part of!

Now about the fourth main character: Brady Hartsfield. I absolutely loved him as the villain. Although he *spoiler for Mr. Mercedes* ends up in the hospital, in coma, in Mr. Mercedes, he still creeps through the second and final book. You just know that he’ll come back eventually, and so he does. In this third book King introduces a supernatural side, which already popped up its head at the end of Mr. Mercedes, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. It was still something to get used to, because the first two books were so real. But of course, as King does, he totally rocked it.

Series are not exactly my favourite thing to read, because it seems like most authors tend to throw in twenty new characters with every book for whom I have to open my heart. So, what I also liked about this trilogy was the small club of characters, which didn’t really get bigger over time. This way I could just enjoy each one, and their growth in personality, without getting used to new relations and personalities. This trilogy was just a whole and yes, I liked it very much!

Now I can finally read The Outsider without the ending of this trilogy being spoiled! Can’t wait!

Read my review on Mr. Mercedes over here and the one on Finders Keepers over here!