END OF WATCH

Very powerfully written. Vintage King. Can't wait for his next book. Pity he ended this series as a trilogy - would have loved to read more of the same

Warning: Spoilers for Mr. Mercedes. Story In the aftermath of Mr. Mercedes, Bill Hodges has been busy. After he solved the Peter Sauber's case in Finders Keepers (Bill Hodges #2) he is clutching to his detective agency -pushing 70- and holding onto it. One day, he gets a call from his old friend Pete calling for aid, saying that there has been a murder. After visiting the crime scene, Hodge’s thoughts turns immediately to Brady Hartsfield (the prick who tried to blow up an auditorium full of screaming kids). Somehow, he knows Brady is involved with this horrendous crime but can’t bring his head around to it. Bill’s assistance Holly thinks that he is paranoid because he still seems obsessive over Brady -the fish he never caught- and ever since he stopped visiting him at the hospital, his thoughts turns towards him now and then. Brady had been busy too. Ever since Holly smashed his skull with Bill’s Happy Slapper (balls in a sock), he was in a coma. After he had waked up, he found himself paralyzed, but he did get a particular set of uncanny abilities, the same abilities that had disastrous repercussions in King’s first novel Carrie. The band (Bill, Holly, and Jerome) is back together for one final ride. Is anyone safe? My Thoughts End of Watch has a masterfully constructed prologue. King’s ability to suck you in his world, and forming an addictive page turner is apparent in this story. The exposition is carefully placed, and there are no unnecessary scenes. King’s focus is eminent from the beginning, and it is present till the end; it does have an uninteresting side story, but it doesn’t consume the novel. When I read the synopsis, my desire was only one. The novel should have a convincing and logical way to give Brady the powers he possesses. This is not a supernatural story, so giving him those powers by any unnatural means would have been a compromise to this trilogy and more to the crime thriller genre, and to my surprise, King delivers a disturbing yet believable theory which resuscitates Brady. The pacing of End of Watch is perfect. Stephen slowly yet deliberately builds the scenes. He doesn’t jump on the finale train and tries to cram the readers with everything he could muster. The story has a purpose, and that purpose is to unsettle the readers. Brady is deranged, we know that, but how far will he go exact revenge? Very far, very very far. One hitch I have with the story is the climax. The ultimate battle between Bill Hodges and Brady Hartsfield. It was over too quickly and the small thrill that captured me: the amusement that kept me turning the pages hoping it’s going to be exciting; it was a disappointment. The face-off should have been exhilarating, but it ended with a weird and cringe-worthy fight. The prologue is something I wasn’t expecting, but it is a satisfying and fulfilling ending. Characters As I said in my Finders Keepers review, King creates a good, bad guy. Brady Hartsfield's intentions are something bigger, bigger than exploding an auditorium. In End of Watch, he goes for something humongous. After waking up from a coma, Brady finds himself in a vegetative state, unable to move or conduct any activity, and it is a sad scenario where I felt unwanted affection towards him. A nurse squeezing his nuts and Bill’s constant mental torture are some disturbing visions. I know I should feel good, he is the villain, but as I said, he is a good, bad guy; King somehow turned this evil character into a helpless sympathetic jerk; this made his actions seem much more drastic and sensible than I would have liked (he is bad after-all). As for the other characters, Bill, Jerome, Holly, Pete, and some side characters have a presence that you feel, but I was never attached to any of these characters. I don’t hate them, but I don’t root for them either, and it remains unchanged in this novel. Those characters don’t have to wave their hands and scream, “I’m in this too, notice me. NOTICE ME!” You know they are present, but they are not enticing. There was an unintentional connection with Bill Hodges. I didn’t root for him but wanted him to succeed, and the finale turned out to be more emotional than I thought. Should You Read End of Watch? Yes. King’s tremendous ability to transform a simple idea into an act of horror is evident throughout the novel. He takes a common element and makes it... disturbing. Without spoiling anything let me tell you this, I wouldn’t look at fishing games the same way. End of Watch is thrilling, even it may not have a nail-biting finale: Stephen King’s writing and the disturbing character of Brady turns this average novel into a dreadful and sad tale about two people’s obsession with each other. This novel is a worthy end to its watch.

Typical Stephen King, but more mellow compared to his earlier work..heartwarming in places..great ending to a wonderful trilogy..Bill Hodges is a loveable flawed hero..loved it immensely!

I've not been a fan of King's dystopian themed books to be honest. When I first picked up Mr. Mercedes, I knew that King was at his absolute best when he was focussing about the gritty instances of human lives. This book is a must-read.

A thrilling end to an amazing trilogy. Best of the best.

Brady's back. And if you'd asked me before I read the end of Finders Keepers (still my favourite of the series) whether the news of Brady being back was exciting, I would've answered with a 'meh'. But then we found out that getting half his head beaten in with the happy slapper somehow gave him telekinetic abilities and things got a lot more interesting. What I love the most about this is the sudden but seemingly natural addition of a supernatural element. King did a very good job of showing someone with abilities without taking anything away from the real and rational world the series is set in. He devised a great way for the main characters to believe that Brady has powers without the reader ever feeling like they were prone to believing something that they shouldn't. Not to mention, Brady is a really good villain. I know I was excited about him being back to take revenge on Hodges, but after a while, that stopped being exciting and induced dread instead. We've always known Brady has an obsession with suicide and, in this installment, he takes it to a whole new level. He's using his little gaming console to get into people's heads and make them want to kill themselves. He's very powerful and completely out of control. But since he is believed to be more or less catatonic and telekinesis is something the police take into consideration, they can't stop him. Menacing indeed. There was also a subplot with Hodges that, at first, didn't seem to have much relevance to the bigger picture. Until it did. This book delivers a message about suicide by delving into why people do it. This was a great story and conclusion to the series. I've always liked Hodges and the game of wits that he and Brady play. Holly has come so far from the girl we met in Mr Mercedes and I think she's great. Jerome is always fun. I do wish we'd gotten to see Pete Saubers (I love that kid) but this isn't his story. We got a different Pete instead and he grew on me. Overall, this is a really good book. I kind of wanted more from the climax because while the story kept me on the edge of my seat for the most part, something about the big ending was almost anticlimactic. That's my only complaints. It was still a very good conclusion.

Would love to see the series continue with Holly. That character is worthy of having her own book. Looking forward to it.

One of Stephen King's best. Though this is the last of his three book series, there is a slight hint at the end that there may be one more to come.