Never Flinch by Stephen King: Prolific author in crime thriller mode
Never Flinch
Author
:
Stephen King
ISBN-13
:
978-1399744331
Publisher
:
Hodder & Stoughton
Guideline Price
:
£25
You don't write more than 70 novels without knowing how to follow your muse, and the muse that
Stephen King
is following is called Holly Gibney.
She has now featured in seven novels or novellas for King, and she takes centre stage here again. Since we met her first 11 years ago as a mousy, repressed character in
Mr Mercedes
, Holly has found her confidence and blossomed into a smart and resourceful private detective.
This story kicks off when the Buckeye City police department receives a letter from someone threatening to kill 'thirteen innocents and one guilty' in an act of atonement for the death of an innocent man. Holly is initially drawn into the investigation when the murders start, but then finds herself on the road acting as security for a controversial women's rights activist who is bringing her pro-choice rally from city to city, and has attracted the attention of a stalker with murderous intent.
[
How Stephen King unlocks our imagination with every scare
Opens in new window
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This is King in crime thriller mode, although elements of supernatural horror do occasionally push their way into Holly stories, where they seem ill at ease. The evil that Holly is chasing in Never Flinch is strictly flesh and blood, yet oddly the story feels less plausible than many of King's flights of fancy.
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The idea that a shrinking violet such as Holly would take on a job as a bodyguard is utterly nonsensical – the character is far too smart and self-aware to put herself in that position – and is one of several elements that feel like parts from a different jigsaw. King takes aim at anti-abortion protests, queries the legal system, and there is a character that may or may not be trans, but is definitely problematic.
It's a shame, as there are sections in here that work perfectly – the stalker gradually closing in on his prey could easily have been its own separate story, there are some heart-breaking father-son dynamics, and the murders in the serial killer story are genuinely chilling for how utterly senseless they are.
King is simply too good at this not to make it a page turner but ultimately the whole novel seems to add up to slightly less than the sum of its parts.
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When she's asked to spend a longer than usual time in Victorian London to clear the name of a government minister's ancestor, Ali finds herself trapped in the past – while, in the 21st century, her son finds himself accused of a crime that might just be connected to the one she's investigating. Words for my Comrades by Dean Van Nguyen (White Rabbit, £25) When the future hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur was 10 years old, he was asked by a religious minister what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer? 'A revolutionary.' Irish writer Dean Van Nguyen's fascinating new book tells the story of a musical icon's political life, looking at the influence of his Black Panther activist mother Afeni and showing how his life influenced his political sensibility. Insightful, readable and thoroughly well researched, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of politics and pop culture. The Marriage Vendetta by Catherine Madden (Eriu, £13.99) Eliza Sheridan was once an acclaimed concert pianist. But she abandoned her career to focus on her daughter Mara – and support her playwright husband Richard. When Richard gets an all-consuming job running a Dublin theatre, Eliza finds herself becoming more and more resentful. She consults a marriage counsellor – but she doesn't get the advice she expects. Inspired by the relationship between the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his musical wife Elizabeth Linley, this is an original and darkly funny exploration of marriage – and how to escape a bad one. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Hutchinson Heinemann, £15.99) You don't have to be interested in the space programme to be immediately gripped by the new novel from the author of Daisy Jones and the Six, which begins with a horrific disaster aboard a space shuttle in the 1984 before jumping back four years to astronomer Joan Goodwin's first days as a Nasa recruit. The training programme is intense, but Joan forges strong bonds with some of her colleagues – especially the charismatic aeronautical engineer Vanessa Ford. Both a deeply touching love story and a heartfelt homage to human ingenuity, Atmosphere is, simply, stellar. When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter (Grove Press UK, £20) Graydon Carter became editor of Vanity Fair magazine in 1992, an era in which 'the budget had no ceiling. I could send anybody anywhere for as long as I wanted'. Those days are long gone for any magazine, but they live again in this entertaining, gossipy memoir, which tells Carter's story from his Canadian student journalism days to his infamous teasing of Donald Trump at Spy magazine ( his description of Trump as a 'short-fingered vulgarian' clearly haunts the autocratic president to this day) and eventually his reign at the ultimate celebrity-filled glossy. City Girls Forever by Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster, £14.99) Irish commercial fiction as we know it wouldn't exist without Patricia Scanlan's groundbreaking City Girls novels, which made north Dublin suburbia feel as glamorous as any international blockbuster. In City Girls Forever, the iconic City Girl Gym and Spa is celebrating its 35th anniversary – and old friends Maggie, Devlin and Caroline are planning to celebrate in style. But fate has other plans. Full of drama and warmth, this is vintage Scanlan. [ Author Patricia Scanlan: 'I'm working on an unanticipated project of healing from breast cancer' Opens in new window ]
