Never Flinch by Stephen King: Prolific author in crime thriller mode
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.
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How Stephen King unlocks our imagination with every scare
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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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The Irish Sun
7 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
The baby-faced molls running £20m drug empires & even plotting MURDER in Love Island-inspired ‘gangster chic' crime wave
Crime expert tells The Sun why young, glamorous women are risking their freedom for life in the narco underworld - and reveals how 'genuine sociopaths' live among us GLAM WARS The baby-faced molls running £20m drug empires & even plotting MURDER in Love Island-inspired 'gangster chic' crime wave THEIR jet-setting selfies make these young women look like they have the world at their feet, but behind the glamour lies tales of heroin smuggling, child 'slaves' and even a hitman murder. In a new phenomenon known as 'gangster chic', baby-faced criminal molls are ditching office jobs to help run county-lines drugs gangs and cocaine empires, showing off their ill-gotten designer gear in boastful social media posts to make them look like Love Island stars. 29 Georgia Burns got involved in a county lines dealing heroin and crack cocaine Credit: Cavendish 29 Sian Banks was helping to import huge amounts of drugs Credit: Facebook 29 Hairdresser Jessica Lang was in a gang with her family and boyfriend Credit: Cavendish Press Earlier this year, it was revealed that glamorous grade A student Sian Banks was busted for running a £20million drugs import empire with her boyfriend Eddie Burton. The trial heard how the 25-year-old revelled in painting a lavish picture of her life, posting snaps from yacht parties to glamorous nights out. But Banks is not the only Insta-savvy young moll to have emerged in recent times who, instead of finishing their studies or heading on their first girls' holiday, are spending their golden years behind bars. While some of these young women may have been lured in by the designer bags, flash cars, 'influencer lifestyle' and the lucrative spoils a gangster life can bring, others may be vulnerable victims of childhood trauma, manipulation and control. Criminologist Alex Iszatt explains: 'These young women are not simply naive girls led astray. They are the product of a perfect storm of vulnerability, ambition and the deep failings of the society around them. 'Low self-esteem, fractured family relationships and histories of abuse leave some women craving safety and belonging. 'That craving acts like a flashing neon sign to 'some' men who can spot vulnerability instantly, and then wrap exploitation in the language of love and protection, while manipulating and gaslighting." Alex also believes that some women begin as victims but adapt to survive and develop a taste for the very power that once terrified them. And she says social media has had a pivotal role to play in making a life of crime seem like a glamorous and exciting career choice for some young women. 'Social media puts a golden glow on to what's seen as 'gangster chic' making it a marketable fantasy,' she explains. 'Designer clothes, BMW selfies and luxury holidays serve as proof of status rather than warning signs. Gangster gran who used family to run UK-wide cocaine ring & splashed cash on designer accessories for her CAT is jailed 'But with all social media, the curated images hide the relentless paranoia, the endless waiting, and the ever-present threat of violence." It's easy to see why teenagers may crave the lifestyle - actively searching for a partner that can give them an adventure, they don't see the reality that it's a trap, which some women only escape when they are killed or imprisoned. 'And who can blame them when their role models are just as fake?" says Alex. "The Love Islanders with their bought faces and sponsored lifestyles. The reality stars, famous for being famous. The influencers peddling designer dreams with no substance behind them. "These hollow icons have normalised the idea that image is everything - that worth comes from labels and likes rather than character." But Alex says there is another explanation for the baby-faced moll that society does not want to contemplate - the ruthless young woman who herself is the criminal mastermind. 'In reality we want to cling to comfortable narratives about female criminals: the vulnerable girl, the loyal partner, the victim of circumstance,' she says. 29 The molls desperately try to pursue flash, selfie saturated lives with their ill-gotten earnings Credit: Cavendish 29 But this haul by the National Crime Agency shows how inevitably, the molls lose out Credit: NCA 'But this is fiction. There exists another kind of woman who unsettles precisely because she defies explanation. She isn't driven by fear, love or survival, she commits crimes because she wants to, she enjoys it. 'These women – the genuine sociopaths, narcissists and psychopaths– refuse to fit our neat categories." Here, we reveal the astonishing lives of Britain's baby-faced gangsters' molls - and how the law finally caught up with them. Sian Banks 29 Grade A student Banks was busted for running a £20 million drug smuggling empire Credit: Facebook 29 She ended up being arrested in a nightclub in Ibiza Credit: Facebook Banks and 23-year-old Burton orchestrated two large-scale drug imports as the pair conspired to flood the UK with heroin, cocaine and ketamine. Border Force officials stopped two lorries in the summer of 2022 containing 307kg of drugs with a street value of £20million. A huge manhunt was launched for Burton, whose DNA was found on the smuggled goods. Cops managed to track the criminal to party island Ibiza where he was arrested in Pacha nightclub. Burton's life of crime started when he was just a freckled youngster, dealing drugs on the streets of Liverpool from the age of just ten. 29 The A-grade student was put behind bars for five years Credit: NCA 29 Burton had been dealing drugs since he was ten years old Credit: NCA While wannabe influencer Banks was no stranger to crime herself - carrying out illegal activity to fund a luxury lifestyle. She was studying at a top university, but her barrister claimed it was her 'love of the lifestyle' offered by Burton that pulled her into a life of crime. But that lifestyle is over as she was sentenced to five years behind bars earlier this year after pleading guilty to six offences including importing class A drugs and money laundering. Georgia Burns 29 Georgia Burns helped her boyfriend run a county lines gang when she was just 19 Credit: Cavendish 29 The glam moll helped her boyfriend exploit teenage "slaves" Credit: Cavendish At the age of just 19, Georgia Burns was helping her boyfriend to run a racket in which three 16-year-old schoolboys were used as ''slaves'' to deal drugs. Burns, from Failsworth, near Oldham, agreed to repeatedly drive her boyfriend 100 miles from their homes in Manchester to Hull where one of the exploited teenagers was set up in a squalid flat. Officers seized heroin and crack from the flat worth £2,295 plus £3,162 in cash. Burns had driven Upton, 25, to Hull four times and made two trips with one of the boys. 29 Burns avoided jail by the "skin of her teeth" Credit: MEN Media 29 Jamie Upton was jailed for nine years and three months Credit: Cavendish Her defence barrister told Bolton Crown Court that she had been in a relationship with Upton since being just 16-years-old, and that she did not like the excitement of a criminal lifestyle - she had been manipulated and controlled. In May 2023, Burns, who was at this point, 22, and Upton of Newton Heath, Manchester admitted being concerned in the supply of crack and heroin between March 2020 and March 2021. Burns was told she had avoided prison "by the skin of her teeth", and was sentenced to two years jail suspended for two years and was ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work. Upton, who also pleaded guilty to arranging the travel of another person with a view to exploitation under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply, was jailed for nine years and three months. Jessica Lang 29 Jessica Lang was jailed for five years for helping her brothers and boyfriend run a criminal empire Credit: Cavendish Press 29 The hairdresser was just 21 when she was jailed Credit: Cavendish Press Pretty hairdresser Jessica Lang was only 21 when she was jailed for five years for helping her brothers and boyfriend run a £3million drugs empire. The mum-of-one would join her lover Scott Le Drew on cash deliveries and liaised with her brothers Bradley and Anthony Gill as they arranged vast quantities of cocaine, cannabis and amphetamine to be ferried from Manchester to Blackpool. Police using bugging equipment taped Lang as she sat in a car with Le Drew and advised him how he should conduct his money collections. She also passed messages between members of their gang using encrypted mobile phones as they peddled the narcotics to addicts in Blackpool. 29 Lang was caught when police bugged her car Credit: Cavendish Press 29 Le Drew was jailed for 11 years Credit: Cavendish Press In 2018, at Preston Crown Court, Lang, from Grange Park, Blackpool, denied wrongdoing but was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis and sentenced to five years in prison. Anthony Gill, 33, from Middleton, and Bradley Gill, 28, from Blackpool both admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and were each sentenced to 14 years. Le Drew, 31, was jailed for 11 years and four months after he was convicted of conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs and possession of a prohibited weapon CS gas. Amy King 29 Amy King escaped jail after she made a brave statement about her drug dealing ex Credit: Cavendish 29 The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply Credit: Cavendish Amy King came from a devout Methodist family but faced up to seven years in prison after stashing cannabis for her drug dealer boyfriend. The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply and conspiracy to deal in cannabis in 2023 but escaped jail after the judge praised her bravery in giving a statement about her drug dealer ex. She was given a 12-month community order at Chester Crown Court after she was arrested when police raided her home in Chester, Cheshire, and recovered 1.6kg of cannabis worth £17,000. 29 Her boyfriend Chadwick was jailed for 11 years Credit: Cavendish 29 Chadwick's partner McLoughlin was also jailed for ten years Credit: Cavendish Judge Steven Everett accepted King was under "pressure and stress" after she claimed she was forced to keep cannabis in her flat having run up a drugs debt with ex-boyfriend Alfie Chadwick. She had already served 16 months on remand while awaiting trial. Meanwhile, Chadwick, from Blacon, Chester was jailed for 11 years at an earlier hearing after he was convicted of drugs offences. His drug-dealing partner Jordan McLoughlin, 25, was also jailed for ten years. Bretony Gallimore 29 Bretony Gallimore tried to help her boyfriend get away with murder Credit: Men Syndication 29 Gallimore was jailed for three years Credit: Social Media - Refer to Source Beauty therapist Gallimore was only 24 when she was jailed for trying to help her boyfriend get away with murder. She booked a hotel room for Anthony Henry and allowed him to use her phone after he ordered a hit on Kieran McGrath. Gallimore, from Manchester, was jailed for three years in 2016 after she was found guilty of assisting an offender. Liverpool Crown Court heard that bare-knuckle fighter Henry, 31, was angry after Mr McGrath "battered" him twice in pre-arranged duels during a feud over a girl. But when scaffolder Mr McGrath offered his opponent a third round, Henry declined and retorted: 'It's alright, I've got someone to do you.' 29 Anthony Henry ordered the hit after he lost a feud 29 Remi Adams carried out the hit Credit: Men Syndication Just days later Mr McGrath was about to drive away from a pub when a hitman drew up alongside him and shot at him four times. Henry, was convicted of murder after a three-month trial and was jailed for life with a minimum recommendation he serve 33 years. Hitman Remi Adams, 33, was convicted of murder after a retrial at Manchester Crown Court and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years. Jace Smith, 31, and Troy Beckford, 23, were also convicted of roles in the murder and each got a life sentence. Smith got a minimum 30 years and Beckford 31. Emma Lavery 29 Emma Lavery was living a life far more expensive than her Topshop earnings should have allowed Credit: Cavendish 29 Lavery and her boyfriend Adam Hussain embarked on a luxury 'Instagram' lifestyle Credit: Cavendish Shop assistant Lavery earned just £7,000 a year in Topshop, but still managed to splash out on designer gear, a BMW, European city breaks and private healthcare. But after she clocked off from her day job she was secretly helping her boyfriend run a cocaine empire. Don't forget bags, have you got bags, I need bags Emma Lavery Lavery, then 24, carried a Gucci handbag and moved into a luxury apartment with Adam Hussain after he set up a drugs racket in which he ran a team of street dealers. The gangster's moll would bag up the drugs for Hussain, sending text messages to him saying: 'Don't forget bags, have you got bags, I need bags.' 29 Lavery would help her boyfriend package up drugs Credit: Cavendish 29 Police found thousands of pounds in cash in their flat Credit: Cavendish In raids on their luxury flat police found up to £115,000 in cash spread over their bed bundled into £1,000 wads and a stash of designer gear including a Rose Gold Rolex watch valued at £28,850. Investigations revealed Lavery had private health care despite earning less than £30,000 between 2015 and 2019 whilst car valeter Hussain, also 24, was apparently paid nothing in wages. In 2021, at Bolton Crown Court, the pair admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and possession of criminal property. Hussain, who also admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply, was jailed for six years whilst Lavery, who had an eight-month-old daughter by him, was given 16 months jail suspended for two years. The court heard she had been the victim of a bungled kidnapping after their arrest but she declined to help police catch the abductors.
Irish Times
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- Irish Times
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Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Irish Times
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