Book Review: Quirky private eye tracks a couple more killers in Stephen King's 'Never Flinch'
Stephen King's favorite private investigator returns in 'Never Flinch,' the sixth novel by King featuring Holly Gibney, who readers first met in the Bill Hodges trilogy ('Mr. Mercedes,' 'Finders Keepers,' 'End of Watch') and who then helped solved the murders at the heart of 'The Outsider' and 'Holly.'
In 'Never Flinch,' Holly cracks two more cases, one as the lead security escort for a polarizing author touring the nation to talk about women's reproductive freedom, and the other back home in Ohio, as a serial killer preys on jurors following a miscarriage of justice.
The biggest connection between the two cases is classic King — the killers have dead Daddy issues. We meet them both relatively early in the plot and spend time inside their heads, though the true identity of one of them is a mystery until closer to the end. One of the murderers supplies the novel's title, recalling how his abusive and overbearing father berated him to 'push through to the bitter end. No flinching, no turning away.'
Even with two killers talking to themselves, Holly is still the star of the book. She continues to 'attract weirdos the way a magnet attracts iron filings,' is how Holly's friend Barbara puts it. More often than not, Holly's obsessive compulsive disorder helps her 'think around corners,' as one of the story's detectives says.
King also brings back Barbara's brother, Jerome, and introduces some dynamic new characters, including Sista Bessie ('She's not the Beatles, but she's a big deal'), a soul singer whose comeback concert serves as the nexus for the convergence of the novel's two storylines. When they do, readers will enjoy the very Kingly ending. It's not quite the pigs' blood from 'Carrie,' but it's satisfying.
The pages turn very quickly in the final third of the book as all the characters arrive back in Dayton, Ohio ('the second mistake on the lake'), where we first met Holly, and where psychopath Brady Hartsfield began his killing spree in 'Mr. Mercedes.' Will the Mingo Auditorium be the site of another massacre or will Holly and her amateur detectives save the day again?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Down with the King: Our film critic discusses his lifelong Stephen King fandom
Still from 'The Life of Chuck.' NEON There have been so many movies made from King's work, yet filmmakers haven't scratched the surface of his prolific oeuvre. Even with the numerous miniseries and television movies, there always seems to be more King to consider. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Even King himself has taken a crack at adapting his work, something most authors shouldn't do. See his directorial debut, 'Maximum Overdrive' for a great example as to why. Anyway, King's screenplay for Mary Lambert's 1989 version of 'Pet Sematary' was pretty good, though the film was far less disturbing than what I'd consider his darkest book (and one of his best). As an added bonus, the movie gave us that awesomely absurd Ramones song. Advertisement King's most recent screenplay was for 2016's 'Cell,' an adaptation of the 2006 horror novel set right here in Boston. The movie was the second pairing of Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack in a King story, after the superb '1408.' Fans of the novel were really mad about the movie's changes, but My affectionate reaction surprised me, as the book served as my reunion with King — I'd given up on him after several disappointments — so it holds a place in my heart. That uber-violent Boston Common opener won me over big time. I've read everything he's written since. Stephen King Photo by Alex Gotfryd/CORBIS via Getty Images While we're on the topic of books, some of my favorite novels include 'Night Shift,' 'The Stand,' 'The Eyes of the Dragon,' 'Different Seasons,' 'Pet Sematary,' and a few others I'll get to shortly. On the flipside, he hasn't written a book worse than 'It.' Here's a list of 10 movie favorites. You should know by now that 'The Shining' isn't going to be here. 'Misery' (1990) My favorite King book of all time became one of the best adaptations of his work. One of the best books about the art of writing and the evil of fandom becomes a showcase for Advertisement Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie in the 1976 film "Carrie." Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images/FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images 'Carrie' (1976) Back when I was too young for R-rated movies, my two older cousins would act them out for us after they saw them. This was one of the movies they 'performed.' They were surprisingly thorough — their version of the PG-rated 'Mommie Dearest' deserved Oscars. When my aunt took me to see 'Carrie,' I pretty much knew the entire movie. And I still jumped at the end! I've never heard an audience scream louder in my entire movie-going career. My favorite De Palma, easily. 'Cat's Eye' (1985) and 'Creepshow' (1982) King wrote the screenplays for these short story-based movies that were directed by two of the best helmers of his work, Lewis Teague and George Romero. Romero tackled the better of the two, the gory and fun tribute to EC Comics that gave Ed Harris one of his first roles and had Ted Danson murdered by Leslie Nielsen. That particular tale disturbed me so much that I was almost sorry I snuck into that R-rated movie. Note I said 'almost.' Teague directed Drew Barrymore's second run-in with King (after 1983's 'Firestarter' — sue me, I like that one, too). Tied together by a cute cat, the film gives a shout out to 'Night Shift' by using two of its stories, 'Quitters, Inc' and 'The Ledge.' It's rather brutal at times for animal lovers, but the cat not only survives, it takes its revenge. For a far nastier tale of King kitty cat revenge, try 'Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.' 'Cujo' (1983) Teague also directed this tense, suspenseful adaptation of King's novel about a rabid killer St. Bernard. Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro are trapped in a car while the rabid dog goes on a tear. Scared the hell out of me as a 13-year old — and I'd read the book! Thankfully, the movie changes King's ending. Advertisement 'Christine' (1985) You can make an argument that this is lesser John Carpenter, but you can't deny it's a damn gorgeous looking piece of widescreen filmmaking. Plus. the titular killer Plymouth Fury is really, really cool. It gets set on fire and still manages to run over its victim. Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, River Phoenix, and Jerry O'Connell in the 1986 film "Stand by Me," directed by Rob Reiner. Columbia Pictures 'Stand by Me' (1986) and 'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994) 'Different Seasons,' the four novella book King wrote in 1982, produced two of the top five cinematic adaptations of his work. These two have a companion piece in 'The Life of Chuck,' as they're also not horror films. Before Rob Reiner met Annie Wilkes, he directed this bittersweet, controversially profane tale of four boys who take a trip to see a dead body. All four actors — Jerry O'Connell, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and the late River Phoenix — give excellent performances, and I haven't met a guy yet who didn't identify with one of their characters. (I'm a combination of Wheaton's King stand-in and Feldman's brutalized kid.) Before he directed his almost-as-good take on 'The Mist,' Frank Darabont made the Tim Robbins-Morgan Freeman prison movie that keeps topping the rankings at IMDb. Not bad for a movie that originally flopped at the box office. Freeman should have won that Oscar. Christopher Walken in 'The Dead Zone.'' Paramount Pictures 'The Dead Zone' (1983) My favorite David Cronenberg film gets dismissed by his fans as a mere work for hire, but he gets a career-best performance out of Christopher Walken. Better than any actor, Walken nails the heartbreak of so many King characters possessed with a power they do not want. It's also a perfect movie to watch in today's political climate. Though it's Cronenberg's tamest movie, he still reminds us he's the king of body horror. Those scissors — shudder!! Advertisement 'The Dark Half' (1993) Romero directed Timothy Hutton in a dual role in this adaptation of one of my favorite King books. Both book and movie require a large suspension of disbelief, but once again, King traverses the mind of a writer with fascinating results. Inspired by his Richard Bachman revelation, King gives Romero plenty of gory mayhem to put onscreen. I didn't think the director could pull off the novel's most disgusting moments, but he does. He even outdoes Hitchcock in the murderous birds department. Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Washington Post
How time, place and a fraught friendship made the Beatles the Beatles
John Lennon once defined himself as a 'record man' — he preferred listening to records over attending live performances. Though I saw the Beatles live in Ed Sullivan's studio, I have to agree with John: Records provide a repeatable pleasure that's often exclusively personal, a romance between the singer's voice and the listener's ear. Records are material, tangible and portable; they enter history in a way live performances can't.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
New George Smiley novel will not be glamorous like Bond, says Nick Harkaway
Espionage author Nick Harkaway has announced a second George Smiley continuation novel and said it will not be 'glamorous' like James Bond. The 52-year-old, from Cornwall, is the son of John le Carre, who died in 2020 aged 89, and wrote the original spy series about an intelligence officer who works for The Circus, Britain's overseas intelligence agency. Harkaway, whose real name is Nicholas Cornwell, published his first continuation novel, Karla's Choice, last year. Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: 'Last time I was kind of deliberately unaware of how much pressure there actually was. 'I sort of sat down (to write) and didn't really think about it. And then, after I finished, and as the reviews started to come out and they were positive, I got retrospective terror. 'I realised… and particularly when you read the reviews, what you realise is that all of them begin with 'I really expected to hate this book, and I don't'. And I thought 'Gosh, that would have been really awful'.' He continued: 'There's a lot of reasons why it shouldn't work… So I think everybody had sort of legitimate fear, and I have great respect for that.' In the new novel, The Taper Man, George Smiley is sent, for the first time, on an operation to America to pursue an old communist network across the West Coast. 'We have Smiley going to America, to the United States, for the first time, into the kind of culmination of the Civil Rights decade,' said Harkaway. 'It's a period of massive, massive, tumultuous change, and not all of it peaceful, you know – there's some quite extraordinary acts of domestic terrorism in the early '60s, around desegregation. 'It's a deep dive, and I'm kind of daunted by it, but you do these things with respect, and you feel your way, and you learn,' he said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (@spyonstage) The novel is set in 1965, 18 months after Karla's Choice, and amid the backdrop of the Vietnam War as well as the Civil Rights era. 'I'm not just writing to the 1960s, I'm also writing to the world of George Smiley and he's not the guy who shows up at a Beatles concert,' said Harkaway. 'We're not going to see the kind of glamorous '60s that you see in a James Bond film from the period; we're going to be looking at, always, the shadows and the grey spaces and the places where things have potential to go seriously wrong. 'And looking for somebody who can potentially make them go right, and will that person be heard? It's always about ambiguity, rather than the kind of acid orange of the '60s.' It has also been announced that Harkaway's father's global best-selling thriller, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, is to be staged in London's West End for the first time in November. Harkaway told PA: 'I am excited about that… I have seen the play. I saw it at Chichester, and it runs on rails towards the kind of inevitable, staggering conclusion of the story… It's incredibly powerful.' Le Carre, whose real name was David Cornwell, wrote best-selling novels including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Night Manager. Prior to his career as a writer, he worked in British intelligence throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Career intelligence officer Smiley became the author's best-known character and was made even more famous by Alec Guinness in the TV series of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which aired in the late 1970s. Film versions of Le Carre's novels include 2001's The Tailor Of Panama, starring Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis; 2005's The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz; and 2011's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy. Harkaway has written novels including The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, Gnomon and The Price You Pay (as Aidan Truhen). – The Spy Who Came in From the Cold will play at Soho Place from November 17 2025 until February 21 2026.
