Latest news with #HollyGibney
Indian Express
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Stephen King's Never Flinch: A slow burn with a killer payoff
He is best known as the undisputed master of horror, with doorstopper novels brimming with terrifying supernatural creatures and chilling events. But, in recent years, Stephen King has shifted his focus to more grounded suspense. His Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch), centered on a detective's pursuit of a killer, received widespread acclaim and was adapted into a TV series. A side character from the trilogy, Holly Gibney, has since stepped into the spotlight in King's suspense universe. After featuring in her own novel, Holly, she returns in his latest release, Never Flinch, which has just hit bookstores. At just over 430 pages, Never Flinch is relatively slim for a Stephen King novel (his books often exceed 600 pages, with The Stand and It clocking in above 1,000). Yet, it's one of King's slowest reads. Patience is required to navigate much of the story, although the final hundred pages ramp up to the breakneck pace King is known for. The book's sluggishness stems from its ambition—it tries to juggle too much at once. There are two parallel plotlines: in one, the police in Buckeye City receive an anonymous letter from someone promising to kill thirteen innocent people and one 'guilty' party, in revenge for a wrongly convicted man who died in prison. When members of the jury begin turning up dead with ominous notes, police officer Izzy Jaynes enlists the help of her friend, private investigator Holly Gibney. Meanwhile, feminist author and activist Kate McKay faces threats from anti-abortion groups during her speaking tour. After her assistant is attacked with bleach and narrowly survives an anthrax attempt, she hires Holly as a bodyguard. Amid all this, a rock singer named Sista Bessie stages a comeback, and the local police prepare for a charity match. King weaves all these threads—plus a multitude of characters—into one sprawling narrative. Though marketed as a Holly Gibney book, she appears in less than a third of it. The story jumps between multiple characters: two officers investigating the murders, the activist and her assistant, Holly's friends Jerome and Barbara, the rock star and her team, and of course, the letter-writing killer and the stalker targeting Kate McKay. Even minor characters are given detailed backstories. This level of detail is admirable but also overwhelming. At one point, we had to take notes just to keep track of everyone. A slower, longer book might have better served the material. As it is, the quick scene shifts and attempts to tackle social issues sometimes muddy the storytelling. Despite its scattered pacing, Never Flinch shines in parts. The most riveting sections are those told from the perspectives of Trig, the killer, and Chris/Chrissie, a stalker with a split personality. Trig's chilling rationale for his murders and his descent into a kind of addiction ('Killing really does get easier, it seems,' he reflects after his second victim) are truly unsettling. His imagined conversations with his dead father only deepen the creep factor. Equally compelling is the internal conflict between Chris and Chrissie—two personas inhabiting one body—who believe they are doing God's work by targeting Kate McKay. And what of Holly, the supposed heroine? 'That woman is so spooky. Sherlock Holmes in low heels, pastel blouses and tweed skirts,' Izzy says. But Holly often feels more like a bystander than a central figure. The novel's most dynamic characters are Trig, the disturbed murderer; Chris/Chrissie, the fanatic; and the egotistical Kate McKay, who seems obsessed with her own fame. Fittingly, the book's best stretch—the last hundred pages—brings their storylines together in a high-stakes, high-speed climax. The payoff is thrilling and almost redeems the meandering lead-up. Never Flinch is one of the slowest Stephen King novels we've read in a while. It offers some finely crafted characters and chilling moments but lacks the crisp dialogue and tight narrative that usually define King's work. Longtime fans may appreciate the intricate character work and the gripping finale. However, newcomers might be better off starting with Misery, The Shining, or if they're looking for suspense, Mr. Mercedes. Never Flinch is not quite vintage King, but it proves rewarding—if you're willing to stick with it.
Irish Times
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
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 ] 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. READ MORE 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.
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
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.
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
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? ___ AP book reviews:
New York Times
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A New Stephen King Novel Asks, Does the World Have Heroes Anymore?
When I received what appeared to be an email from a New York Times editor asking whether I was interested in reviewing the new Stephen King novel, it crossed my mind that it was a phishing scam. That Stephen King? Right, fella. I verified the sender, double-checked the email address, pasted an included link into a browser instead of clicking on it directly (nice try, scammer). Several Google searches and redundant confirmations later, I cautiously agreed to take on the assignment, still certain the book would never show up as promised. When it did, I signed for it wondering: Had I been silly to be so suspicious? Or duly vigilant? As it turned out, 'Never Flinch,' Stephen King's propulsive follow-up to his 2023 thriller 'Holly,' courts a similar question: Is the world totally fine, or is it, in fact, on fire? In the early pages of the novel, the brilliant but troubled private investigator Holly Gibney, who appears in six of King's previous books, is just trying to enjoy some fish tacos with another familiar face, Detective Izzy Jaynes. Holly and Izzy are pals — a refreshing and distinctly feminine inversion of the usual animosity depicted between P.I.s and law enforcement — and Izzy needs help with a case. Someone has emailed the Buckeye City Police Department pledging to murder '13 innocents and 1 guilty' to avenge a wrongly convicted man who was killed in prison. 'Does that make sense to you?' the message reads. 'It does to me, and that is enough.' Well, it may not make much sense, but the sentiment — this insistence that the invention of truth is an inalienable right — sounds painfully familiar, and it's not just the aspiring serial killers in our lives who are expressing it either. Before long, the mysterious emailer, who, like Holly, is plagued by the intrusive narrative of an abusive dead parent, starts making good on the threats. The murders are swift. Unceremonious. Random. Executed with a chilling detachment that alerts you to your own infernal vulnerability. Even though bodies are piling up, the police chief has 'requested — no, mandated' that Izzy make time to promote and practice for the forthcoming charity baseball game against the Fire Department. 'A dog and pony show,' as she puts it, prioritizing P.R. over catching bad guys. Holly sees something of a dog and pony show in a new client, the provocative women's rights activist Kate McKay. After several violent public incidents involving a Westboro Baptist Church-style stalker, and another dust-up with problematic optics (the celebrity feminist's male bodyguard beat up a female fan), Kate needs a new bodyguard for the last few stops of her sold-out book tour. Despite having no experience in guarding bodies and at first sight looking 'almost … frail,' Holly, Kate insists, is the right woman for the job. 'Woman being the main requirement,' Holly grumbles. King returns often to this chasm between wanting to do the right thing and wanting to appear to be doing the right thing, or virtue signaling, as it's known online, where the scourge runs rampant. This overarching social critique works well to draw so many initially disparate threads together over the course of the novel, with short scenes bouncing among characters and locales. A structure that feels fun, almost retro. I kept wanting Kathryn Bigelow's 'Blue Steel'-era sleaze to characterize the inevitable adaptation. However, in 2025, Kate McKay's Betty Friedan act feels a bit too out of step with time. How I wish a powerful feminist voice were filling arenas across the country, as Kate does. How I wish she were on the covers of magazines or had '12 million followers on Twitter.' Instead, she's probably screaming into the void with the rest of us, watching in terror as the United States government systematically dismantles so much of what the real Friedan fought for. And maybe that's King's point. The world doesn't have heroes anymore. We're too busy with our own performances, hunting for skeletons in our would-be heroes' closets in order to look the most informed. Kate is a sobering reminder that our Big Pictures, our most ambitious ideals, have become fractured, weakened, divided across billions of small screens, where indifferent algorithms dispense unwholesome rewards to content that sows discord instead of truth. In the cinematic style we crave from a Stephen King novel, 'Never Flinch' calls attention to the very real dangers of turning your convictions into accessories, exsanguinated by the impulse to broadcast them; of standing for nothing but your own image, satisfied by only appearing to have done the right thing. Thoughts and prayers alone won't fix our problems; they might even obscure how little meaningful action is being taken to fix them. The question remains: Is the world totally fine? Or is it, in fact, on fire? Seems like that's our new right to choose.
