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Is he not the guy who writes horror stories? That’s what everyone says when I declare I enjoy reading Stephen King novels. What an insult to one of our greatest living novelists, an author now in his 72nd year and still with the hunger, and still writing with a verocity that must be the envy of many younger would be SK’s. Yes many of his stories contain a horror element (here’s Johnny!) but deep down he truly understands the human condition of love, loss, want and the connection that exists between both friends and lovers, indeed all of us. (The Shining to me is really a study of a family coping with mental collapse)

Finders Keepers is the second story in the Bill Hodges trilogy and even better than the first; Mr Mercedes. In 1978 Morris Bellamy killed iconic American author John Rothstein stealing not only cash but unpublished works about the great Jimmy Gold. Bellamy hides both cash and books just before he is given a 35 year sentence for rape. In 2009 young Pete Saubers accidentally discovers this buried treasure and uses it to help his family. However there will be a day of reckoning, in 2014 Bellamy is a free man and he is seeking retribution for 35 wasted years, first stop to reclaim the contents of the buried chest. The scene is set...enter Bill Hodges (retired detective) Holly and Jerome, the Finder Keepers investigative company. King always tells more than just a story, he uses the time he spends, with you dear reader, to show  both the good and bad, the positive and negative that is the DNA within all of us. You will both hate and love his characters; Bellamy epitomises evil, but Bill, Holly, Jerome and Pete are driven by hopes and aspirations, they believe in the connection of people, believe in helping others not destroying, believe in dreams and the knowledge and faith that man is ultimately good and we all need a little bit of love and affection in our daily lives.

 I have never read a bad book by Stephen King and this is most certainly one of his best, I now look forward to the final part of the trilogy "End of Watch" but before I close why don’t you read and feel a little of his magic…..”........ the vast and ever metastasizing concrete sprawl of John M. Kiner Hospital. As he walks to the parking garage elevator, he sends up a prayer as he almost always does, thanking God that he’s here as a visitor rather than as a paying customer. All too aware, even as he says his very proper thank-you, that most people become customers sooner or later, here or at one of the city’s four other fine and not-so-fine sickbays. No one rides for free, and in the end, even the most seaworthy ship goes down, blub-blub-blub. The only way to balance that off, in Hodge’s opinion, is to make the most of every day afloat”......... Highly, highly recommended.