End of Watch by Stephen King - last part of the The Bill Hodges Trilogy

The story of a retired detective Bill Hodges came to an end. The story, which began in the novel Mr. Mercedes, continued in Finders Keepers, has its finale in the End of Watch. This is my review.

I have written several times about Stephen King, and every time I emphasized that I love his books (I read all, see my ranking of his novels), and I am constantly impressed by the hard work, diligence and creativity of the writer.

End of Watch isn't one of his best works, but keeps level - it is a well-written and well-told story of a detective mixed with elements of the paranormal. Specialty of Stephen King :-)

If you have enjoyed Mr. Mercedes (see review) and Finders Keepers (my review), it seems to me that I no longer have to convince you to read this book.You buy it, I'm sure :)

On the other hand, those who did not read about the adventures of a retired policeman, I encourage to read the first part. Of course each of them can be read as a stand-alone story, because Stephen King smoothly weaves the most important information about past events, so even if you do not know the fate of previous heroes of "End of Watch", you will learn everything necessary. But it has its minus - if you decide to then read the Mr. Mercedes or continuation - disappears element of surprise, because you will know exactly what happened.

Different points of view
End of Watch for me it's also a good example of how to in novels refer to the past and not to get bored readers who read the earlier books, and tell important information to readers, who do not read previous titles.

King uses an interesting method - an event that we know from the first part tells from the different perspective - we know what's going to happen, but we look at it from another angle, because the author also focuses on other characters.

End of Watch it's a good book, therefore, I recommend :-). And I am glad that the author is already working on another novel! It is to be titled Sleeping Beauties. Interestingly, Stephen King will co-writes it in collaboration with his son Owen. Planned premiere - somewhere in 2017.

Buy End of Watch on Amazon! >

Book review: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

In 2010 came out very good collection of short stories by Stephen King called Full Dark No Stars. Since then, the writer published several novels and prepared a new volume of stories - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.

In The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (see description on Amazon) there are twenty short stories, each one has an introduction, where King tells us how he came up with the idea, and why he decided to write it down.

The author devotes a lot of space reflection on death, suffering, aging. And it's not surprisingly, you have to remember that King has almost 70 years old. The writer himself, however, points out that he looking mainly for a good story, so looking into these categories - unfortunately, some stories are weak or have a bad ending.

This does not change the fact that Stephen King once again proves that it is an extraordinary observer of daily life and has an incredible talent for concise, short dialogues that reflect the great character of the people and the relationships between them.

I love the work of King (see my rating of his books). Would I recommend The Bazaar of Bad Dreams? Only those who already know other collections of the author and want to learn what's new Stephen King wrote. To everyone else I can recommend the previous volume of short stories - Full Dark No Stars, which are very, very, good.

I think that The Bazaar of Bad Dreams is not a book for people who previously did not read other works by King, because I am convinced that this only discouraged you to read another books by Stephen King.

Writer admits he is primarily a novelist and loves long stories that allow readers to sink in the world. They are like a marriage, while the sort story is only like fleeting romance :-)

Which stories I liked the most and deserve attention in my opinion? I will mention seven: Premium Harmony, Ur, The Dune, Bad Little Kid, Blockade Billy, Obits and That Bus Is Another World.

Buy this book on Amazon.com  >

Closed Winter by Jorn Lier Horst - good crime novel from Norway

My review: Closed Winter is an interesting crime novel about police work, where the most important elements are collecting and analyzing evidence and ongoing conversations with people. If you like this kind of stories, when reach for this book of the Norwegian author Jorn Lier Horst.

What you should know? Author worked for many years in the police, he was the head of the investigation department of the District Police in Vestfold, Norway. Professional experience, knowledge about how daily operational work in Police looks like (he retired from service in 2013) and ability to creating unusual plots helps Horst to write very interesting crime books.

Main character: William Wisting
Jorn Lier Horst writes detective stories with Police Commissioner William Wisting in the lead role. You can buy 10 novels with this character, but you don’t have to read them in order. Of course, where are connection between books, but they are not blockers to buy titles randomly.

Closed Winter - description of the book from Amazon:
"The summer cottages are closed and peace is settling over the coast of Vestfold, Norway, but the autumn fog conceals evil deeds. Ove Bakkerud, newly separated and extremely disillusioned, is looking forward to a final quiet weekend at his summer home before closing for winter but, when the tourists leave, less welcome visitors arrive. Bakkerud's cottage is ransacked by burglars. Next door, he discovers the body of a man who has been beaten to death.

Police Inspector William Wisting has witnessed grotesque murders before, but the desperation he sees in this latest murder is something new. Wisting's unease does not diminish when he discovers several more corpses on the deserted archipelago. Meanwhile, dead birds are dropping from the sky".

Great plot
In Closed Winter there are some surprising moments. One scene in particular is very memorable. I wish I could write more about it, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But it worth to read the whole book even for this one scene :-)

Story is multidimensional, the writer skillfully weaves different threads to make it more difficult to explain what really happened on the day of the murder. If you like crime novels written by Henning Mankell with Kurt Wallander in the main role (see top 5 best books by Henning Mankell), I think you will also be interested in inspector William Wisting’s adventures.

What I particularly like about Horst’s book? Details. It feels that author knows exactly what he writes. In a few words he can accurately describe the steps in an ongoing investigation. I must admit that Horst came up with a really interesting character.

History has a few flaws (including that one of the threads is quite predictable), but the whole story is so interesting that I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a new author of detective stories or just well-written crime story to read. Buy Closed Winter on Amazon.com! :-)