Fans who have kept up with Stephen King’s work in the last decade are already well-acquainted with Holly Gibney.
We first met her through the Bill Hodges trilogy beginning with Mr. Mercedes (2014), where she grew from a timid recluse into a formidable detective, followed by The Outsider (2018) and the short story collection If It Bleeds (2020). But despite her many supporting roles in the celebrated author’s canon, Holly has never had a book of her own — until now.
Holly, King’s newest novel, hits shelves on September 5 and puts the titular character center stage. This time, she leads a chilling procedural set in our modern pandemic era. Following her mother’s death, the last thing Holly wants to do is take on another case. Her partner Pete is sick with COVID, after all, leaving her as the lone private investigator at the Finders Keeper detective agency. But when a desperate mother begs for help finding her missing daughter, something in her voice leaves Holly unable to say no.
What follows next is a thrilling tale that places our heroine in a Midwest town plagued by mysterious disappearances. There, she learns of Professors Rodney and Emily Harris, two married octogenarians who live just blocks away from where the little girl was last seen. And beneath their prim and proper home is a basement full of secrets that may hold the key to the evil that’s run amok. Now, it’s up to Holly to best the sinister intellectuals with her own quick wit and cunning eye.
“I could never let Holly Gibney go,” King said in a press statement. “She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.”
Read Entertainment Weekly’s excerpt HERE.