This Constant Reader tries to never miss a Stephen King book, he’s been a part of my summer reading for decades. So after getting HOLLY for Christmas (joke in there somewhere), I cracked its cover as soon as the heat and humidity settled right in before the solstice. But this book’s reputation did precede it, as it seems to be one of King’s most polarizing recent efforts. One bone fans seemed to pick was that it was yet another Holly Gibney book, featuring an emotionally repressed single woman, first introduced in the MR. MERCEDES trilogy, who has blossomed in middle age by becoming a private investigator. To put it simply, it seems King is much more of a fan of his creation than many of his Constant Readers, who are less enamored with Holly Gibney then he. The other big criticism of the book, set mostly during the summer of 2021, is that it is too “political.”

The plot of HOLLY is pure procedural—up to a point. As the second wave of the Covid epidemic (which has touched Holly personally) rolls across the country, she reluctantly takes on the case of a missing young woman in an Ohio college town. With little to go on, Holly does what she can, and bit by bit, begins to put together clues that point to a number of other similar disappearances, and the very real possibility that there may be a serial killer operating behind the scenes. As the case progresses, subplots develop concerning Holly’s late mother and the estate she left behind, along with the returning Jerome and Barbara Robinson, both of whom are enjoying some literary success, especially the latter, who is being mentored by an elderly poetess. The pacing stays on point pretty much, and if you are not into some of the subplots, King does not dwell on them too much at any one time. My paperback copy clocks in at 446 pages, the chapters are not too long, and there are frequent shifts in the POV among characters, including the Big Bads.

The main thing HOLLY has going for it is that King has really come up with a great pair of villains that light a fire under the narrative. Rodney and Emily Harris are a married pair of retired college professors well into their golden years, and both of them psychotically insane. Beset by the ravages of old age, they think they have come up with a way to cheat the clock and restore vitality by kidnapping young people, then killing and eating them. This loony pair have come to believe in the restorative power of devouring the vital organs, and can set a table that Hannibal Lector would pull up a chair to and feel right at home. This is not a big spoiler, as King reveals the Harris’s true nature and what they are up to very early on, and the tension comes from reading how Holly is slowly getting closer to the truth, while Rod and Emily go about their business of being geriatric cannibals as both sides move toward an inevitable collision. King does what many authors do when they really want to make a character reprehensible, and that is make them racist and homophobic, having Rodney and Emily spout slurs on more than one occasion. Even without that added touch, these two are instantly among King’s most memorable embodiments of pure evil.

This is a book beset with illness and infirmity, as would be natural with a story set during the Covid pandemic, but there are characters dealing with cancer, sciatica, dementia, mental illness, and substance abuse. And it wouldn’t be a Stephen King book without somebody passing gas, a piece of scatological humor that got old back in the 20th Century. As stated, I am not as big a fan of Holly Gibney as King evidently is, but she is a good example of the type of protagonist he writes just about better than anyone. Like so many of those who have come before her, Holly Gibney has had to overcome something in her life to become the person she is, in her case it was a controlling mother and crippling low self-esteem. How many other of King’s characters have dealt with trauma, loss, failure, and crushing disappointment, and then had to find a way to move on while living with the scars of life, hoping for either redemption or peace. And when I see Holly through that lens, she rises in my estimation. Having said that, I still really miss Bill Hodges.

As for those who have a problem with the “political” issue of the story, all I can say is where have you been, as Stephen King has made no secret on what side of the political spectrum he falls. He is unabashedly pro vaccine and pro mask when it comes to Covid. The book also lights on the BLM protests, and other unrest from that time. But most of this is in the background, and is dealt with in passing, there are no pages filled with diatribes against Trump and MAGA as some reviewers seem to imply. I think the problem is our polarizing and very partisan times, along with the fact that just about every American would just rather forget everything about the Covid years. The “political” problem, if there is one, is not with the book, but with readers who cannot abide having their world view challenged with a contrary viewpoint in any way.

So in the end, HOLLY is like much of King’s output in the 21st Century, entertaining, though not on the level, or even close to it, of his early classics like THE SHINING, THE STAND, or SALEM’S LOT. It’s not even on the level of 11-22-63 or FAIRY TALE, my favorite books of his from recent decades. But even lesser Stephen King is still better than almost 90% of what other authors are putting out at any given time. If you are a Constant Reader, give it a try.

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