For the record, Mr Mercedes concerns overweight former homicide detective Bill Hodges, who is lonely, retired and bored to the point of being vaguely suicidal, whiling away his days watching bad TV and playing thoughtfully with his father's gun. Ardent fans aren't going to check what the story is about, however, before deciding whether to purchase: if you've been waiting impatiently for the new King then you're going to buy the thing even if it's about a pebble called Deirdre living out her retirement on Mars. While horror novels are about an idea, crime and mystery books tend to stand or fall on plot. From the shoutout to James M Cain on the dedication page to the George Pelecanos quote on the back, it is clear that Mr Mercedes is firmly positioned in suspense-thriller territory and the non-supernatural world – somewhere King evidently feels increasingly at home. Therefore, there is a third level of potential scrutiny – that of assessing the book within whichever genre it inhabits. The Tommyknockers was published a long time ago, however, and after the Dark Tower fantasy series and non‑fiction such as the magisterial On Writing, King isn't as trapped in the horror ghetto as he once was.
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