3.5 stars

This is only my second Stephen King novel and I am absolutely determined to keep reading his works. I enjoyed this novel and really thought the mix of characters and story line were great.

The opening of this book left me feeling angry and wanting to know more about what had happened. What ensued was a long investigation by retired Detective Bill Hodges into the Mercedes Killer. Accompanied by teenage sidekick Jerome and the later addition of the mentally fragile Holly, this book had lots of twists and turns that I wasn't expecting.

I liked that the chapters were fairly short as they kept me wanting to read on. I enjoyed the way in which King took us between the Bill and Brady's points of view. This really helped to build up the suspense for me. One minute I was on the trail of the Mercedes Killer, the next I was reading about what his next plans were. As I got closer to the end of the book, I was quite frantically willing on Bill, Jerome and Holly as I knew what the consequences would be if they didn't get him.

Brady creeped me out. The idea of him being the ice-cream man was very real, almost too real for my liking. It really brought back those feelings of realising that psychopaths and murderers really can be anyone. Brady's relationship with his mother made me feel a bit queasy at times but I liked how King used this to show another edge to Brady's unstable nature.

This book was really well written and I loved the fact that I could so easily visualise what was happening. I had my own mental movie going on throughout the time I was reading this. There were some scenes that did make me feel physically quite sick, but this is down to the intimate writing style of King.

Overall I thought this was a great read. I really liked the characters and the team that King has created. I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to read the next in the trilogy and see what happens next.