Hitting The Books-May 2025

This Month’s Featured Book Pairings…

This month’s read-a-likes are curated for the release of Never Flinch by Stephen King. The story of two killers; one who vows to kill 13 innocents and 1 guilty in his quest to right perceived wrongs against him, another a member of a violent anti-abortion church intent on stopping at nothing in opposition to their religious fervor. King shines brightest when he excavates our darkest fears and desire. When he creates a reflection of our world’s broken edges and the strength it takes to mend them.

More reads that you won’t be able to look away from, no matter how much you might want to.

HOLLY – STEPHEN KING

Holly is a rather shy and reclusive private investigator who is hired by a mother desperate to find out what happened to her missing daughter. Soon Holly discovers connections to other missing people. A broad plot that has certainly made the rounds among thriller writers, so what’s left to offer? The answer to that is the casting of diabolically depraved miscreants created by a master.

Apparently, the bonkers Annie Wilkes was barely skimming the surface of this authors reservoir of villains. I was thrilled to be reminded that King is a superb writer who seamlessly navigates the realms in which all genres meet. As long as darkness is allowed to enter.

SMALL MERCIES – DENNIS LEHANE

This magnificent novel is set in Boston in the summer of 1974 during the tumultuous months leading up to the violence that exploded following the announcement of the city’s desegregation of its public schools. One night Mary Pat’s daughter doesn’t come home. That same night a young Black man is found dead on the subway tracks. At a glance, the events don’t seem connected, that is until the author begins to peel back the layers to our gaze.

Propelled by desperation and armed with a balls to the wall fortitude, Mary Pat begins turning over stones the neighbourhood goons want left untouched. Despite threats to leave well enough alone, she is not only prepared to start any fight necessary, but she also sure as hell can finish them. They won’t see her coming.

BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN – JESSICA KNOLL

The book opens on a night in 1978, hours before a soon to be infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house. As a result, two women are brought together by this monstrous violence, becoming allies as they pursue the justice that has eluded those that came before.

Knoll is blistering in her portrayal of how law enforcement agencies across states and counties continuously dropped the ball in capturing and containing this killer. Also, of how the public enthrallment with this so called handsome and charming psychopath was utterly vile. The portrait of him in this novel is undoubtedly closer to the truth, a pathetic run of the mill incel, rather than a diabolical genius.

& So On…

First Day Of Spring – Nancy Tucker

The Confession – Charolette Bigland

Dear Child – Romy Hausman