Never Flinch starts out at full throttle and basically doesn’t quit. After Alan Duffery, a convicted pedophile, is murdered in prison, podcaster Buckeye Brandon drops the bombshell that Duffery was innocent the entire time, and his accuser admits to framing him. The Buckeye City Police Department receives a letter declaring that “the INNOCENT should be punished for the needless DEATH of an innocent” and the intent to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty.”
And then we’re off to the races. Readers watch the murders happen from the killer’s POV as Holly Gibney and the police department (Hi Izzy Jaynes! We missed you!) race to track him down – all while preparing for a charity softball game. The story twists and turns, picking up a feminist public speaker in need of a bodyguard (an unlikely job for Holly) along the way. The book isn’t afraid to confront the reality of Christian terrorist/hate groups without being too didactic and one-dimensional and stays relevant without being overly political. Every character is one you can feel some sympathy for, which is pretty difficult considering what some of them get up to.
A lot of classic King tropes appear: Alcoholics Anonymous is a significant theme, as is trauma from an abusive father. Similarly to Mr. Mercedes, readers get both villains’ POVs without ruining the mystery. The book is also, in some ways, a love letter to a classic Hitchcock film that will remain nameless as to avoid spoilers.
I had a few issues with Never Flinch, and they all stemmed from the fact that the storylines were somewhat disparate. They tie together in the end but more so as an engineered coincidence than a neat bow on the story. If there’s one thread you’re not interested in, you may lose patience as the book bops from Barbara and Sista Bessie to Holly on the road with Kate, to the killer, to Kate’s stalker(s).
It almost feels as if the Kate McKay storyline could have been its own book, and Barbara’s plotline eliminated (or developed further and given its own novella-length story). Never mind the Guns and Hoses game – which to me seems like it wanted to be a short story of the type seen in Everything’s Eventual. What we have instead is a big spiderweb of plotlines. I love these characters enough that I was forgiving of how much the narration bounces around because I was so happy to see Holly, Jerome, and Barbara again.
It's not my favorite King (that honor goes to the behemoth It), but Never Flinch has some fun twists and is a feel-good return to some of our favorite characters. It’s definitely worth a look – and a mini-series version would be a lot of fun.
Never Flinch is situated as part of a loose collection that begins with the Bill Hodges trilogy and shows no sign of winding own any time soon. According to King, the main character, Holly Gibney "was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart." The end of the Bill Hodges trilogy essentially passed the torch to Holly, who ran with it in several standalone books, accompanied by Barbara and Jerome Robinson and a collection of classic police department characters. Aside from The Dark Tower, the Holly collection is probably King’ biggest “series,” though all parts can really be read on their own.
King is a versatile writer – someone with over 60 publications and a decades long career has to be – and doesn’t stay bound to the horror genre. (He’s even tried his hand at picture books…but I would not recommend Charlie the Choo-Choo for storytime.) Lately, he’s been dabbling in crime fiction. The Bill Hodges trilogy starts out as a solidly reality-based novel about a serial killer in an ice cream truck (an exquisitely King-esque setup if I ever read one) but becomes fully a supernatural story by End of Watch. The Outsider was proper horror as well, but Holly and Never Flinch swing back around into the crime genre.
Never Flinch starts out at full throttle and basically doesn’t quit. After Alan Duffery, a convicted pedophile, is murdered in prison, podcaster Buckeye Brandon drops the bombshell that Duffery was innocent the entire time, and his accuser admits to framing him. The Buckeye City Police Department receives a letter declaring that “the INNOCENT should be punished for the needless DEATH of an innocent” and the intent to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty.”
And then we’re off to the races. Readers watch the murders happen from the killer’s POV as Holly Gibney and the police department (Hi Izzy Jaynes! We missed you!) race to track him down – all while preparing for a charity softball game. The story twists and turns, picking up a feminist public speaker in need of a bodyguard (an unlikely job for Holly) along the way. The book isn’t afraid to confront the reality of Christian terrorist/hate groups without being too didactic and one-dimensional and stays relevant without being overly political. Every character is one you can feel some sympathy for, which is pretty difficult considering what some of them get up to.
A lot of classic King tropes appear: Alcoholics Anonymous is a significant theme, as is trauma from an abusive father. Similarly to Mr. Mercedes, readers get both villains’ POVs without ruining the mystery. The book is also, in some ways, a love letter to a classic Hitchcock film that will remain nameless as to avoid spoilers.
I had a few issues with Never Flinch, and they all stemmed from the fact that the storylines were somewhat disparate. They tie together in the end but more so as an engineered coincidence than a neat bow on the story. If there’s one thread you’re not interested in, you may lose patience as the book bops from Barbara and Sista Bessie to Holly on the road with Kate, to the killer, to Kate’s stalker(s).
It almost feels as if the Kate McKay storyline could have been its own book, and Barbara’s plotline eliminated (or developed further and given its own novella-length story). Never mind the Guns and Hoses game – which to me seems like it wanted to be a short story of the type seen in Everything’s Eventual. What we have instead is a big spiderweb of plotlines. I love these characters enough that I was forgiving of how much the narration bounces around because I was so happy to see Holly, Jerome, and Barbara again.
It's not my favorite King (that honor goes to the behemoth It), but Never Flinch has some fun twists and is a feel-good return to some of our favorite characters. It’s definitely worth a look – and a mini-series version would be a lot of fun.
Never Flinch is situated as part of a loose collection that begins with the Bill Hodges trilogy and shows no sign of winding own any time soon. According to King, the main character, Holly Gibney "was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart." The end of the Bill Hodges trilogy essentially passed the torch to Holly, who ran with it in several standalone books, accompanied by Barbara and Jerome Robinson and a collection of classic police department characters. Aside from The Dark Tower, the Holly collection is probably King’ biggest “series,” though all parts can really be read on their own.
King is a versatile writer – someone with over 60 publications and a decades long career has to be – and doesn’t stay bound to the horror genre. (He’s even tried his hand at picture books…but I would not recommend Charlie the Choo-Choo for storytime.) Lately, he’s been dabbling in crime fiction. The Bill Hodges trilogy starts out as a solidly reality-based novel about a serial killer in an ice cream truck (an exquisitely King-esque setup if I ever read one) but becomes fully a supernatural story by End of Watch. The Outsider was proper horror as well, but Holly and Never Flinch swing back around into the crime genre.
If you haven’t delved into the Bill Hodges/Holly Gibney books yet, here’s how to read them in order, finishing off with this latest entry.
- The Bill Hodges Trilogy
1. Mr. Mercedes
2. Finders Keepers
3. End of Watch
· The Outsider
· “If It Bleeds” (the titular story in the 2020 collection)
· Holly
· Never Flinch