Reviewed by Ian Lipke
In this mystery, Stephen King tells the story of a social misfit who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author introduces the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church, who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist.
These miscreants and their crimes lie at the centre of Never Flinch, the new offering by Stephen King. Readers, who have noted that King’s work has been slipping in quality lately will observe, to their chagrin, that the book contains no episodes of ‘horror’, just a story of murder, one after the other. The misfit who is performing the first lot of crimes has no hope of making it to “13 plus 1”. He knows this goal to be unattainable and reaches a situation where he appears to his audience to be saying, “Sorry, I’m bored. Let’s finish this travesty.”
To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, who readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant.
The author almost succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this heavy-handed tale. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by an author who promises so much but can no longer deliver. What is possible is visible in the famous It, written by King many years ago. Now, the reader is expected to enjoy cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic.
King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers are cerebral, at best. The writing never attempts to harvest that deeper inwardness within each of us, the place where dark things live and of which we are plainly scared. King’s twenty-first century novels have never crafted a truly evil character. It seems that they retired with the coming of Covid.
But all is not lost. If evil has failed as I suggest, there is still a place for good. The characters Holly and Izzy are reasonably rounded and suggest capability of a high order. There is much positive to be said for their development. King can still wield the evocative phrase and reveals his skill in this novel.
I have not mentioned (other than at the beginning) the second group of killers, they who hold abortion in their sights. To do so, with any chance of completeness of coverage would see me produce the same coverage as I gave to the first killer. My advice is to forget about them.
Never Flinch
(2025)
by Stephen King
Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN:978-1-399-74434-8
$34.99;430pp