Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers by Stephen King is a crime novel first published in 2015. It is the second installment of the Hodges trilogy, featuring Detective Bill Hodges. It followed the first installment, Mr. Mercedes (2014), and preceded the final installment, End of Watch (2016). Finders Keepers follows two fans of the fictional Gold trilogy as they fight over stolen notebooks containing two long-lost additional Gold novels. The author of 65 novels and novellas, over 200 short stories, and five nonfiction books, King is often referred to as the “King of Horror.” This trilogy’s focus on crime and detective work departs from his typical horror fiction.

The Hodges trilogy was adapted into a TV Series by Audience Network; however, it was discontinued after the third season, when the network ceased operations. The novel’s reviews were generally positive, praising King’s focus on the relationship between author and fans, a theme similarly explored in his popular psychological horror novel Misery (1987).

This guide uses the Scribner hardcover edition, published in June 2015.

Content Warning: The source text contains instances of murder, rape, and antigay bias and language, which are discussed in this guide. It also includes scientifically inaccurate and offensive depictions of people with brain injuries and people with mental health conditions.

Plot Summary

In 1978, Morris Bellamy and two partners kill John Rothstein, one of the most prolific writers in the world. Rothstein, who is in his eighties, has spent the last two decades writing in notebooks but not publishing it. While Morris’s partners rob Rothstein’s home for the money in his safe, Morris wants the notebooks of his writing. He resents Rothstein for the way his most famous character, Jimmy Gold, settled down and got married at the end of his trilogy. After killing Rothstein, Morris takes the money and notebooks and kills his partners. He seeks the advice of Andy Halliday, a bookstore clerk, revealing that he has the notebooks. Andy refuses to help him and advises him to bury the notebooks and stay hidden. Morris returns to his home on Sycamore Street, where he buries the notebooks. He gets drunk, committing a rape that ultimately sends him to prison for life.

In 2010, a young boy named Pete Saubers, now living in the Sycamore Street house, finds the notebooks and money. He uses the money to help his family because his dad is jobless after being debilitated in the Mr. Mercedes killings years before. Pete sends his family one envelope of money a month for the next several years, totaling over $20,000. When the money runs out, Pete attempts to sell the notebooks and seeks the advice of Andy Halliday, now an antique book dealer. Recognizing the notebooks, Andy agrees to help but plans to give Pete a small amount of money, keeping the rest notebooks for himself.

Pete’s sister, Tina, discovers that Pete was the one sending the money. When she confronts him, he denies it. As he gets more involved with Andy, however, she notices his stress increasing. She goes to her friend Barbara for help, and Barbara seeks the advice of Bill Hodges, a former detective who owns a private detective firm, Finders Keepers. Hodges, Holly Gibney (his partner), and Jerome Robinson (Barbara’s brother) decide to help, planning to meet with Pete on Monday.

Meanwhile, after over three decades in prison, Morris is released on parole. He returns to Sycamore Street for the notebooks, but they are gone. Angry and blaming Andy for his imprisonment, he goes to Andy’s store. Andy reveals that Pete has the notebooks and is returning on Monday. Morris murders Andy. On Monday, Hodges tries to get Pete to talk to him, but he refuses, instead deciding to meet Andy and get rid of the notebooks. When he arrives at Andy’s store, Morris is there waiting for him and threatens to kill him. Pete escapes and calls Hodges for help.

Morris sets up his hideout in the local rec center, which happens to be where Pete stashed the notebooks. Meanwhile, Pete and Hodges plan to meet at Pete’s house. Pete also calls his mother, who knows about the money. He warns her about Morris. Morris gets to Pete’s house first, shooting his mother and taking Tina captive. He returns to the rec center. Pete gets home, finds his mother has been shot, and calls an ambulance. Instead of waiting for help, he takes his father’s lighter and lighter fluid and goes to the rec center to free his sister. Meanwhile, Hodges, Holly, and Jerome arrive at Pete’s house and find his mother. She is in shock and bleeding but gives them enough information for Hodges to deduce that they are going to the rec center. Holly stays with Pete’s mother.

At the rec center, Pete calls Morris upstairs. As Morris makes his way upstairs, Pete sneaks to the basement, where Tina is tied up. Unable to free her, he douses the notebooks with lighter fluid. When Morris returns, he and Pete have a standoff: Pete holds a lighter over the notebooks, insisting that Morris let his sister go. When Morris refuses, Pete realizes that he is truly obsessed with the notebooks, unable to think or talk logically about them.

At that moment, Hodges arrives. Morris shoots at him, startling Pete into dropping the lighter. The books go up in flames. Morris abandons the fight with Hodges to try to save the notebooks, catching on fire as he digs through them and the building goes up in flames. Jerome frees Pete, Tina, and Hodges from the burning building, and they make their way back to Pete’s house. Pete learns that his mother is okay and is angry with himself for becoming so obsessed with the notebooks.

Months later, Pete meets with Hodges to take photos for a story about the notebooks in The New Yorker. He apologizes to Hodges for not seeking his help sooner, claiming that he is no different from Morris in his obsession with the notebooks. Hodges insists this is not true, as he was willing to burn them to save his sister.

Hodges goes for his regular visit with Brady Hartsfield at the brain injury ward of the hospital. Brady is the Mercedes Killer, who injured Pete’s father and killed several people when he drove a Mercedes into a crowd. Although the hospital believes Hartsfield’s brain no longer functions and he is unable to interact or communicate, Hodges believes that he is at least partially faking it. As Hodges leaves Hartsfield’s room, Hartsfield uses his mind to turn the faucet on and off and turn over a picture of his mother.