Holly Gibney will be the protagonist of the new “chilling” novel by Stephen King. Simply entitled ‘Holly’, the book will be released in the United States on 5 September by Scribner (464 pages), while in Great Britain and in the other English-speaking countries of the Commonwealth it will be published by Hodder & Stoughton (in Italy, as per tradition, it will be Sperling & Kupfer the publisher). King said: “I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be an extra in ‘Mr Mercedes’ and she stole the book and my heart.”
Holly Gibney has been a recurring presence in the American horror king’s books since introducing the character in ‘Mr. Mercedes’ from 2014, and over time she’s transformed from shy recluse to full-fledged private detective in ‘Loser’s Pay’ and ‘The Outsider’. Now Gibney returns in the next novel to solve the gruesome mystery behind multiple disappearances in a Midwestern town.
The US publisher, who announced the novel’s release, declared that ‘Holly’ marks “the triumphant return of King’s heroine, Holly Gibney, one of his most compelling and ingenious characters”. “Readers – Scribner recalls in a statement – have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also courageous and ethical) recluse in ‘Mr. Mercedes’ to Bill Hodges’ companion in ‘Loser’s Pay’, up to becoming a detective fully private, intelligent and sometimes tough, in ‘The Outsider.’ In King’s new novel, Holly finds herself facing a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.”
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to take the case. Her partner Pete has Covid. Her mother (a very complicated woman) has just died. And Holly is supposed to be on vacation. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn down the job.
A few blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other and semi-retired academics for life. But in the basement of their well-maintained, book-filled home, they hide a diabolical secret that may be connected to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will be almost impossible to find out what they are up to: they are cunning, patient and ruthless. Holly must call upon all of her formidable talents to overcome the thinking and maneuvering of the shocking and twisted professors.
(by Paolo Martini)