Bill Hodges es un policía jubilado. Brady Hartsfield es un asesino múltiple cuya culpabilidad Bill Hodges nunca logró demostrar. Ahora vuelven a encontrarse y cientos de vidas están en juego. ¿Quién es el cazador y quién la presa?
Antes del amanecer, en una ciudad del medio-oeste, cientos de desempleados esperan la apertura de la oficina de empleo para solicitar uno de los mil puestos de trabajo que se han anunciado. Han hecho fila durante toda la noche. De repente, sin previo aviso, un Mercedes surge de la fría niebla de la madrugada y atropella a todos los que encuentra en su camino, retrocediendo y volviendo a arremeter contra ellos. El asesino huye dejando ocho muertos y quince heridos.
Meses después, en otro rincón de la ciudad, Bill Hodges, un policía jubilado que sigue obsesionado con este caso sin resolver, recibe una carta anónima de quien se declara culpable de la masacre: Brady Hartsfield. Vive todavía con su madre alcohólica y disfrutó tanto de la sensación de la muerte bajo los neumáticos del Mercedes, que ahora quiere repetirlo. Hodges está decidido a evitar una nueva tragedia.
Mr. Mercedes
es una batalla entre el bien y el mal presentada por el maestro del suspense, cuya mirada al interior de la mente de este asesino demente es escalofriante e inolvidable.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
#1
New York Times
bestseller! In a high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. “Mr. Mercedes is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses” (The Washington Post).
In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.
In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.
Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with two new, unusual allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.