A few months ago, I read and really enjoyed King's novel Holly which featured one of my favorite King characters, Holly Gibney. Holly is the singular woman turned detective who was featured in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy as well as The Outsider and If It Bleeds which were all very suspenseful and enjoyable King stories. Never Flinch is King's new novel which also features Gibney. In it, Holly is hired by an outspoken women's rights activist named Kate McKay as a bodyguard while she is on her lecture tour. Her assistant had been assaulted by a young woman who threw bleach in her face and who is warned that McKay is a target because of her pro-choice stance on abortion. Holly takes the job while meanwhile back home in Buckeye City, a person is threatening to kill innocent people as proxies for a jury who wrongly convicted a supposed pedophile. The case has been assigned to Holly's friend Detective Izzy Jaynes and when the killer makes good on his threat by killing some innocents, Izzy turns to Holly to try and identify him. Holly uses her friends Barbara and Jerome to help in the identification but can she stop both threats before her loved ones are the ones being targeted?

This was another thriller from King that did not disappoint. Although Holly was the main protagonist of the novel, the focus was really more on the antagonist, Trig, the deranged killer who is trying to put guilt on the jurors who convicted an innocent man; or is he? He is really more of a psychotic killer in the vein of Norman Bates. Overall, this was an enjoyable read but I felt it fell a little below King's best. I do, however, hope King writes more Holly Gibney stories.

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