End of Watch is the 69th book by Stephen King. It is his 55th novel, the 48th under his own name, and the third volume of The Bill Hodges Trilogy focusing on Detective Bill Hodges, following Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers. End of Watch is the final installment of The Bill Hodges Trilogy and featured the return of Brady Hartsfield. The novel was released on June 7, 2016.
Synopsis[]
Retired detective Bill Hodges, who now with his sidekick Holly runs the private investigation agency Finders Keepers, is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Given only months to live, he finds himself drawn into a recent spree of suicides. All the dead are connected by a common thread: each of them have in the past been in contact with Brady Hartsfield, the notorious Mr. Mercedes who, six years ago, plotted to blow up a rock concert venue packed with teenagers. Hodges and Holly thwarted Brady's plans and left the killer in a vegetative state from which he never regained consciousness. However, many of the staff in the hospital where Brady now resides believe that he is recovering at an impossible rate, and that he may be faking his injuries to avoid trial ... except that everyone who gets too close to proving this suspicion seems to disappear.
After his head injury, Brady found himself gaining new abilities, including telekinesis and telepathy. Still confined to his hospital bed, Brady has used his power to finish his murderous work by creating a hypnotic video game app that heightens the user's susceptibility. Once the users are in Brady's control, he will use the app to dominate their minds and persuade them to commit suicide. The targets are the very teenagers who escaped death when Brady's plan to destroy the concert venue failed. Brady's ultimate goal, however, is to lure Hodges into the game and exact revenge. Brady uses the bodies of both a corrupt neurosurgeon and a hospital librarian as puppets and red herrings to do his dirty work and to misdirect the police while he makes his final move to destroy Hodges, all the while unaware that Hodges is already racing the clock against his own death.
| The Hodges/Gibney metaseries | |
| Novels | Mr. Mercedes • Finders Keepers • End of Watch • The Outsider |
| Short stories | If it Bleeds |
| Adaptations | Mr. Mercedes (TV Series) • The Outsider (TV Series) |
| Characters | Bill Hodges • Holly Gibney • Jerome Robinson Brady Hartsfield |