The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.

You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.

End of Watch opens on April 10, 2009. Bill Hodges’ whole life and everything in this trilogy ultimately hinges on this date. This is the novel that will finally resolve all of this.

Suicides of City Center victims speaks to the M.O. of the Mercedes Killer, if he wasn’t a vegetable. But maybe he has more power than can easily be explained.

It was great to see these characters’ arcs closed off here in End of Watch. The confrontation between Hodges and Brady was important for the trilogy. King executed it well.

I was worried that introducing supernatural elements to a series that essentially didn’t have them before as a story point would hurt the trilogy. Everything for this final book was hinted at and established in the second book, but still, it was a change of style. In the end, those elements were handled well and uniquely from his previous work.

King appears to be utilizing his researchers in a way that is really enhancing the details around his storytelling. The elements of the world and the characters’ lives all seem more grounded. None of the details are distracting to the greater story.

The thing about this trilogy, if any one of these books was published as a standalone, they would be great. I have to give the first book top billing of the three, but that is not a slight to the other two books.

Normally, I take lots of notes all the way through my reading of these books for this blog. This time, I found myself forgetting to write things down. I think that speaks highly of the story.

The ending was well-constructed. Cosmic justice was served in a way I wasn’t expecting and didn’t realize was coming until it had all unfolded. I was satisfied with the series all the way through.

My next post in this series will be Before Charlie the Choo Choo which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.

Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn has a Masters Degree in Education that goes mostly unused since he quit teaching to write about zombies. Jay writes horror because he tends to find the light by facing down the darkness. His is doing well following a life saving kidney transplant. Jay is the author of Maidens of Zombie Kingdom a young adult fantasy trilogy, Lake Scatter Wood Tales adventure books for elementary and middle school readers, Vampire Christ a trilogy of political and religious satire, and The Dead Song Legend. He cowrote The Enemy Held Near, Yard Full of Bones, and The Hidden Truth with Armand Rosamilia. You can also find Jay's work in Best Horror of the Year volume 5. He is a staff writer with Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, and the Still Water Bay series with Crystal Lake Publishing.

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