All in all, this was a good series. This book, like the first two, was compulsively readable (although the second one is by far my favorite of the three). But taken as a whole series, they definitely work together to reinforce each other. The ending of this one had threads that reach all the way back to the first chapter of Mr. Mercedes.
End of Watch brings us back to Brady Hartsfield, who has been hospitalized as a “gork” for going on six years now, unable even to be tried, no matter that Hodges thinks he’s faking. Holly and Hodges have moved on and started a private investigation business, and their lives are the best they’ve been in a long time. Then two things happen: Hodges begins to feel a pain in his side, and people start killing themselves, people who survived Brady’s original Mercedes Massacre. The police call in Hodges and Holly almost as a courtesy, but of course it turns out there is actually something to investigate.
As in Mr. Mercedes, the narrative is basically just a race between the two sides, Brady Hartsfield and his suicide machine on one, and Holly and Hodges trying to figure out his plans before he can enact them (with occasional cameos by Jerome) on the other.
The ending was a bit of a letdown, in that it was a bit of a predictable conclusion to the actual events of the plot (nothing surprising really happens), but in terms of character, it was good. SPOILERS I do wish King would have lingered more on the actual scene where Brady died END SPOILERS. It seemed over way too fast, especially since this is a trilogy ender, not just the ending of a single book. So much of this series has focused on Bill and the unlikely human connections he makes, that not only save him from himself and from Brady, but who save the people he connects with as well. And in that respect, the book ends well, very much staying true to those ideas even to the last scene.
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