Book Review: Never Flinch

 

Never Flinch, published in 2025, is a novel by Stephen King, set in Ohio, featuring the character of Holly Gibney. This is one of King's crime dramas/thrillers, rather than one of the supernatural horror stories he is known for. There are two storylines in this novel that mostly remain parallel until the end, when they intersect. In the first, Holly Gibney, the private investigator first introduced in the book Mr. Mercedes, is assisting a detective who is investigating a killer who threatens to kill 14 people, 13 innocents and one guilty, after an innocent man who was tried and convicted for a murder he did not commit is killed in prison. In the second, Gibney is hired to act as a bodyguard for a celebrity women's rights activist who is being stalked during a speaking tour.

The hardcover version of the book is a little over 430 pages. It reads pretty quickly, much like King's more recent novels, Holly, Fairy Tale, and Billy Summers. While the two storylines are mostly separate, King does a great job alternating between the two of them, so it is easy to keep track of what is going on in each one. While King does insert his political and social opinions into the book, I did not find it all that preachy (although people who disagree with his viewpoints probably will). As with many of King's books, there are a couple of twists in each storyline that are revealed over the course of the book. Ultimately, it is an entertaining book that is absolutely worth reading, especially if you are a fan of King's more "reality-based" novels or crime thrillers in general.