# Finders Keepers (King novel)
**Finders Keepers** is a crime thriller novel by [Stephen King](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-king) published by Scribner on June 2, 2015, and the second book of the Bill Hodges Trilogy, which began with *Mr. Mercedes* (2014) and concluded with *[End of Watch](https://www.edgepedia.org/end-of-watch-novel)* (2016)[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) • [2](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Finders-Keepers/Stephen-King/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy/9781501100079). It follows a reader, Morris Bellamy, whose obsession with a reclusive novelist turns murderous, and it revisits the danger of fan obsession that King had last explored in *Misery* (1987)[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html). King's website describes it as a book about how literature shapes a life, for good and for bad[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Published | June 2, 2015, Scribner; hardcover 448 pages, ISBN 978-1-5011-0007-9[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) • [3](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781501100079) |
| Series position | Book #2 of the Bill Hodges Trilogy, between *Mr. Mercedes* (2014) and *End of Watch* (June 7, 2016)[2](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Finders-Keepers/Stephen-King/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy/9781501100079) • [4](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/end-of-watch.html) |
| Setting span | The crime occurs in 1978; Bellamy is paroled in 2014 after thirty-five years in prison[5](https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/stephen-king-3/finders-keepers/9781473698956/) |
| Central characters | Morris Bellamy, Pete Saubers, and the detective team of Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) |
| The treasure | More than 100 notebooks of John Rothstein's unpublished writing, including at least one further Jimmy Gold novel[3](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781501100079) • [1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) |
| Television | Adapted as season 3 of the *Mr. Mercedes* AT&T Audience series, out of sequence after *End of Watch*[6](https://www.assignmentx.com/2019/mr-mercedes-executive-producer-and-director-jack-bender-on-season-3-exclusive-interview/) • [7](https://catalog.simonandschuster.com/Reports/Report.aspx?CATALOGID=0&ISBN=9781501100079&name=SeasonalCatalog.rpt) |
| Audiobook | Read by Will Patton[2](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Finders-Keepers/Stephen-King/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy/9781501100079) |
## Plot
The novel opens in 1978. Morris Bellamy is a reader so obsessed with the iconic American author John Rothstein that he is prepared to kill for the notebooks Rothstein keeps unpublished[5](https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/stephen-king-3/finders-keepers/9781473698956/). His fury is doubled because Jimmy Gold, the nonconformist character who made Rothstein famous, has in the last published installment of the trilogy gone into advertising, which Bellamy reads as a betrayal[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) • [8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/). Bellamy robs and murders Rothstein, empties his safe of cash, and takes the notebooks, several of which contain a rough draft for a fourth installment of the Jimmy Gold series[8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/). He buries a trunk with the money and notebooks for safekeeping, but is then imprisoned for another crime and serves thirty-five years[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) • [8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/).
By the time Bellamy is paroled in 2014, the treasure has been found. Pete Saubers, a high school student whose father was brutally injured by the stolen Mercedes in the massacre at the center of *Mr. Mercedes*, discovers the buried trunk, sends the cash to his financially strapped parents in anonymously labeled parcels, and keeps the notebooks for a possible sale[5](https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/stephen-king-3/finders-keepers/9781473698956/) • [8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/). When Bellamy comes after what he considers rightfully his, Pete needs protection, and the retired detective Bill Hodges, running an investigative company called Finders Keepers with his partner [Holly Gibney](https://www.edgepedia.org/holly-gibney), along with Jerome Robinson, must rescue Pete and his family from the increasingly deranged Morris[1](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html) • [5](https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/stephen-king-3/finders-keepers/9781473698956/). Bill Hodges does not appear in the book until well past the opening, and *Kirkus Reviews* notes that the central crime of the previous book, the Mercedes massacre, looms over the sequel throughout[8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/).
## Rothstein and the literary theme
Rothstein is a hermit celebrity of American letters. *Publishers Weekly* called him clearly modeled on J.D. Salinger[3](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781501100079), and a Guardian review described him as a towering amalgam of Roth, Salinger, and Updike whose fame rests on the Runner trilogy, a set of books that tips its hat to Updike's Rabbit novels[9](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/28/finders-keepers-stephen-king). Both Bellamy and Pete become enthralled with the Jimmy Gold novels while they are teenagers, thirty-five years apart, and a high school teacher's introduction of the first volume, *The Runner*, is what hooks Bellamy in the first place[10](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2015/09/king-finders-keepers-oates-jack-spades.html).
SuperSummary's study guide identifies the novel's connected themes as the impact of literature, obsession, and the loss of innocence, noting that Morris cannot enjoy a story for what it is and instead wants to enforce his own ideas upon it[11](https://www.supersummary.com/finders-keepers-king/themes/). Reviewers placed the book in King's own lineage of writer-reader nightmares: the Washington Post's Elizabeth Hand called it a sly, often poignant tale of literary obsession that recalls *Misery* and "a love letter to the joys of reading and to American literature"[2](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Finders-Keepers/Stephen-King/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy/9781501100079), and *Kirkus* compared its treatment of the writer-reader transaction to *Misery* and *The Shining*, reading it too as a satire of literary criticism[8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/).
## Series context and characters
*Finders Keepers* sits inside a body of King's crime fiction that continues past the trilogy. Holly Gibney, who first appeared as a shy recluse in *Mr. Mercedes* and becomes Hodges's partner in this book, grows into a full-fledged private detective in *[The Outsider](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-outsider-king-novel)*, stars in King's 2023 novel *Holly* (where the firm is still called the Finders Keepers detective agency), and returns in *[Never Flinch](https://www.edgepedia.org/never-flinch)* (2025)[12](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/holly.html) • [13](https://apnews.com/article/4c31efa01a51cfda78fff3e314464312). The trilogy itself follows retired detective Bill Hodges and the killer Brady Hartsfield, and *End of Watch* brings the story to a supernatural conclusion that combines the detective fiction of the first two books with the suspense King is better known for[4](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/end-of-watch.html). *Mr. Mercedes*, the opening volume, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel[4](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/end-of-watch.html).
The novel is set in King's realist register rather than his supernatural one, in the Midwestern town of Northfield[3](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781501100079) • [14](https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/stephen-king-news-from-the-dead-zone-179/).
## Adaptation
The AT&T Audience original series *Mr. Mercedes*, developed for television by [David E. Kelley](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-e-kelley), adapted the trilogy across three seasons, and its third season is based on *Finders Keepers*[6](https://www.assignmentx.com/2019/mr-mercedes-executive-producer-and-director-jack-bender-on-season-3-exclusive-interview/). The order was deliberately rearranged: executive producer and director Jack Bender explained that *Finders Keepers* would not work as season 2 because the series needed to keep Brady Hartsfield alive to continue his love-hate relationship with Hodges, so the team adapted *End of Watch* first and returned to *Finders Keepers* for season 3[6](https://www.assignmentx.com/2019/mr-mercedes-executive-producer-and-director-jack-bender-on-season-3-exclusive-interview/). In the show, Bill's favorite author is named Henry Rothstein (played by [Bruce Dern](https://www.edgepedia.org/bruce-dern)), the killing is a home invasion robbery committed by Morris Bellamy (Gabriel Ebert), and the young man is mentored by the grafter Alma Lane ([Kate Mulgrew](https://www.edgepedia.org/kate-mulgrew))[6](https://www.assignmentx.com/2019/mr-mercedes-executive-producer-and-director-jack-bender-on-season-3-exclusive-interview/).
## Reception
*Kirkus Reviews* gave a starred review, called Bellamy one of King's creepiest creations, a literate and intelligent character whom any passionate reader will both identify with and be repelled by, and praised the nail-biting suspense generated by his pursuit of a treasure he believes is rightfully his[8](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/). Laura Lippman, reviewing in [The New York Times Book Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-york-times-book-review), described a classic race-against-time story that benefited from King's pacing and noted that King, having played it straight in the Edgar-winning *Mr. Mercedes*, was again toying with the form[15](https://stephenking.com/promo/finders-keepers/reviews.html). The first Scribner hardcover carries an average reader rating of 4.06 out of 5 across 109,428 ratings on [Goodreads](https://www.edgepedia.org/goodreads)[16](https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/41884478-finders-keepers?expanded=false&page=1).
## References
1. [Finders Keepers, Stephen King's official works page](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/finders-keepers.html)
2. [Finders Keepers, official publisher page, Simon & Schuster](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Finders-Keepers/Stephen-King/The-Bill-Hodges-Trilogy/9781501100079)
3. [Review of Finders Keepers, Publishers Weekly (April 20, 2015)](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781501100079)
4. [End of Watch, Stephen King's official works page](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/end-of-watch.html)
5. [Finders Keepers, Hodder & Stoughton title page](https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/stephen-king-3/finders-keepers/9781473698956/)
6. [MR. MERCEDES: Executive producer and director Jack Bender on Season 3, Assignment X](https://www.assignmentx.com/2019/mr-mercedes-executive-producer-and-director-jack-bender-on-season-3-exclusive-interview/)
7. [Finders Keepers, Simon & Schuster seasonal catalog](https://catalog.simonandschuster.com/Reports/Report.aspx?CATALOGID=0&ISBN=9781501100079&name=SeasonalCatalog.rpt)
8. [Review of Finders Keepers, Kirkus Reviews (April 1, 2015)](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/finders-keepers-king/)
9. [Finders Keepers by Stephen King – writers, beware your fans, The Guardian (May 28, 2015)](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/28/finders-keepers-stephen-king)
10. [Doppelgangers in Stephen King's Finders Keepers and Joyce Carol Oates' Jack of Spades, Critics at Large](https://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2015/09/king-finders-keepers-oates-jack-spades.html)
11. [Finders Keepers Themes, SuperSummary](https://www.supersummary.com/finders-keepers-king/themes/)
12. [Holly, Stephen King's official works page](https://stephenking.com/works/novel/holly.html)
13. [Book Review: Quirky private eye tracks a couple more killers in Stephen King's 'Never Flinch', AP News](https://apnews.com/article/4c31efa01a51cfda78fff3e314464312)
14. [Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #179, Cemetery Dance Online](https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/stephen-king-news-from-the-dead-zone-179/)
15. [Stephen King's Finders Keepers – The Reviews, StephenKing.com](https://stephenking.com/promo/finders-keepers/reviews.html)
16. [Editions of Finders Keepers by Stephen King, Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/41884478-finders-keepers?expanded=false&page=1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Prose fiction › Standalone novels › Crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense standalone novels › Hardboiled, noir, and psychological suspense*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license