Good news for fans of Stephen King’s character Holly Gibney: the eccentric private detective is coming back, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The character will make her return in a new novel, King said on the Kingcast podcast, which bills itself as “a Stephen King podcast for Stephen King obsessives.”
“I could never let Holly Gibney go from the Mr. Mercedes books,” King said. "I mean, she was supposed to be a walk-on character and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart and so I just finished a novel that’s called Holly and it’s all her, man.”
Holly, an investigator with synesthesia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, made her debut in King’s 2014 novel, Mr. Mercedes, and appeared in the book’s sequels, Finders Keepers and End of Watch. She also was featured in the novel The Outsider and in the title novella of the collection If It Bleeds.
In a review of If It Bleeds, a critic for Kirkus wrote, “The protagonist of the title story, Holly Gibney, is by King’s own admission one of his most beloved characters, a ‘quirky walk-on’ who quickly found herself at the center of some very unpleasant goings-on.”
In the television series based on Mr. Mercedes and its sequels, Justine Lupe played Holly, while actor Cynthia Erivo tackled the role in the series adaptation of The Outsider.
There’s no word yet on when Holly might hit bookshelves.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
