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Private detective Holly Rachel Gibney returns in Stephen King’s newest novel, Never Flinch. It is the seventh story to feature Holly, ranking her among King’s most oft-used characters (she hasn’t passed Randall Flagg yet, but at this rate, give her time).

However, to read the stories in which she is featured is to understand why King has become so enamored with Holly. Simultaneously an archetypical character and an unusual one, Holly has justifiably stolen the hearts of many Constant Readers.

First Impressions of Holly Gibney in Mr. Mercedes

Holly first appeared in King’s 2014 hard-boiled detective novel, Mr. Mercedes. However, while Holly will develop into an exceptional private detective in the future, she’s a very different person when we are first introduced to her. This growth is part of what makes her such an interesting protagonist. But at first, she is a supporting character rather than a leading one.

In Mr. Mercedes, the first novel in the Bill Hodges trilogy, the protagonist is a retired police detective named Kermit 'Bill' Hodges. Plagued by an unsolved crime months earlier, in which a man driving a Mercedes used the vehicle to murder eight people and injure fifteen more, Hodges is considering ending his own life. But when Hodges receives a taunting letter purportedly written by 'Mr. Mercedes' himself, he dusts off his detection skills and begins pursuing the “perp” with vigor.

Holly isn’t introduced until page 219 of the 436-page novel. And at first, you’d never predict that she’ll eventually end up in a starring role. A cousin of the woman who owned the Mercedes used for the crime that is the narrative’s catalyst, Holly, is the daughter of the overbearing Charlotte Gibney.

One of the many fascinating things about Holly is how she’s dismissed by Hodges at first. She’s described as “never speak[ing] above a mutter” and seemingly having “a problem making eye contact.” The novel reveals that Holly is plagued by panic attacks and prone to avoiding her prescribed Lexapro, and she’s hiding an addiction to cigarettes from her controlling mother. She’s also prone to several linguistic idiosyncrasies, like the word “poopy” and the exclaimation “oough!”

Hodges is kind to Holly, treating her like a person rather than an inconvenience. However, he still privately refers to her as “Holly the Mumbler” behind her back. In fact, during an early interaction, he thinks she “doesn’t have a damn thing going for her… not a single scrap of wit, not a single wile.” But in the very next sentence, the novel informs us that he “will come to regret this misperception.”

As Hodges and his teenage assistant Jerome soon discover, Holly may be lacking in social graces, but she’s an expert at computers. With her assistance, Hodges uncovers the identity of the Mercedes Killer: Brady Hartsfield. They also discover his plan to detonate a suicide bomb in the midst of a boy band stadium concert.

However, when the climactic concert occurs, Hodges himself is sidelined by a heart attack. Fortunately, Holly is able to reach Brady in time, rendering him comatose with a pair of blows from the 'Happy Slapper' — a weaponized sock filled with ball bearings utilized by Hodges.

After defeating Brady, both Holly and Jerome are honored by the mayor. In an epilogue set in October 2010, Holly is shown to have evolved significantly since she was first introduced. She’s putting in effort towards her personal presentation, using hypnosis and Nicorette to overcome her nicotine addiction, and showing up to a picnic with Hodges and Jerome bearing food for everyone.

Holly Gibney is a work in progress, like us all

Personally, I found it impossible not to root for Holly. When we first meet her, she is clearly struggling and unhappy. She is a deeply flawed character (like so many private detectives). However, thanks to a combination of support from her new friends, professional help, and her own personal motivation, she is able to grow beyond the person she once had been.

In fact, the Mr. Mercedes epilogue shows Holly to have reached a whole new plateau in her personal evolution. She’s also relocated, leaving her overbearing mother behind in Cincinnati (despite her mother's protests). Holly is, after all, almost 50 years old, and has realized she doesn’t “have to be that fourteen-year-old girl curled up in the bathtub for the rest of [her] life.” And thanks to an inheritance from her late cousin, Holly has the bank account to take care of herself.

While Hodges is prohibited from becoming a legally bonded private investigator, he can become a part-time skip-tracer. Holly immediately volunteers to assist him in this work. This is the backdrop for the second book in the Bill Hodges trilogy, 2015’s Finders Keepers.

Finders Keepers, which takes its name from the name of Hodges’ skip-tracing business, features Hodges, Holly, and Jerome as supporting characters. With a main narrative that bridges the decades and concerns the unpublished work of a reclusive author (and the fallout therefrom), Finders Keepers’ present day is four years after the events of Mr. Mercedes.

In the intervening years, Holly has continued to evolve. She’s still working with Hodges, and she’s found a way to harness many of her tics to serve her detective work. Thanks to her familiarity with computers, she continues to prove invaluable for Hodges’ cases.

However, Holly certainly hasn’t become a Mary Sue: for one thing, she’s returned to smoking cigarettes in the intervening years (although she will quit again in subsequent appearances). But she is still taking her Lexapro. And while she may have become a more functional member of society, she still possesses many of the tics that cause her to stick out. Among them is her special interest in movies, and her propensity to allude to and quote them at the drop of a hat.

Holly Gibney: The detective that has to find herself

The final book in the Hodges trilogy, 2016’s End of Watch, is set two years after Finders Keepers. Hodges and Holly have continued to run the Finders Keepers agency in the meantime. But this time around, both Hodges and Holly appear within the first 20 pages of the novel.

That isn’t the only development for the third Hodges book, either. While End of Watch does continue to embody the hard-boiled detective genre, it also adds a supernatural element. Brady, the antagonist of Mr. Mercedes, awakens from his coma — but now, he’s gained psychic and telekinetic powers. And naturally, he’s planning to use them for revenge.

While the first two Hodges novels were relatively grounded, End of Watch incorporates the supernatural, upping the ante for Hodges and Holly as they work to defeat Brady once again. Concurrently, Hodges is reckoning with a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Ultimately, Hodges, Holly, and Jerome are able to overcome Brady, even when he’s psychically leveled up.

In an epilogue set eight months later, Hodges has died from the cancer and been buried. However, we also learn that he has bequeathed Finders Keepers to Holly.

Holly continues to deal with supernatural mystery in the next novel she appears in, 2018’s The Outsider. As with her appearances in Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, she does not appear in The Outsider until page 283 out of 560. She becomes embroiled in the plot because Alec Pelley, an investigator who worked with Hodges during the events of Finders Keepers, is reaching out to secure Hodges’ services. However, upon learning Hodges has passed away, he remembers how highly Hodges held Holly in regard, and he enlists Holly’s help instead.

Thanks to her experiences with Brady’s psychic powers, Holly is well-equipped to deal with the supernatural entity who serves as the antagonist of The Outsider. Ultimately, her assistance in solving the case proves invaluable. And when the final confrontation with the titular entity takes place, Holly once again weilds the Happy Slapper to defeat the antagonist.

Without the support of Hodges, Holly must deal with her issues on her own. This creates interesting and novel situations for her, and she draws on Hodges’ example on more than one occasion. In this way, she approaches the “archetypical detective”: an outsider who struggles with addiction, isolation and loss, while serving a vital and heroic ideal: to reveal the truth.

Holly faces yet another supernatural antagonist in the 2020 novella If It Bleeds. But this time, she isn’t playing a supporting role; she’s graduated to the role of primary protagonist. In this story, she once again relies on her experiences with Hodges and her encounter with the Outsider to solve the case of a suspicious journalist who feeds on the trauma of others.

How Holly Gibney won over Stephen King 

Holly’s next and most recent appearance before Never Flinch is in the 2023 novel Holly. Set in the summer of 2021, it sees Holly working a case that doesn’t involve supernatural monsters, but rather, a pair of appallingly believable antagonists. This duo of elderly murderers are the Harrises, a conservative couple who literally consume those they prey on; and in 2025’s parlance, you might say they use DEI to select their victims: women, minorities, queers and those who fall into several of the categories.

Much of the novel is bleak. In addition to the case, Holly is also grappling with her complicated feelings about the death of her overbearing mother due to COVID-19. Furthermore, in the course of her investigation, she must also navigate both the ongoing pandemic and the specter of Donald Trump and his supporters. The novel offers the most time we’ve spent with Holly yet, but she’s such a joy that it effectively counterbalances the darkness of the story. And yet the novel still left me hoping that King would continue to pen stories featuring Holly in the future. She is truly a character who will win you over.

Fortunately, that will come to pass with the publication of Never Flinch this summer. As King states in the author’s note at the back of If It Bleeds: “I love Holly. It’s as simple as that.” He also divulges that she was originally intended to be a minor character in Mr. Mercedes, but she simply took on a life of her own.

It is easy to believe this, in part because Holly is such a vibrant character. While she is a hero who has overcome many powerful enemies, she is also flawed in very credible ways. And while she has also made progress on many of these flaws, that progress isn’t always a straight line — and as anyone who has room for growth can attest, that makes for a very relatable journey.

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