Holly

Holly (2023), a novel by prolific author Stephen King, is a standalone crime thriller featuring recurring character Holly Gibney, a private investigator who previously appeared in King’s Bill Hodges series, the 2018 novel The Outsider, and the 2020 novella collection If It Bleeds. In the novel, Holly, now working as a private investigator, takes on the case of a missing woman named Bonnie Dahl. As Holly narrows in on her unlikely murderers, King tackles themes of Perception Versus Reality, The Complexity of Parent-Child Relationships, Resilience Against Hardships, and The Inevitability of Aging and Death. The novel also touches on timely socio-political themes: Set in America during the COVID-19 pandemic, Holly has been lauded by critics as King’s political novel to date.

This guide refers to the 2023 Scribner print edition of Holly.

Content Warning: This novel contains brief mentions of suicidal ideation and incidents of graphic violence, sexual assault, and racism and intolerance toward gay people. Racial and homophobic slurs which appear in the source text are obscured in this guide.

Plot Summary

Holly is divided into unnumbered chapters, each titled with the date at which the chapter’s events take place. These chapters shift back and forth in time, with the narrative present occurring in 2021.

The novel opens in October of 2008. In an unnamed fictional city, Jorge Castro goes for his regular nightly jog to Deerfield Park. Castro is an openly gay man who teaches creative writing and Latin-American studies at local Bell College. As Castro nears Deerfield Park, he notices his former colleagues Emily and Rodney Harris struggling to load Rodney’s wheelchair into a van. Jorge stops to assist them. As he rolls the wheelchair up a ramp, Emily injects him with a hypodermic needle of Valium. He wakes up in a soundproofed cage in the basement of the Harrises’ home. Emily Harris brings him a plate of raw liver and withholds water until he agrees to eat it. As she leaves the basement, she calls him a homophobic slur in Spanish.

In July of 2021, private investigator Holly Gibney attends the funeral of her late mother Charlotte, who recently died of COVID-19. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the funeral is held virtually via Zoom. Holly reflects on her complicated relationship with her mother. Charlotte was a staunch Trump supporter and anti-vaxxer who denied the existence of COVID until she contracted it. Holly is politically left-leaning and suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which heightens her fear of COVID. In addition to their opposing politics, their relationship was strained by Charlotte’s desire to control Holly’s life. Holly also struggles to process the recent loss of her friend and mentor, Bill Hodges, from pancreatic cancer. Bill left Holly in charge of his private investigation agency, Finders Keepers.

After the funeral, Holly receives a call from her mother’s estate lawyer, who reveals that Charlotte was worth six million dollars at the time of her death. Holly is shocked because Charlotte had told her that her entire estate was stolen by a con man years ago. Holly realizes that her mother concocted the story to break down Holly’s newfound independence and force her to move home.

Holly is contacted by a woman named Penny Dahl. Penny’s 24-year-old daughter, Bonnie, went missing three weeks ago, and Penny is dissatisfied with the police investigation into her disappearance. Despite Penny and Bonnie’s volatile relationship, Penny is certain that her daughter did not run away. Holly reluctantly takes on the case, beginning by questioning Bonnie’s close friends.

As Holly investigates Bonnie’s last known whereabouts, she discovers that several other people have vanished mysteriously around Deerfield Park: Jorge Castro, Cary Dressler, Ellen Craslow, and Peter Steinman. She begins to suspect a serial killer whom she dubs “The Red Bank Predator.”

A parallel narrative reveals that Emily and Rodney Harris are behind all the disappearances. Though Emily and Rodney present to the public as a dignified elderly pair, behind closed doors they are deranged and dangerous. Emily and Rodney believe that human flesh, when consumed, has regenerative powers. They have been killing and eating young people, including Bonnie, to reverse the effects of aging, staging the abductions to imply that their victims ran away or died by suicide. Despite this, Emily suffers from agonizing sciatica, and Rodney displays signs of worsening Alzheimer’s disease.

Though initially reluctant to suspect the Harrises due to their age and inoffensive appearance, Holly eventually eliminates all other leads and closes in on them. When Holly confronts the Harrises in their home, Emily stages a fall. As Holly bends to help her, Emily tases her and imprisons her in the basement.

In the basement cage, Holly finds one of Bonnie’s earrings under the futon, confirming that Bonnie met her death at the hands of the Harrises. When Rodney comes down into the basement, Holly lures him closer to the bars, then slits his throat with the earring. Emily comes down shortly after and attempts to shoot Holly, but when Emily approaches the cage, Holly grabs her through the bars and breaks her neck. Holly is rescued, and news of the Harrises’ crimes are plastered on news headlines across the country.

As Holly recuperates from her ordeal, she wonders whether she has seen too much evil in her time as a P.I. She contemplates retiring from Finders Keepers and living on her unexpected inheritance. The novel ends with the phone ringing in Holly’s office. After a few moments’ hesitation, Holly picks up.