Holly
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Also by Stephen King
Books in conversation with Holly
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about Holly
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Investigator Holly Gibney takes on what looks like a routine missing-persons case in a small college town, only to find a pattern of disappearances. A retired professor and his wife seem like such nice neighbors.
Holly is a 2023 novel featuring Holly Gibney, a recurring detective who first appeared in Mr. Mercedes (2014) and has since starred in several King novels including The Outsider and If It Bleeds. Holly is her first standalone leading-role novel.
Reading the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch) and The Outsider provides background but is not required. Holly works as an entry point thanks to enough recap.
Holly was written by Stephen King, published in 2023 by Scribner.
Holly is 488 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Holly takes most readers 7 to 11 hours to finish.
Holly is a standalone novel by Stephen King, not part of a series.
Holly is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
