Stephen King’s book is four new novellas: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life of Chuck, Rat, and the title story If It Bleeds.
The title for "If It Bleeds” comes from the newsroom axiom “If it bleeds, it leads.” In this story, Holly Gibney, who appeared in Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, and The Outsider, is now a private investigator at the Finders Keepers detective agency. She was working on the case of a missing dog when she saw a report of a school bombing on TV. When she tunes in again to the late-night news, she realizes something is not quite right about the correspondent who was first on the scene. Soon, she finds out that she is not the only one who suspects the reporter, Chet Ondowsky. A little background research suggests that Ondowsky’s being first on the scene at incidents of horrific carnage is no coincidence, and Holly wonders if the reporter might be deliberately causing the atrocities that have taken place.
The “Life of Chuck” is three separate stories linked to tell Charles Krantz’s life story in reverse, beginning with his death from a brain tumor at 39 and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house. This might be worth rereading because it seems odd and takes some getting used to.
“Rat” is about a writer and a rat. The main character is Drew Larsen. We get to experience him bringing a book together, and King’s insights into that process make it very real; of course, we get to meet eventually the Rat, who asks some deep, thought-provoking questions about the price we’re willing to pay for personal success, and whether an old, sick person’s life is worth less than that of someone younger.
“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” uses an Apple phone to set the stage for retribution from the grave. The question is whether the ghost is in the grave or the phone is connected to how supernatural forces set in-play events that punish those who have done wrong and reward kindness.
