By my count, Never Flinch is Stephen King’s 6th novel featuring the character Holly Gibney. It’s not my favorite Holly novel (that would be The Outsider) but it’s a solid and very welcome addition. At this point, I think Holly is one of King’s most successful creations, and I’m guessing by how often she’s appeared that he agrees.

Never Flinch follows two parallel tracks—a feminist speaker with a stalker who hires Holly to be her body guard, and a serial killer targeting innocent people in the name of a man who was unjustly imprisoned and subsequently murdered while incarcerated. While it takes a little while for King to set up his chess pieces, once the two stories begin to intertwine and come together, it’s a breathless and satisfying race to the end of the novel.

King brings back some characters we’ve met before, including Barbara and Jerome, and introduces some new ones—police officer Izzy Jaynes and soul singer Sista Bessie in particular. King is still a master at creating characters that you’ll either root for or hate. And there’s no one better at ratcheting up tension.

Chances are, if you’re a King fan, you’ve already read Never Flinch. If not, give it a read. It’s a good one.