If It Bleeds

Holly Gibney is a recurring character in several King books. She first appears in the 2014 novel Mr. Mercedes as a supporting character who assists the protagonist Bill Hodges in his investigation to apprehend the titular Mercedes killer, Brady Hartsfield. Hartsfield is responsible for the murder of Holly’s cousins, Janey and Olivia Trelawny. Janey’s death, in particular, motivates the socially awkward Holly to work with Bill and his informal assistant, a teenager named Jerome Robinson. When Hartsfield plans to detonate a bomb at a concert, Holly is the one who stops him from fully executing his plan.

Hartsfield becomes the overarching antagonist of the Bill Hodges trilogy of books, which begins with Mr. Mercedes, continues with the 2015 crime novel Finders Keepers, and concludes with the 2016 supernatural thriller, End of Watch. Holly continues to work with Bill through these novels as a private detective. When Bill dies at the end of End of Watch, Holly becomes the owner of the agency they founded, Finders Keepers. She later enlists the help of Bill’s former partner, Pete Huntley.

Holly reappears as a supporting character in King’s 2018 supernatural crime novel, The Outsider. Holly is enlisted to help in clearing the name of Terrence Maitland, a man who is wrongfully accused of having murdered a young boy. Holly works closely with the novel’s protagonist, Ralph Anderson, and discovers that the perpetrator is a shapeshifting entity she calls an “outsider.” Ralph and Holly chase the outsider to a cave, where Holly manages to beat the outsider until it dissolves and is defeated.

“If It Bleeds” marks Holly’s first appearance as the protagonist of her own story. The novella thus gives Holly the narrative space to unpack the trauma of losing Bill as a friend and professional partner while also digging deep into her family dynamics, particularly the fraught relationship she has with her mother, Charlotte. The novella brings back several of the characters from the novels in which she previously appeared, including Jerome Robinson, Pete Huntley, and Ralph Anderson. It also relies on the concept of the outsider to inform the supernatural abilities of its antagonist, Chet Ondowsky. After “If It Bleeds,” Holly’s story continues in the 2023 crime novel, Holly, in which she investigates the disappearance of a child during the COVID-19 pandemic.