Author: Richard Chizmar and Stephen King
Series: The Button Box #3
Genre: Horror, Contemporary, Thriller
First Published: February 15, 2022
Book Description: When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven colored buttons promised death and destruction. Years later, the button box entered Gwendy’s life again. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation that box represented. Now, evil forces seek to possess the button box and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them at all costs. But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?
Thoughts:
This is a good end to a series, with a fast pace and a very convenient finale. We have a bit of everything, this is a very classic thriller we have spies, government plans, and hidden agenda from supernatural entities.
Gwendy has lived a full life, she is getting close to her retirement time. She gets her hands on the button box again, but the burden has been increased tenfold. The darkness lurking there senses the impending end and is trying to force the users to end it all. The mystery man with the hat is back, but he is old and weakened, much more than the last time he was in touch with Gwendy. He tells her that the power of the box has increased and is driving the holders to press the bottoms, while they struggle the guardians' minds are eviscerated, in the end, they go crazy, press the button or die. He had no choice but to come back to Gwendy, this will be the third and if his plan succeeds it's the final time she will have to serve as its holder.
Gwendy and the mystery man need to get rid of the box, it's no longer feasible to have it change hands, and the outcome is surely catastrophic if they keep the current path. So in order to do that Gwendy must remain in politics for a while longer the reason? They have come up with a perfect plan and it includes the first-ever open for public spacewalk on the Moon.
After working tirelessly for a few years, the plan is coming to fruition. The first spacewalk on the Moon is not only authorized and going to be televised it will include two civilians for now; Gwendy the elected politician and a very rich man.
Gwendy's suffers the aftereffects of the box, the stress of losing her husband to the people who are hungrily looking for the box. She is in constant fear, just like she doesn't really know who the hat man is working with or for, she knows there are plenty of people, foes, and allies somewhere out in the world and other worlds. She doesn't know who to trust, and her mind is slipping. The box is forcing her to be more dependent on those chocolates in order to keep her wits about her, possibly putting the whole mission at risk. She is isolated and unsure of herself and her capabilities. But can't afford to trust anyone.
We get drama, loss, political intrigue (very little), and a spy-type thing - very Mission Impossible but with fewer action scenes, the lady is in her seventies and suffering from dementia after all.
Overall it was a quick read, designed to hit you emotionally after getting to know Gwendy. The ending is of course predictable and gut-wrenching. A very good ending to a series, can't say there was anything wrong with it, I just didn't connect to the story as much as I wanted to. It will not be something I'm going to keep thinking about for long nor am I itching to reread it. It was just an ok series and I'm sure there are other people who loved it.
This was used for the challenge:
AYearAthon- Catch up- complete series
Author: Stephen King backlog
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