He's written some decently entertaining material in his day, but hasn't been right in the head since he got run over (which this was written well after). He kind of co-invented the populist-horror genre, along with such luminaries as Peter Straub, Clive Barker and Dean Koontz. Many movie productions have been terrible, a few not so much (The Shining). The Mercedes book was a terrible slog. I picked this up because I was curious to see how it would translate as a screenplay. Pretty well it turns out, with the right team, produced by David Kelley. It owes something to the Twin Peaks Lynch-Frost formula IMO.

Well that sounds promising and I might give it a go.

I wouldn't deny his influence on the world of writing, and I have tried. But... 

The Shining is a wonderful film. I never felt it was viscerally scary. It's not an Alien or Suspiria or whatever, but it's frightening in a way that stays with you. And it looks wonderful.
 

As I said, the first half. You might find it even tougher with Gleeson being the mainstay.

I think he's a very good writer of prose. He can describe a scene and it just *flows* beautifully. And he's good with imagery. But he absolutely cannot do endings. His stories just kinda deflate at the end (which tends to carry through in the films). His short stories tend to be better cos they just focus on one idea and see it through.

I went through a phase of reading a lot of his stuff as a young teenager, which I think is a good age to read it. It's well-crafted middlebow stuff to help you step up to something more satisfying.

 

I agree about the Shining film. Beautiful to look at in that Kubrick way and disturbing imagery.

The novel though... I had a big problem with it in that a story about a young family going to take care of a big remote empty hotel and dealing with the isolation and problems that crop up was *wayyy* more interesting to me than the horror stuff. I wanted it to be that.

Forgot to mention Mr. Mercedes has Star Trek Voyager's Kate Mulgrew (Cpt. Janeway) playing the most vicious, cold-blooded serial killer this side of Animal Kingdom's Jacki Weaver.