Mr. Mercedes Common
What it’s about
A retired, depressive police detective is haunted by the one case he never closed: a stolen Mercedes that plowed into a crowd of job-seekers at a pre-dawn unemployment fair, killing eight and wounding many more, its driver never caught. When the killer reaches out with a taunting letter, he draws the lonely ex-cop into a private, escalating duel of wits, even as the perpetrator quietly plots something far larger. A propulsive cat-and-mouse thriller told from both the hunter's and the killer's perspectives.
Significance Solo Stephen King; his first hardboiled detective novel and the opener of the Bill Hodges Trilogy (followed by Finders Keepers and End of Watch). It won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel and was adapted into the Audience Network TV series Mr. Mercedes (2017-2019).
How to spot a true first 30-second check
A true 1st/1st needs BOTH the book and the jacket verified. A first-state jacket on a later or book-club book — or the reverse — is a married copy, not a first.
What to look for
- Need BOTH: the "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014" statement and a number line that still contains the 1.
- Fastest fake-catcher: no $30.00 price on the front flap = Book Club Edition, even though the jacket art looks identical.
- BCE also shows a blind-stamp dot/circle on the lower-right rear board and glued (not sewn) cheaper paper.
- Watch for married jackets: a clipped or BCE flap swapped onto a trade first — confirm both the price and the copyright page.
- The "Brady HARTFIED" back-jacket typo is a UK Hodder point — do NOT use it to authenticate a US Scribner copy.
- Glenn Chadbourne art belongs only to the later "New Cover Series No. 5" commemorative, never the original first jacket.
Verified listings marker-checked
Each copy screened against the seller's own photos. ✓ confirmed = a photo shows the decisive marker; ⚠ not pictured = the shot to ask for before buying. Condition grades are as-pictured.
Buyer beware — verify before you buy. These are our screening opinions, read from each seller’s own photographs; we can misjudge a copy or misread an image. A listing marked “1st/1st confirmed” is not a guarantee — independently confirm the decisive book and jacket markers with the seller before any purchase. Authentication and the buying decision remain the buyer’s responsibility.
Genuine UK Hodder first/first (not the US Scribner); sound at $17.14 but a more common, lower-value first — VG+ jacket trims it.
- Number line — Hodder number line shows the standalone "1" — first printing of the UK Hodder edition (decisive tell, pictured on copyright page).
- Stated First Edition line — Copyright page states "First Hodder hardcover edition June 2014" — the UK Hodder first, NOT the US Scribner first.
- Dust jacket — Correct UK Hodder art (black umbrellas, blue umbrella, traffic light), Hodder 'H' spine device; "BRADY HARTFIED" back-panel typo point present.
- Jacket price — Hodder firsts carry no integral printed cover price, so not price-clipped; ISBN 978-1-444-78862-4 confirms the UK Hodder issue.
- Binding — Spine-foot jacket rub/creasing and a board scuff/soil spot flagged but not shown close-up; ask for tight extremity and corner shots.
- Endpapers / edges — A slight spine lean / shelf cock is noted but not pictured square-on; request a laid-flat spine and fore-edge shot to gauge it.
A genuine Hodder & Stoughton first/first with both of its decisive tells photographed — the copyright page's "First Hodder hardcover edition June 2014" with the standalone "1", and the first-issue "BRADY HARTFIED" typo on the rear panel — but it is the British edition, not the US Scribner first this title's rubric and value range are built on, and the book has never been photographed out of its jacket or with a flap open.
- Copyright statement — Photo 4 shows the copyright page in full — "First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton / An Hachette UK company" above "First Hodder hardcover edition June 2014" — the UK counterpart of the rubric's first-edition statement, cleanly legible.
- Number line — The same frame (photo 4) prints a standalone centred "1" between the rights assertion and the edition statement — the lowest impression digit, so a first printing.
- Jacket first-issue typo — Photo 3 shows the rear panel misprinting the villain's name as "BRADY HARTFIED" where it should read HARTSFIELD — the documented Hodder first-jacket point, plainly legible.
- Jacket-to-book ISBN match — The rear-panel barcode block in photo 3 reads ISBN 978-1-444-78862-4, the same ISBN printed on the copyright page in photo 4, while photos 1 and 2 show the UK Hodder jacket art and "HODDER & STOUGHTON" with its H device at the spine foot — so this jacket belongs with this book block rather than being married to it.
- Jacket flaps — Not one of the four frames shows either flap, so the listing's "unclipped" rests on the seller's word rather than on a picture (the rubric's $30.00 flap test is the US Scribner one and does not apply to a Hodder jacket) — ask for a straight-on shot of the whole front flap including its top corner, plus one of the rear flap.
- Boards under the jacket — The book was never photographed out of its jacket in any frame, so the boards and spine are entirely unseen — ask for a jacket-off shot of the front board and the spine (the rubric's red-spine-over-black-boards description is the Scribner binding and does not describe this Hodder issue).
A US Scribner first/first with both decisive tells photographed and sharply legible — the full number line beneath the "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014" statement, and the unclipped $30.00 front flap — on a copy that is nonetheless incomplete, its front free endpaper cut away with the stub still visible at the gutter.
- Copyright statement — Photo 13 shows the copyright page reading "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014" in full, with Copyright © 2014 by Stephen King, LCCN 2013046172 and ISBN 978-1-4767-5445-1 all legible in the same frame.
- Number line — That same frame (photo 13) prints the complete Scribner line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 with the 1 present — the decisive book tell, clean and unambiguous.
- Jacket price — Photos 7 and 8 show the front flap printing "U.S. $30.00 / Can. $36.00" with its top corner whole and no clip, and photo 23 shows the jacket laid flat with both flaps entire — the decisive jacket tell, and the printed price rules out the price-less book club jacket.
- Rear-jacket price block — Photo 3 shows the rear panel's barcode block still printing "$30.00 U.S./$36.00 Can." beside ISBN 978-1-4767-5445-1, matching the copyright page — a second printed price a club jacket would lack, and a further jacket-to-book match; the 0614 code above it dates the plate but is not on its own an edition tell.
- Binding — Photos 16, 17, 19 and 20 show the book out of its jacket — quarter-bound in red cloth over black paper-covered boards, silver STEPHEN KING / MR. MERCEDES lettering with the Scribner flame at the spine foot, and a clean rear board bearing no book-club blind-stamp.
- Dust jacket — Photos 1, 2, 23 and 24 show the full wraparound first-edition art — blood-drip and umbrella front panel with "A NOVEL," Mr. Tastey ice-cream truck rear — and the jacket's own rear-flap credit to Tal Goretsky and Sam Weber matches the credit printed on the copyright page in photo 13.
- Endpapers / edges — Photos 9 and 10 show the front pastedown plain and white (the free endpaper itself has been cut away), and photos 21 and 22 show the top edge untinted white with no topstain, as the US trade first carries.
✓ Decisive marker pictured — nothing outstanding to request.
Genuine US Scribner first/first, unclipped at $30.00 — $35 is fair value; the flap sticker and unseen edges keep it lower-mid band.
- Number line — Decisive Scribner line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 with the "1" present is legibly pictured — a true first printing.
- Stated First Edition line — Copyright page reads "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014"; LCCN 2013046172, ISBN 978-1-4767-5445-1 — correct US Scribner first.
- Jacket price — Front flap priced U.S. $30.00 / Can. $36.00, UNCLIPPED first-state; rear barcode 0614 (June 2014) — rules out the price-less BCE.
- Dust jacket — Correct first-edition art: blood-drip / blue-umbrella front, Mr. Tastey ice-cream-truck rear.
- Dust jacket — A bookstore price sticker is stuck over the front flap ("$21.00 LIKE NEW") and heavy glare hides the front panel — ask for a clean, glare-free shot.
- Endpapers / edges — Spine and jacket edges/corners were not photographed; request spine and corner close-ups to rule out edgewear or chips.
Confirmed US Scribner first/first in apparent NF/F — bright, unclipped, no defects seen; $39.99 is a modest discount to fair value.
- Number line — Decisive Scribner line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 with the "1" present, legibly shown in photo 7 — a true first printing.
- Stated First Edition line — Copyright page (photo 7) states "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014"; LCCN 2013046172, ISBN 978-1-4767-5445-1 — US Scribner first.
- Jacket price — Jacket retains the priced flap $30.00 US / $34.00 Can, unclipped; rear date code 0614 (June 2014) — a true first jacket, not a BCE.
- Binding — Correct first boards: black upper / red lower, red Scribner spine with flame colophon (photo 5); SCRIBNER title page (photo 6).
✓ Decisive marker pictured — nothing outstanding to request.
Genuine first/first, near-Fine but for an ink ownership inscription — $49.99 sits at/above the top of the inscribed-copy band.
- Number line — Decisive Scribner line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 with the "1" present — a true first printing, legibly pictured.
- Stated First Edition line — Copyright page reads "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014"; ISBN 978-1-4767-5445-1 — correct US Scribner first.
- Jacket price — Front flap priced U.S. $30.00 / Can. $36.00, UNCLIPPED first-state; rear barcode 0614 (June 2014) — rules out the BCE.
- Dust jacket — Correct first art: bloody-umbrella front, Mr. Tastey truck rear (Goretsky/Weber); no BCE blind-stamp on the rear board.
- Endpapers / edges — Ink ownership inscription "Mark Shallcross June 14" on the front free endpaper — the principal value-reducer; a named, non-author hand.
Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
The Scribner trade hardcover is the true first. Unlike the early Doubleday-era titles, no Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / Land of Enchantment small-press limited precedes the trade. A later Glenn Chadbourne "New Cover Series No. 5" collectible is NOT the true first. UNVERIFIED whether a contemporaneous signed/limited slipcased edition was issued at publication; if one exists it postdates and does not displace the Scribner trade first.
First-printing points at a glance
Dust jacket
Front: stylized graphic design centered on the novel's hook — a Mercedes used as a weapon ramming a crowd at a job fair. Title "MR. MERCEDES" prominent with "STEPHEN KING" byline; "A NOVEL," Bill Hodges Trilogy Book 1. Rear: blurbs/synopsis. The US trade jacket carries the $30.00 price on the front flap. Specific palette and photographic-vs-illustrated treatment: UNVERIFIED in full.
Art / design: UNVERIFIED specific credit. The US Scribner first jacket is a graphic/design treatment (publisher in-house design) rather than a credited painted illustration. Glenn Chadbourne art is associated ONLY with a later commemorative "New Cover Series No. 5" cover (cover-only, signed, ltd 500) and is NOT the original first-edition jacket. No photographer/illustrator credit confirmed for the trade jacket.
Also watch for: (1) Married jackets — a clipped or BCE jacket swapped onto a trade first, or vice versa; verify the $30.00 price is present AND the copyright page shows the first-edition statement + number line. (2) UK/US conflation — UK Hodder first has black boards/metallic-blue spine + the "HARTFIED" jacket typo; do NOT use UK points to grade a US copy. (3) Price-clipped jackets hide the price and reduce value. (4) Later printings passed as firsts — confirm the number line still contains the 1. (5) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets) and remainder marks (spray/marker to bottom edge) materially reduce value. (6) BCE sold as trade first — check rear-board blind-stamp and the missing flap price.
Print run & scarcity
Format: standard US trade hardcover, Scribner (Simon & Schuster imprint), pub. June 3, 2014, $30, ISBN 9781476754451. True-first ID point: complete number line ending in '1' on the copyright page; unclipped $30 dust jacket. HEADLINE: ~1,250,000-copy first printing — this is a publisher CATALOG/announced first-printing figure (per the Simon & Schuster digital catalog as quoted on the stephenkingcollector.com forum), characteristic of a mega-selling Scribner King title, NOT a counted/audited bindery run. SOURCE DISAGREEMENT / RELIABILITY FLAG: the same authority (stephenkingcollector.com) is internally split — the catalog-sourced forum thread gives 1,250,000, but the site's dedicated Mr. Mercedes bibliography page lists 'A first edition of ??? copies' (i.e., uncommitted). The same site also shows catalog-vs-bibliography drift on a sibling title (Doctor Sleep: 1,500,000 in the catalog/forum vs 1,100,000 on the per-title page), so treat any exact catalog number as approximate. LIMITED EDITIONS: no signed/numbered/lettered US small-press limited was issued for Mr. Mercedes (unlike the Donald M. Grant Dark Tower volumes); signed trade copies are scarce because there was no formal signing tour. A UK WHSmith 'Collector's Edition' variant exists (purple titles/umbrella) but no separate published quantity. No Publishers Weekly or Wikipedia print-run figure was found; the 1,250,000 catalog figure is the only quantity in circulation. The reference's commonly-cited ~30,000 Carrie figure was NOT reused — verified this title independently.
First-state points & errata
No widely documented US first-state textual erratum separating states of the Scribner first printing. CAUTION: the well-known "Brady HARTFIED" (should read "HARTSFIELD") back-of-jacket typo is a HODDER & STOUGHTON UK first-edition point, NOT a US Scribner point — do not use it to authenticate a US copy. US authentication rests on the "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014" statement + full number line containing 1.
Limited & signed editions
UNVERIFIED. No confirmed publisher-issued signed/numbered traycased limited at original 2014 publication located in sources. A later "Stephen King New Cover Series No. 5 — Mr. Mercedes" (Glenn Chadbourne wraparound cover art, artist-signed, limited to 500, cover-only collectible) exists but is a separate collectible, not a signed limited of the book.
Market value confirmed sales
$30–90 (true first, fine/fine, unsigned, $30.00 jacket price intact/unclipped); signed-by-King jumps to ~$700–1,300
Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.
Confirmed sales: ~$30 dealer sale, fine/fine unsigned first (AbeBooks dealer-confirmed, recent 2024–25). Near-fine/near-fine unsigned first sold ~$88 (AbeBooks, 2025). Signed first edition, fine/fine, "very scarce when signed" — SOLD/out-of-stock at First & Fine (firstandfine.com, dealer record). Unsigned trade firsts routinely close $9–59 on eBay SOLD (2024–25) — spread driven by condition/jacket, not edition.
Book-club edition (the trap): $5–15. The Scribner / Book-of-the-Month club edition is the classic trap: it can carry the SAME number line and "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014" statement (club reproduced the copyright page), so the line alone proves nothing. BCEs are worth a few dollars at most. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.
THE single biggest separator for THIS title: the DUST JACKET PRICE. The true Scribner trade first has $30.00 printed on the front jacket flap, unclipped. A book-club edition has NO price on the flap (often physically slightly smaller, with a blind-stamp/dot on the rear board) — yet frequently shows the identical full number line and "June 2014" statement, which is why the number line is a red herring for Mr. Mercedes. Confirm $30.00 unclipped flap price + no BCE blind-stamp on rear board = real first. A price-clipped jacket guts value and makes BCE-vs-trade ambiguous. Condition sensitivity is high relative to the low base: a genuine fine/fine unclipped copy sits near the top of the $30–90 band; bumped/reading copies or ex-library land at the bottom or below. The ONLY meaningful premium is a verified King signature — he did no signing tour for Mr. Mercedes, so authentic signed firsts are genuinely scarce and have sold/asked $700–1,300+ (verify provenance/COA from a reputable dealer; eBay "signed + COA" at $1,299–1,349 are asking prices where forgeries cluster). The 2015 Edgar Award (Best Novel) adds interest but does not move the unsigned trade first much given the print run.
- https://www.firstandfine.com/product/king-stephen-2014-mr-mercedes-us-signed-first-edition-2/
- https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Mr-Mercedes-Stephen-King-Scribner/30932920424/bd
- https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/mr-mercedes/author/stephen-king/first-edition/
- https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/how-to-identify-first-editions-book-club-editions
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/forums/other-edition-questions-f4/list-earliest-book-club-edition-printings-t2068.html
- https://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/186255/stephen-king/mr-mercedes
Sources
- https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Mr-Mercedes-Stephen-King-Scribner/30932920424/bd
- https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=plpafe-_-coll-_-first&an=stephen+king&fe=on&sortby=100&tn=mercedes
- https://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/186255/stephen-king/mr-mercedes
- https://www.biblio.com/book/mr-mercedes-1st-edition-1st-printing/d/1032351646
- https://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/mr-mercedes-by-stephen-king-2014-hardcover
- https://www.stephenkingcatalog.com/catalog/signed-king-chadbourne-cover-series-mr-mercedes-cover-only-p-2165.html
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3014&start=0 — stephenkingcollector.com forum thread 'Scribner first edition print runs': lists Mr. Mercedes first printing at 1,250,000 copies, attributed to the Simon & Schuster digital/backlist catalog export
- https://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/mrmercedes.html — stephenkingcollector.com per-title bibliographic page: 'A first edition of ??? copies. Issued with a dustjacket and price of $30.00' (figure NOT confirmed on the dedicated reference page)
- https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781476754451 — PW review: confirms Scribner, $30, 448p, June 2014; no print-run figure given
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Mercedes — confirms Scribner, June 3 2014 publication; no print-run figure
- https://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/186255/stephen-king/mr-mercedes — dealer listing confirming true first ID points (full number line on copyright page); no run figure
Verification notes: Cross-checked across 2+ sources: (a) copyright statement "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2014" — AbeBooks Dusty Spine listing + multiple AbeBooks first-edition listings; (b) $30.00 price-on-flap inferred-confirmed by the BCE tell (Bookshop Apocalypse BCE listing explicitly notes "no price on jacket" vs the true first), consistent with standard 2014 Scribner trade pricing; (c) quarter-bound red spine / black boards — AbeBooks dealer descriptions ("quarter red paper over black paper boards"). FLAGGED conflation risk: the "HARTFIED" jacket typo and metallic-blue-spine/blue-sky-endpaper descriptions belong to the UK Hodder edition and were explicitly separated out. UNVERIFIED fields (jacket artist/designer credit, exact number-line digit order, topstain) left as UNVERIFIED rather than guessed.