a new book coming out next year, Never Flinch, and with it, Holly Gibney is officially established as his counter to Randall Flagg. Never Flinch is being described as another in King's crime stable, featuring two intertwined narratives that come together in the third act. In it, a man sends a letter to the Buckeye City Police Department, threatening to kill 14 people in what he claims is an act of atonement. With that, Detective Izzy Jaynes turn to her old friend for help: private investigator Holly Gibney.

Holly Gibney is a well-known name to Stephen King's readers, and, thanks to Justine Lupe portraying her in the Mr. Mercedes adaptation, and Cynthia Erivo portraying Holly, is also in development as a TV show. It's the first time a Stephen King character will appear in adaptations of three different books, but it's not the only thing that puts Holly Gibney in rarefied air in the Stephen King universe.

Holly Gibney Has Appeared In More Stephen King Books Than Any Other Character Outside The Dark Tower

Only Randall Flagg & Roland Of Gilead Have Appeared In More

Never Flinch will bring the total number of Stephen King books Holly Gibney has appeared in to seven. She's appeared in the Bill Hodges trilogy, two other novels, including her first as the main character, and the titular novella in the short story collection If It Bleeds. What started as a character meant merely to serve as in Mr. Mercedes and then exit the page has turned into a much larger role. For the past decade, Holly has been the most regularly recurring character in Stephen King's work, and her appearances are adding up.

The number of her appearances is also significant in that it doesn't happen often in Stephen King's books. While the prolific author is well-known for having characters from one story appear in another, it's usually only in a few books, or their appearance is merely a cameo. It's not often that a major character in one book becomes a major character in another, such as when Father Callahan from 'Salem's Lot showed up in The Dark Tower series to become a significant player in the last three books.

It's that same series in which characters have appeared more times than any other. Roland of Gilead appeared in all seven of the main Dark Tower books, as well as the prequel The Wind Through the Keyhole, and the short story "The Little Sisters of Eluria." The Dark Tower antagonist and Stephen King's most prolific villain, Randall Flagg, has appeared in even more books, showing up in at least nine novels, multiple short stories, and, if fan theories are correct, has appeared in more works under different guises. Holly Gibney is the only character outside of Randall Flagg to appear in at least three largely unconnected works as a major character.

Holly Is Stephen King's Mirror Inverse Of Randall Flagg

Flagg Is The Chaotic Evil To Holly's Lawful Good

However, though she's starting to rival Randall Flagg for most appearances, Holly Gibney is Flagg's inverse. Whereas Randall Flagg, a.k.a. The Man in Black, a.k.a. The Walkin' Dude, a.k.a. so many other nicknames, is a pure villain, King's ultimate expression of evil, Holly is a force for good. Flagg exists on the page to seed fear and entice others to do malevolent deeds if he's not already doing evil himself. He's King's version of Satan, the Devil, the incarnation of chaos and destruction and lies.

Holly's purpose is to knit together the frayed lives and narratives that evil men unravel, setting her in symbolic opposition to Randall Flagg.

Holly, on the other hand, represents order and truth in the world of Stephen King. Her analytical mind doesn't miss a beat, and her gift is getting to the bottom of things and putting them right. She has a knack for hunting down the perpetrators doing evil, whether wholly human killers like Brady Hartsfield from Mr. Mercedes, or more supernatural killers like the titular entity from The Outsider. Holly's purpose is to knit together the frayed lives and narratives that evil men unravel, setting her in symbolic opposition to Randall Flagg. It's not clear yet if the antagonist of Never Flinch will be more human or supernatural, but Holly will nonetheless put her prodigious powers to work helping those who don't have anywhere else to turn.