A little boy goes missing. A blood-drenched blanket is the only evidence of possible foul play. The boy’s mother is arrested for murder. Her husband, A little boy goes missing. A blood-drenched blanket is the only evidence of possible foul play. The boy’s mother is arrested for murder. Her husband, the town, the police: they have already decided she’s guilty. Her attorney, Moxie Castin, hires private detective Charlie Parker to investigate. Their hope? Find the kid, alive. Their realistic goal? Find out what really happened to the boy, bring his body back to be buried, and put the perpetrator in prison or the ground.
Thus begins John Connolly’s 21st book to feature Parker, “The Instruments of Darkness”.
Parker’s search for the real killer gradually leads him to unimagined horrors, the least of which is the father who may have a secret in his past, a commune of white supremacists preparing for a civil war in the woods of Maine, and a 100+-year-old house deep in the woods that is more than just a house.
This is Connolly at the top of his game, and this novel is his most edge-of-the-seat suspenseful supernatural thriller to date....more
In Greek mythology, the Erinyes (or Furies), were three goddesses of vengeance who punished men for crimes against nature.
John Connolly’s latest superIn Greek mythology, the Erinyes (or Furies), were three goddesses of vengeance who punished men for crimes against nature.
John Connolly’s latest supernatural thriller, “The Furies”, is actually two novels for the price of one. Both feature Connolly’s private detective Charlie Parker, a man haunted by demons, both figurative and literal. Strangely enough, things are going well for Parker, who has found some semblance of a life in Maine. He has a favorite watering hole, friends, and even the occasional client, but he is extremely discriminating about the types of cases he signs on to anymore.
In the first novel, “The Sisters Strange”, a man named Will Quinn hires Parker to investigate his girlfriend, a woman named Dolors Strange. Dolors and her sister Ambar (their parents couldn’t spell) once hooked up with a very bad man name Raum Buker. Then he went to prison. Unfortunately, he’s out, and the sisters seem to be back with him. Buker seems to be drastically altered by prison. He has a new tattoo of an occult pentagram, one that always seems to be bleeding. He also constantly reeks of brimstone. It doesn’t take an occult expert to know that this guy seems cursed.
Parker uncovers a case involving stolen priceless coins. One, specifically, has a fascinating history. If you believe in the legends, it predates mankind and was minted by a demon. A mysterious coin collector named Kepler claims it rightfully belongs to him, and he has no qualms about killing anybody to retrieve it. The last known person to possess it? Buker. The Sisters Strange, Parker fears, may be in way over their heads with this. Or are they?
The second novel, “The Furies”, is about the kidnapping of a little girl. Well, kind of. The little girl is actually dead, has been for years. Two criminals have stolen valuable property from the girl’s mother and has blackmailed her for money she doesn’t have. It should have been a simple blackmail job, but they definitely didn’t factor in the ghost of the woman’s dead daughter.
Parker is hired by the woman, a nice lady with a sad history and an unfortunate tie to the New England mafia. He wants to do right by the lady by stopping these guys, but he may not have to, as the little girl’s ghost—pissed-off and protective of her mommy—-has her own otherworldly methods of bringing them to justice.
As always, Connolly crafts some hair-raisingly creepy ghost stories and tales of terror. Add to the mix the fact that these were written at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and you have the perfect little horror treat to read for Halloween. ...more
A new John Connolly book is like Halloween and Christmas all rolled into one. His latest, “The Nameless Ones”, does not disappoint.
It is a slight depaA new John Connolly book is like Halloween and Christmas all rolled into one. His latest, “The Nameless Ones”, does not disappoint.
It is a slight departure from Connolly’s typical Charlie Parker novels in that Parker himself is barely in it except as a very brief cameo.
Instead, Connolly’s focus is on Parker’s back-up: Louis and Angel, the gay couple who do a lot of Parker’s dirty work, much of which tends to be extralegal.
In this novel, Angel and Louis go to Europe, where they are seeking the murderers of a friend named De Jaager, who, along with three other innocent people, are brutally murdered in a safe house. The irony is not lost on Angel and Louis. They are not dealing with normal killers.
The killers are vicious Serbian war criminals known as the Vuksan brothers, Radovan and Spiridon. They killed De Jaager for very spurious reasons. The three other people were, apparently, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This, of course, is not acceptable to Angel and Louis.
What follows is an international cat-and-mouse thriller that involves espionage, terrorist funding, and political machinations to rival the novels of Daniel Silva.
Not that the supernatural doesn’t play a part in the story. It’s a Connolly novel, which means the supernatural is always lurking somewhere in the background. (view spoiler)[In this case, it involves a member of the Vuksan entourage. By all appearances, she looks like a little girl. On closer inspection, she is much older than she appears. Centuries old. She is nocturnal, and she revels in the sight of blood. Whatever you may think she is, believe me: she’s worse. (hide spoiler)]
Once again, Connolly tells a riveting, goosebump-raising tale of good and evil. This time, the evil is not attached to demons or creatures of the night. The evil in this is the evil of men and the evil of war. Who needs the Devil when the worst atrocities are committed by people who believe that they are doing the right thing?...more
“A Book of Bones” is the seventeenth book in the long-running series by John Connolly to feature his haunted private eye, Charlie Parker. It is a phen“A Book of Bones” is the seventeenth book in the long-running series by John Connolly to feature his haunted private eye, Charlie Parker. It is a phenomenal supernatural thriller that is a culmination of years of Parker’s battle with both figurative and literal demons. Many narratives started in previous books find a conclusion. Some do not. Readers looking for answered questions or closure may be disappointed. Some will be pleased.
It should be noted that readers coming to Parker for the first time may not want to start with this one. In fact, readers totally unfamiliar with Parker and his back-story should absolutely not start with this one. It will do nothing but confuse and infuriate you. There are too many references to events and characters from previous novels, and Connolly does not bother including any helpful exposition to explain who or what is going on. Only readers who have been with the series from the beginning will understand what the hell is happening. Sorry.
Quick plot summary: Parker is on the hunt for Quayle and Mors, the deadly killers from the last book, who are themselves on the hunt for The Atlas, the mystical tome that could result in the end of the world if all the pages are reunited. They travel to Great Britain, where Scotland Yard detectives are trying to solve the gruesome murder of a young schoolteacher, whose body was found on the site of ancient ruins of a church that once belonged to a cult called the Familists, a cult that readers should recall from several Parker novels back. Meanwhile, FBI agent Ross’s motives are continuously questionable as we learn about his connections with the super-wealthy secret society known as the Backers, connections that Parker isn’t aware of but is beginning to suspect.
My few gripes with “A Book of Bones” are minor ones, but they must be stated.
My first gripe isn’t really a gripe so much as an observation about the novel’s format. Connolly has, in the past, been really good about bringing several seemingly-disparate storylines together to create one complete narrative thread. He usually does this fairly early in the book, or, at the very least, by the midway point. “A Book of Bones” suffers from having so many narrative threads that it is hard to distinguish how they all possibly connect. Even by the end of the novel, one is a bit unclear as to how A connects to B, B connects to C, and how A is, in any way, related to D, and where did D come from again? Part of the problem is my second gripe which is:
There are way too many fucking characters in this book. Some of them are characters that have appeared in previous novels, so I had an understanding of where they stood in the story. Others, however, are completely new to this series. And there are quite a few of them. Many, I knew, were the expendable few that would not reach the end of the novel alive. Some of them, however, seem to be characters that Connolly appears to be grooming for future novels, possibly. All well and good except for my third gripe:
Parker himself---and his lovable partners, Louis and Angel---barely appear in the meat of the novel. They show up at the beginning---an extended preface, actually; make a few appearances here and there in the huge middle (the book clocks in at 672 pages, so its a lengthy middle); and finally show up for the book’s climax and conclusion, but for what seems like a majority of the novel, Parker et al are treated almost like secondary characters.
Connolly’s attempt at making a grand, epic horror story doesn’t quite succeed in this one, which doesn’t mean that it’s not entertaining or in any way compelling reading. As expected, it is suspenseful as hell and, in parts, goosebump-raising. It may not be Connolly’s best, but that’s alright. Connolly clearly has no intention of finishing the series, which means that more Parker books are on the way. ...more
There is an underground railroad in this country for young women trying to escape their lives. In most cases, it is from violent men---abusive fathersThere is an underground railroad in this country for young women trying to escape their lives. In most cases, it is from violent men---abusive fathers or husbands, psychotic boyfriends, stalkers. One of those young girls ended up in a shallow grave deep in the Maine woods. Forensics uncovered a disturbing fact: she had been pregnant, but there was no accompanying corpse of a child buried anywhere near her.
Detective Charlie Parker is asked by his employer, lawyer Moxie Castin, to investigate what happened to the child. Castin has personal reasons for this request. Parker accepts.
The dead young girl, Karis, is also looking for her child. She has been wandering the woods for many years. She is very sad, but she is also very, very angry.
Thus begins John Connolly’s goosebump-raising edge-of-the-seat supernatural thriller, “The Woman in the Woods”, the sixteenth novel to feature his haunted private eye, Parker. It is breath-takingly frightening.
This novel features: a well-dressed Englishman assassin named Quayle who travels with a woman who may or not be a walking corpse; a racist hick named Billy Ocean who wants revenge on the person who blew up his pick-up truck; the return of the Backers, a secret society of uber-wealthy men and women from around the globe bent on the resurrection of an ancient god that is prophecied to bring about a new world order; a toy phone that is a direct line to the spirit world; a forgotten ancient tome called the Atlas that contains a map to a world that is not Earth; and some more crazy weird stuff.
Another intense winner from Connolly. Seriously, this guy is unstoppable....more
Not to be flippant, but it takes a global pandemic to truly reevaluate one’s place in the universe. Something as unprecedented as the spread of the coNot to be flippant, but it takes a global pandemic to truly reevaluate one’s place in the universe. Something as unprecedented as the spread of the coronavirus automatically lends one’s thoughts toward issues of life, death, and the afterlife.
Thoughts about an afterlife rarely crossed my mind on a daily basis prior to the last few weeks. They are ever-present now, it seems. With a steadily rising death rate and an exponentially rising infection rate in the U.S., it’s a wonder more people don’t seem to be going insane with terror, running through the streets, screaming. We’re all keeping it together, though, so we have that to be proud of, I suppose. Then again, we haven’t even reached the projected peak of the infection, so who knows what the fuck will be happening in a few more weeks.
Anyway, the afterlife: I’m inching closer and closer to believing in one. To be honest, I’m not sure that I ever truly stopped believing in one, I’ve just come closer and closer to the realization that we can’t comprehend, at all, what it is like. My childhood vision of heaven and hell—-with angels, clouds and harps; demons, fire and brimstone—-is probably as close to the truth as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are close to being real.
Of course, it doesn’t help that I have been reading a lot of John Connolly lately. “A Game of Ghosts”, Connolly’s fifteenth book to feature his haunted private detective, Charlie Parker, is all about the afterlife, but the afterlife and the supernatural in general have always played a preeminent role in Connolly’s fiction. This one just kicks it up a notch.
The plot—-as par for the course for a Connolly novel—-is elegantly convoluted. There are so many storylines going on, so many characters to keep track of, it’s almost silly of me to try and break it down for you, so I won’t.
I will say that if you have never read a Connolly novel—-and a Parker novel, in particular—-this one is probably not the one to start with. So many narrative threads have transpired prior to this book, so many well-established characters have, or will, come to their (satisfactory and/or satisfying) end in this book, and so much of Parker’s backstory is vital to fully understanding what is going on in this book, that the book would read like gibberish to a reader coming at Parker for the first time. Sure, it might suck you in with Connolly’s hauntingly beautiful prose, and the ideas within may seem fascinating, but you simply won’t get it.
Just know that it is a humdinger of a ghost story. Creepy as hell, guaranteed to give one hair-raising goosebumps and possible night terrors months from now. It will—-like the events in the world right now—-also force one to contemplate what awaits us all after death. For some of us, the thought of an afterlife is a pleasant thought, a consoling thought of a place where we may one day reunite with loved ones and see paradise, finally.
Others, however (and Connolly seems to take very little glee in the thought), may find the thought of an afterlife as a terror beyond anything that this world can concoct, because if the afterlife is a place where we ultimately meet our final judgment, the thought of death as a vast infinite nothingness may actually be preferable....more
I have always wondered if there was something more frightening than the bevy of supernatural creatures one finds in horror fiction, something that makI have always wondered if there was something more frightening than the bevy of supernatural creatures one finds in horror fiction, something that makes vampires and zombies and poltergeists and demons think twice about rearing their evil heads in our world.
John Connolly, in his fourteenth Charlie Parker thriller, “A Time of Torment”, answers that question, and it is not what fans of the series will expect.
Connolly’s supernatural horrors are often overshadowed by the real-world horrors in his books. While Parker has faced demonic forces, it is more often than not the human antagonists that wreak the most havoc and leave the worst scars.
In this book, Parker takes on the case of a man named Jerome Burnel, whose story is almost too awful to tell. When Burnel misses a date with his parole officer, Parker is contacted. Everybody thinks that Burnel has skipped, left town and is off doing horrible things, but Parker doesn’t. Parker suspects that Burnel is a victim of a dark force, an ancient evil that walks among us. Indeed, it may even be in the guise of a neighbor, or a friend. Before Burnel disappeared, he told Parker about his briefest of encounters with the Dead King.
Believe it or not, the Dead King is not the most frightening thing in this book. Oh, the Dead King is awful and scary and will give one nightmares for weeks, but it’s not the scariest thing in the book.
Even Parker---who goes up against the Dead King without an iota of fear---is scarier than the Dead King, but he’s not the scariest thing in the book, either.
I won’t tell you what the scariest thing in the book is because where’s the fun in spoiling it? I will say that when the answer comes, it will come with instant goosebumps and the hairs on the back of your neck popping up. It will come with a jaw-dropping sense of shock and awe. It will come with an immediate urge to urinate and a sudden desire to curl up under covers and shiver for hours.
(That didn’t happen to me at all, by the way. I just imagine that it might happen to some readers. Those who are, you know, more easily frightened than me...)...more
Sometimes, when things get out of hand and overblown, one needs to go back to the beginning to find peace of mind. Such is the case with John ConnollySometimes, when things get out of hand and overblown, one needs to go back to the beginning to find peace of mind. Such is the case with John Connolly.
A terrific writer, Connolly has written 18 wonderful novels in his Charlie Parker series. In 2019, Connolly published the seventeenth novel, “A Book of Bones”, which was a culmination of numerous plot-lines that he had started in several previous books. It was, in a word, epic. It was also, not to put too fine a point on it, ridiculously verbose, excessive, and convoluted.
To readers just starting out with Connolly, I can only imagine that it was confusing as hell. To loyal fans like myself, it was almost too much of a good thing. It wasn’t the best Parker book in the series.
Thankfully, Connolly decided to dial it back for the next one. “The Dirty South”, the eighteenth Parker novel, is like the blues musician who—- after a lackluster studio album that featured a full orchestra, a gospel choir, and guest appearances by John Legend, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga—-realizes that he’s much better, and happier, alone with his acoustic guitar on a stage in some dive bar downtown.
Indeed, Connolly is truly getting back to Parker’s roots in this one, as the novel is set in 1997, shortly after the events of Connolly’s first novel, “Every Dead Thing”.
The grief and anger and existential dread of his wife and daughter’s murder is still fresh. He is on the trail of the Traveling Man, the serial killer who murdered his family, and he is following a lead that results in his winding up in a small town named Cargill, Arkansas. His presence is immediately brought to the attention of Police Chief Evan Griffin, a decent man stuck in a hellish, provincial Southern town, one that embodies every negative stereotype of the South.
Griffin is in a tight spot. Someone is murdering young black girls in his town, in extremely violent ways. Unfortunately, politics and money are hindering his ability to do his job. A mega corporation named Kovas is looking to set up headquarters in Cargill, a deal that would bring prosperity and recognition to a town that has never seen either. An active serial killer investigation would put a damper on—-if not entirely kill—-the city’s chances.
Griffin deputizes Parker, an action that sets off a series of unfortunate events in the town but has an unexpected benefit of helping Parker deal with his issues.
As always, Connolly weaves an intricate plot in a story that backs as far away from the supernatural otherworldliness of the several previous Parker novels to a more realistic evil. He has left Stephen King territory for a more real-world—-and more believably horrifying—-Thomas Harris country. ...more
“Evil” is a pretty strong word that gets thrown around a lot, without much thought as to what it actually means. By definition, the word means “anythi“Evil” is a pretty strong word that gets thrown around a lot, without much thought as to what it actually means. By definition, the word means “anything that is morally reprehensible and completely antithetical to a moral good”. All humans---regardless of race, religion, or creed---would universally agree that certain crimes like murder and rape are evil.
There is another definition, however, that is somewhat more controversial, depending on one’s faith and belief in Judeo-Christian theology; that is, of course, the concept of “Evil” as a supernatural cosmic force, the counterpoint to the force of “Good” as embodied and personified by God, the deity. Your own belief in this capital-E Evil is dependent on your belief in God. You simply can’t believe in one without the other.
John Connolly, the author of the Charlie Parker detective series, entertains this theme constantly, but it is in “A Song of Shadows”, the thirteenth Parker novel, that he tackles the concept of evil vs. Evil head-on.
It is perhaps appropriate that “A Song of Shadows” is about Nazism. Specifically, it is about former Nazi war criminals---those who actually oversaw and controlled the systemic genocidal slaughter of Jews at various concentration camps---who escaped, changed their identities, and led relatively uneventful lives here in the U.S.
Connolly doesn’t hide his beliefs about the concept of evil, and he never has. If you’ve read a Connolly novel, you can clearly glean a very strong belief in the supernatural, God, an afterlife. It is, in fact, a vital and explicit component of his narrative. His character, Parker, may not always have a good relationship with God, but he never doubts that He exists. This belief is handled so convincingly, it’s hard to believe that Connolly himself doesn’t believe.
In the book, Parker is recuperating from his near-death experience in the last book, “The Wolf in Winter”. He has set up residence in a quiet Maine town called Boreas in a beachfront house where he can quietly let his wounds---both physical and psychological---heal.
His closest neighbors are also new to town: a single mother named Ruth Winter and her daughter, Amanda. Parker is drawn to Amanda because she is roughly the same age as his daughter, Samantha. She also reminds him somewhat of his dead daughter, Jennifer, who still watches over him.
When a body washes up on shore, Parker instinctively knows that something bad is going to happen. His instincts, as always, are correct.
It is not long before Parker is sucked into a convoluted conspiracy involving evil old men bent on protecting themselves from discovery by the U.S. and Israeli governments. Parker is soon beset on all sides by powerful super-wealthy evil forces, Neo-Nazi hitmen, and the supernatural entities that have hounded him for years. Everyone thinks he is vulnerable, like a wounded dog, but wounded dogs can be extremely vicious if backed into a corner.
Connolly outdoes himself with every new Parker novel, and these last couple novels have really upped the ante. Parker finds himself at a crossroads in his life, and in this book, he must make a choice that will find him on a path of no return....more
John Connolly’s twelfth book in his Charlie Parker series, “The Wolf in Winter” is his best yet. (And, yes, I’m well aware that I make a similar stateJohn Connolly’s twelfth book in his Charlie Parker series, “The Wolf in Winter” is his best yet. (And, yes, I’m well aware that I make a similar statement in all my reviews of his books, so take it with a grain of salt...)
Parker, a private eye with a haunted soul---literally and figuratively---has always straddled the edges of the Other Side, but it is in this book that he comes the closest to making the ultimate decision of whether to stay among the living or join the dead.
This is, perhaps, what makes “The Wolf in Winter” Connolly’s most emotionally powerful and most terrifying novel to date. Parker has cheated Death so many times, Death has finally come to collect. The twist is that Parker may be okay with it.
Parker hears about a homeless man named Jude who may have been looking to hire him to find a missing daughter. Unfortunately, Jude is found dead from an apparently clear-cut case of suicide. There’s enough doubt, however, in Parker’s mind to think that Jude was murdered and staged to look like suicide.
His investigation leads him to a small town named Prosperous, Maine. It’s aptly named, as the town seems to have an uncanny---and possibly preternatural---ability to weather tough economies and avoid tragedies. For example, Parker is shocked to discover that every Prosperous native to have served in any war, starting from the Revolutionary to the Gulf, has managed to make it home alive and well. It’s a statistical anomaly, almost as if the town and its people are being watched over by a protective deity.
Of course, as Parker discovers, it is. But the protection comes at a cost, one that generations of Prosperous natives have paid with their souls.
How does one man go up against an entire town, especially own overseen by a vindictive god?
Not easily, it turns out. Thankfully, Parker has many friends. Some he’s not even aware of, and some that he may not even want on his side...
Once again, Connolly has crafted a beautifully horrific suspense thriller, with plenty of real-world action and otherworldly nightmares to satisfy any reader hungry for thrills and chills....more
I binge-read an author or book series I like the way some people binge-watch TV shows. The problem with that, I have found, is that binging on anythinI binge-read an author or book series I like the way some people binge-watch TV shows. The problem with that, I have found, is that binging on anything can be painful and counter-productive. You start to get almost bored or annoyed at the very thing that made you want to binge in the first place.
I have found that, with books at least, I need to pace myself. Some authors just can’t be binged on the way one can binge-watch great TV shows like “The X-Files”, “Lost”, or “Fringe”.
John Connolly is one such author. I love his Charlie Parker mystery series, but they are so rich with atmosphere and dense with hauntingly gorgeous prose that it’s difficult for me to sit and read his books back to back. I need to take breaks between them. Breathers, if you will. They are just too intense.
Take, for example, “The Wrath of Angels”, Connolly’s eleventh novel to feature his tortured private eye, Charlie Parker. It starts off the way most of Connolly’s books start, with a creepy, weird event. In this case, two hunters lost in the Maine woods find an airplane that appears to have crashed years ago. Inside the cockpit, they find a ton of money and a list of names. They also find evidence of a passenger who may have walked away from the crash.
Fast forward many years later: those hunters, now on their death beds, are confessing their sins. They took the money. They spent it to better their lives and the lives of their families and friends. They don’t feel too guilty about that part. What they worry about is the people who have, over the years, come around to ask about the whereabouts of the plane and, more importantly, the list of names.
What follows is a crazy tour de force by Connolly, who manages to tie threads from previous novels into a coherent culmination of storylines.
Parker’s investigation into the story uncovers a secret global cabal of the wealthy and powerful, a group simply known as the Backers. For decades (centuries perhaps), these select unknown few have been choreographing tragedies and wars, assassinations and coups. To what end? Parker has no clue. He knows, though, that the very existence of this list of names is highly important to these people, and they will stop at nothing to make sure it never sees the light of day.
That’s not the crazy part, though. Because it turns out that another group that Parker has dealt with in the past---a group known as the Believers, who believe that they are fallen angels put on the Earth to do God’s dirty work---also wants the list, for very different reasons.
But wait, it gets even crazier: the almost super-human hitman known as the Collector, a person that Parker has had run-ins with in the past and barely survived to talk about it, also wants the list.
Everybody wants the list. But here’s the craziest part, the part that both terrifies and fascinates Parker in equal measure: rumor has it that Parker’s name is one of the names on the list...
WTF!!??
This book has it all: suspense, action, creepy supernatural stuff and weird paranormal activity, humor, sex, and lots of words. Seriously, this book has WORDS.
Connolly loves to write, and I love to read what he writes, but I’m not gonna lie: he is super wordy. If, like me, you love gorgeous writing and enjoy a well-constructed paragraph or two or fifty, then Connolly may be your ticket. Just don’t read him thinking he’s going to be James Patterson. He makes Patterson look like an eight-year-old who discovers a typewriter and thinks he can write a book.
Seriously, though, Connolly can write like a dream. Sometimes like a nightmare. And sometimes like one of those night terrors that wakes you up at 3 a.m. and fucks with your brain for weeks afterwards, which is why I need to calm down, take a break, and read some fluff now. Maybe a Stephen King or a Lee Child. You know, something light-hearted......more
A long time ago, Randall Haight---barely a teenager himself---was one of two perpetrators who raped and murdered a young black girl. It was a differenA long time ago, Randall Haight---barely a teenager himself---was one of two perpetrators who raped and murdered a young black girl. It was a different time then. Because they were young and white, the judge was lenient on them, putting them in a federal protection program. They would have to leave the state and change their names, but their “sexual predator” status would essentially be wiped from their slate.
Fast forward several decades: Haight is living in a small, unremarkable town in Maine as a small, unremarkable accountant for a local firm. He likes his life, for the most part. It’s quiet.
Then, two things happen. Haight starts getting letters and pictures in the mail from an anonymous source, indicating that someone knows his sordid secret. Then, a young girl named Anna Kore is kidnapped in broad daylight from a mall parking lot.
Thus begins John Connolly’s tenth book in his series featuring his tortured private detective Charlie Parker, “The Burning Soul”.
Haight’s attorney hires Parker to find out who knows his secret. Parker is clearly conflicted: doing the right thing would be exposing the blackmailer and having the police deal with him, but at the same time, Parker doesn’t like Haight. The man is a murderer, one who essentially “got away with it” due to his age, race, and the era in which it happened.
On top of that, Parker uncovers a mob connection. The missing girl is the niece of a well-known and notoriously violent Boston mafioso. Is the girl a pawn in a brewing mob war? Or is it all a weird coincidence? And what’s Haight’s connection, if any?
Oh, and there’s also the ghosts. But I won’t get into that, because I don’t want to spoil it.
As expected from Connolly, “The Burning Soul” is a taut, unnerving psychological crime thriller, with a bit of supernatural horror thrown in just for fun and nightmares. Connolly’s prose style is, as always, lush and profound. His pacing is of the slow burn variety, and his examination of the darker parts of the human psyche are creepily believable.
I haven’t read a Connolly thriller in a while, so it was nice to be reminded of what I was missing.
There are currently seventeen books in the Charlie Parker series. If you have never read one, start with “Every Dead Thing” and be prepared to want to read all of them. (Also be forewarned: they are extremely graphic and disturbing; not for the squeamish.)...more
"The Reapers" is a slight departure for John Connolly, whose main protagonist, Charlie Parker, P.I., takes a backseat in this one in order to showcase"The Reapers" is a slight departure for John Connolly, whose main protagonist, Charlie Parker, P.I., takes a backseat in this one in order to showcase one of Parker's enigmatic partners, Louis, a tough Southern black killer-for-hire.
Louis (pronounced "Loo-ee", like the French King) is a fascinating character, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that he is gay. He's actually part of a two-man crew of hired killers. His lover, Angel, is also a hit-man. They met and fell in love in prison, and they have been together ever since. Angel, not to be too cliche, completes Louis. He provides a balance of calm and peace to Louis's tumultuous, violent soul.
In this book, we find out more about Louis's dark past: his father was an outspoken black man living in the Far South, who got "too uppity" with the wrong people one night and was subsequently lynched and set on fire. Louis is still haunted by his father's ghost (metaphorically AND literally), which he calls "The Burning Man".
Louis's rage at his father's murder set him on the course that led him to become the violent killer he is. He has learned to control that rage somewhat, but he has many regrets of things in his past. One of those regrets has returned with a vengeance.
One of Louis's early "hits", a vicious killer ironically named Bliss, is, it turns out, very much alive and well. He has spent nearly 30 years planning the perfect revenge: the murder of every single person Louis loves. Fortunately, Louis had long ago put protective measures in place to prevent such an attempt.
Unfortunately (for Louis), Bliss has hired a spectacular crew of killers, calling themselves "Reapers". Louis, along with the help of Angel, Parker, and his own eclectic crew of Reapers, must find and kill Bliss before he can find Louis. Bliss, however, has had almost 30 years to plan this out.
As always, Connolly has written another dark and disturbing tale that is as beautifully written as it is bloody and ultra-violent....more
It's getting difficult keeping track of my favorite mystery authors. It changes from week to week. While I love discovering new authors, there are a bIt's getting difficult keeping track of my favorite mystery authors. It changes from week to week. While I love discovering new authors, there are a bevy of authors I will continuously go back to, like close friends or security blankets. One week it may be Lee Child, another week it may be Michael Connelly, another week James Lee Burke. One author I have discovered that offers, without fail, beautiful writing and edge-of-the-seat thrills (two things that rarely come together in the mystery genre) is John Connolly.
Connolly's recurring protagonist is a private detective named Charlie Parker. Like the best literary p.i.s, Parker has a lot of baggage. A recovering alcoholic, Parker has had to endure the brutal murder of his wife and daughter. He subsequently hunted down and killed their killer---the serial killer known as the Traveling Man---but vengeance brought very little relief. It did, however, bring him the ability to see the world differently, a "gift" that he neither wants nor relishes. Because, unlike other literary private eyes, the demons that plague Parker's life aren't always just psychological. He is actually plagued with very real, literal demons. The kind from Hell. Or, in some cases, Heaven. These creatures walk among us, and they are not easy to kill. In fact, they are actually unkillable, because they are technically immortal. Their human forms can be stopped, but they have the supernatural ability to return, years later, in other forms.
Parker's life and history has always been shrouded in mystery and darkness, starting with his birth. In "The Lovers", Connolly's eighth book to feature Parker, the haunted detective learns more about his family background, starting with why his father, an NYPD veteran, pulled over a car with a teenaged couple, shot both of them in the head, and then later shot himself. It's a mystery that has always haunted him and the NYPD, as Will Parker was always, up until that night, a cop known for his integrity.
Parker, whose Maine P.I. license has been taken away pending an investigation, has been working as a bartender. It's a boring job, serving drinks to alcoholics and loud men, but it has given him plenty of time to think. He decides to travel to New York to personally investigate what happened that night between his father and those two teenagers.
What he discovers, of course, leads him to the circumstances surrounding his own birth: were his parents his real parents? If not, who are his real parents? Why has Parker always been a barometer for the strange and supernatural?
Gradually, the answers to these questions begin to unfold, each one offering less solace and more confusion. Adding to the confusion is the reappearance of Rabbi Epstein, an expert on demonology that Parker has reluctantly worked with in the past and whose presence is never a good sign, and the annoying hovering presence of Mickey Wallace, a true-crime author who wants to write a book about Parker and is surprised that no one has ever tried.
Things go south very quickly, as is par for the course for Parker, and he is soon having to race against time (and Heaven and Hell) to save himself, his loved ones, and the good reputations of his parents.
In "The Black Angel", the fifth novel in John Connolly's series featuring private eye Charlie Parker, Parker, as usual, battles his own inner demons, In "The Black Angel", the fifth novel in John Connolly's series featuring private eye Charlie Parker, Parker, as usual, battles his own inner demons, but he is also thrust into battle with very real supernatural demons.
In actuality, these demons are fallen angels. According to ancient texts ad Catholic lore, roughly 200 angels (including Lucifer) were banished from heaven by God. While a vast majority fell to the netherworld we know as hell, a small handful fell to Earth, and they have walked our planet for centuries, wreaking havoc, pain, and misery upon anyone in their path.
Parker inadvertently stumbles upon them while involved in a case of a missing young prostitute. The young girl, it turns out, was involved in the theft of a priceless statuette that is extremely important to a number of people, including a grotesque soul-eating fat demon named Mr. Brightwell.
Parker's investigation soon leads him into an underground world of "art" collectors of pieces made from human remains and a monastery in the Czech Republic that hides a centuries-old secret that the Catholic Church is even too horrified to touch.
This is Connolly's darkest novel to date, and, in my opinion, his best one in the series. A word of warning: you may want to sleep with the lights on after reading this......more
John Connolly's "The Unquiet" is, perhaps, Connolly's most straight-forward murder mystery to date. By that I mean that it does not have the rambling John Connolly's "The Unquiet" is, perhaps, Connolly's most straight-forward murder mystery to date. By that I mean that it does not have the rambling expository passages and poetic flourishes that have graced some of his other novels. I think it's due to the harsh and rather ugly subject matter: pedophelia. Not a lot one can (or would want to) poeticize about that. Not missing from the book is Connolly's deft handling of the supernatural. It's toned down a bit in this one, but he manages to bring it in for excellent dramatic effect.
In "The Unquiet", detective Charlie Parker is hired by Rebecca Clay, the daughter of the infamous Dr. Daniel Clay, a once-prestigious child psychologist who was involved several years before in a class action lawsuit brought against him by ex-patients who claimed that Clay and several other people connected with him had sexually molested them. Dr. Clay mysteriously disappeared before he could go to trial, but his sullied reputation lived on.
Rebecca hires Parker to ward off the unwanted advances of Frank Merrick, an ex-con recently released, who believes Rebecca knows where her father is and/or knows more than she is letting on. Merrick's young daughter was one of Dr. Clay's patients, and she went missing roughly the same time the good doctor did.
Parker does not like Merrick, but he can respect Merrick's motives: the man just wants to find his daughter, or find out what happened to her and then find and kill the men who hurt her. Parker understands this motive extremely well.
With the aid of his friends, Angel and Louis, Parker uncovers a dark and sinister underworld involving the Russian mob, child pornography, and an organized group of pedophiles working in northern Maine. Also hovering in the background is the shadowy recurring character, The Collector, Parker's supernatural arch-nemesis, and a group of ghost-like figures simply called The Hollow Men....more
"The White Road", the fourth John Connolly novel to feature his private eye, Charlie Parker, is a direct sequel to the third book, "The Killing Kind","The White Road", the fourth John Connolly novel to feature his private eye, Charlie Parker, is a direct sequel to the third book, "The Killing Kind", so it may confuse readers who have never read Connolly before to pick this one up first. There is a stand-alone story within it, but it is intertwined with and refers to events in the last novel. Several characters and their backstories are necessary to understand some of the events in this one. In other words, if you want to pick up a Connolly novel, DO NOT START WITH THIS ONE.
It's hard to summarize this one without giving too much away, but I will try without revealing any spoilers.
Parker is called up by an old lawyer friend who has decided to defend a young black man accused of murdering a young white woman. The evidence is flimsy, and the young man vehemently denies doing it, but the crime took place in South Carolina, which, even in the 21st century, is not the best place for a young black man to be accused of the rape/murder of a white woman.
Parker reluctantly takes the case, as he smells something rotten about it. Indeed, shortly after arriving in South Carolina, he is suddenly in a mess that involves a decades-old family feud, the mafia, and a supernatural vengeful spirit. Someone is killing off a group of rich white men, all of whom are connected by an incident that happened to them in their youth.
Nothing is as it seems, and Parker soon finds himself fighting to stay alive and protect his friends and family. As always, Connolly tells an exciting, edge-of-the-seat thriller with a prose that is so ridiculously beautiful for someone writing in the mystery genre....more
Don't read "The Killing Kind" if you have an aversion to spiders. Seriously. This book will make you itch and squirm and just plain freak out with theDon't read "The Killing Kind" if you have an aversion to spiders. Seriously. This book will make you itch and squirm and just plain freak out with the thought of eight-legged killers crawling all over you.
John Connolly's third novel to feature his private eye, Charlie Parker, also introduces us to one of the most loathsome and creepy serial killers I have ever encountered, Mr. Pudd. Mr. Pudd loves spiders, especially black widows and brown recluses, both of which happen to be highly poisonous. He likes to put them in places that they shouldn't go, such as mailboxes, car glove compartments, people's mouths... 'Nuff said.
Parker is hired by a wealthy businessman to investigate the murder of a young girl named Grace, a college student who was investigating the disappearance of the Aroostock Baptists. The Aroostock Baptists were a group of families that followed the religious teachings of a man named Faulkner. In the 1970s, the entire group disappeared somewhere in the forests of Maine. Most believed that the group simply disbanded and went their separate ways, but when a highway construction team accidentally digs up a mass grave in northern Maine, thoughts of what happened to the Aroostock Baptists suddenly turn grim. Forensic evidence discovers that the victims had been tortured and killed. All of the bodies are accounted for, except for one: Faulkner's.
As always, Connolly concocts a suspenseful murder mystery that twists and turns in unexpected directions. As stated before, the creepiness factor is amped up, as well. I have officially become a voracious Connolly fan, eager to read the next one in the series....more
I don't give five out of five stars very often (okay, that's complete rubbish, as anyone can tell by the number of five-star books in my "read" list, I don't give five out of five stars very often (okay, that's complete rubbish, as anyone can tell by the number of five-star books in my "read" list, but whatever...), so when I read a book that really blows me away, life is good.
"Every Dead Thing" by John Connolly is a phenomenal book, a perfect confluence of everything that I love in a detective novel: well-written, fast-paced, suspenseful, well-plotted, extremely violent, dark, philosophical, intelligent, and emotional.
Critics compare Connolly to Thomas Harris, but I personally think Connolly is far superior to Harris. Don't get me wrong, "Red Dragon" and "Silence of the Lambs" are great novels. Every fan of serial killer thrillers uses those two books as the standard by which every other serial killer thriller written since is measured.
In my humble opinion, Connolly has set the new standard.
In his brooding, tortured private eye, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Connolly has created an anti-hero for the new millenium, a heroic figure who is at war with the dark side of his psyche, and the dark side is winning. Connolly's novels are excruciatingly violent and graphic, brutal in their pessimism, and heart-breaking in their fatalistic world-view, but there is also a beauty in them that is sometimes difficult to see but equally difficult to deny.
Maybe it's Connolly's Irish heritage, his acceptance of the supernatural and dismal view of humanity, that endears him to such stories of death and grief and torture.
Whatever the reason, Connolly (and his rich characters he has created) embraces the darkness, perhaps because it is only within the darkness that we can truly appreciate the light.
The plot of "Every Dead Thing" is, like most of Connolly's books, elaborate and complex, with dozens of characters, major and minor, to keep track of. It starts with the brutal murder of Parker's wife and daughter, a scene so visceral and horrific that it may turn off some readers within the first 10 pages. Fair enough. Connolly isn't for everyone. I urge readers to carry on, though, as Parker carries on.
He travels from his home state of Maine to Louisiana where he tracks down a lead: the possible murder of a young woman in the bayou whose murderer has an eerily similar m.o. to his wife and child's murderer. Soon he is piecing together the work of a serial killer, dubbed "The Travelling Man", due to the fact that his victims appear to be spread out across the country.
Somehow, his investigation involves him in a mob war in New Orleans. Red herrings and plot twists abound.
This book is a must-read for anyone who loves intelligent, action-packed, suspenseful thrillers. The body count is ridiculously high and the violence may be too much for readers with squeamish stomachs, but Connolly delivers, big-time....more
There's probably nothing more enjoyable (except for maybe sex, chocolate, and winning the lottery) than discovering a new favorite author.
John ConnolThere's probably nothing more enjoyable (except for maybe sex, chocolate, and winning the lottery) than discovering a new favorite author.
John Connolly is one of my new favorites. His long-running detective series featuring his brooding, anguished private eye Charlie "Bird" Parker (not to be confused with the jazz musician) is one of those series that has quickly gained a following of devoted fans, but his name is still not as recognizable as, say, John Sandford or James Lee Burke. And it should be, because Connolly is good. Damn good.
"Dark Hollow" is the second novel to feature Charlie Parker. (I have been reading them out of order, which is unlike me, but part of it is due to the fact that some of Connolly's early books are, I think, out of print, so I've had to buy used copies from Amazon...)
In the first book, apparently, Parker's wife and daughter were brutally murdered at the hands of a serial killer, which he subsequently caught, with the help of a backwoods sorceress, who also inadvertently instilled him with the supernatural ability to see things that no one else can see. (I'm piecing all of this together from context and references dropped in the second book, so I'm not completely sure if it's accurate.) This "gift" enables him to see the ghosts and demons that are all around us. It's not a gift that Parker wants. Still, it does occasionally help him to figure out things that a normal private eye wouldn't.
The plot of "Dark Hollow" is elaborate and convoluted, so I won't even bother to break it down, except to say that it involves a deadbeat dad falsely accused of murdering his ex-wife and child, a sociopathic mafia kingpin who is also looking for the deadbeat dad for late payments on a loan, and a killer who has stalked the backwoods of Maine for what appears to be nearly a century. The suspense will drive you crazy.
Fans of Thomas Harris, James Lee Burke, and Stephen King should give Connolly a try if they haven't already....more
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