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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another riveting entry in the Charlie Parker series. Connolly grows the mythology of our main characters with each thrilling novel, and does so through a lens of a wider sociological/historical event. This writer has amazing skill at setting up and moving along multiple plots lines and then wrapping them all together in a believable way.
The White Road is mostly set in the southern U.S., and Charlie, Louis, and Angel get wrapped up in an inter-family feud hundreds of years old. Pieces from the previous three books are incorporated with perfect precision. We are given new mystery and high-paced intrigue, as Connolly sprinkles supernatural elements into a traditional hard-boiled detective novel. He makes it work, and strikes a perfect balance in this fun, smartly drawn, hybrid-genre of Charlie Parker's world.
So far, every book in the series approaches the level of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. What greater compliment can be given? A must read for fans of dark thrillers.
The White Road is mostly set in the southern U.S., and Charlie, Louis, and Angel get wrapped up in an inter-family feud hundreds of years old. Pieces from the previous three books are incorporated with perfect precision. We are given new mystery and high-paced intrigue, as Connolly sprinkles supernatural elements into a traditional hard-boiled detective novel. He makes it work, and strikes a perfect balance in this fun, smartly drawn, hybrid-genre of Charlie Parker's world.
So far, every book in the series approaches the level of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. What greater compliment can be given? A must read for fans of dark thrillers.
Given the current atmosphere in this country, this book was just another nail in the coffin to those that actually think that racism ended with the Civil Rights movement. Racism is alive and well and his never went away.
In this book Charlie is asked to help a friend defend the life of a young black man Atys, who is accused of murdering his rich white girlfriend Marianne, only to make matters worse both families have a long history dating back to slavery with Marianne’s descendants owning members of Atys family. Connolly does not miss us and hit the wall as he gives us the history of slavery and the brutality of how white people treated their slaves. Connolly is a master at weaving fictionally characters into factual events. You cannot help but empathize with the unfairness of what’s happening to Atys. While Charlie investigates he is quickly realizing there is more going on that meets the eye. His friend is holding things back, there is also the ongoing case with Faulkner from the previous book who is still pulling strings from prison, strings that are interwoven with the case Charlie is investigating in South Carolina. Not only that we learn a lot more about Angel’s beginnings and how he and Louis met. Angel is still tortured from the events of The Killing Kind and this is putting a strain on his relationship with Charlie. Connolly is beginning to delve a little bit more into the supernatural and we meet Epstein again in this book. With the threats not only to Charlie but to also Rachel his pregnant girlfriend. He has a lot on his plate.
We see Angel and Louis’s thoughts both together and apart. This I loved learning about. Louis also takes care of some history that has plagued him and Angel helps hoping that it will quiet some of the rage that is building in him.
I think this is a 5 star book with the usual banter and dialogue I love especially Charlie’s interaction with the detectives Adams and Addams, but even with this by the end of the book I just felt very sad and very broken hearted.
In this book Charlie is asked to help a friend defend the life of a young black man Atys, who is accused of murdering his rich white girlfriend Marianne, only to make matters worse both families have a long history dating back to slavery with Marianne’s descendants owning members of Atys family. Connolly does not miss us and hit the wall as he gives us the history of slavery and the brutality of how white people treated their slaves. Connolly is a master at weaving fictionally characters into factual events. You cannot help but empathize with the unfairness of what’s happening to Atys. While Charlie investigates he is quickly realizing there is more going on that meets the eye. His friend is holding things back, there is also the ongoing case with Faulkner from the previous book who is still pulling strings from prison, strings that are interwoven with the case Charlie is investigating in South Carolina. Not only that we learn a lot more about Angel’s beginnings and how he and Louis met. Angel is still tortured from the events of The Killing Kind and this is putting a strain on his relationship with Charlie. Connolly is beginning to delve a little bit more into the supernatural and we meet Epstein again in this book. With the threats not only to Charlie but to also Rachel his pregnant girlfriend. He has a lot on his plate.
We see Angel and Louis’s thoughts both together and apart. This I loved learning about. Louis also takes care of some history that has plagued him and Angel helps hoping that it will quiet some of the rage that is building in him.
I think this is a 5 star book with the usual banter and dialogue I love especially Charlie’s interaction with the detectives Adams and Addams, but even with this by the end of the book I just felt very sad and very broken hearted.
'The White Road' is actually a sequel to the previous book in the Charlie Parker series, 'The Killing Kind'. These two are books 3 and 4 in the series, and they should be read in sequence, but the earlier books are also referenced in the story quite frequently as well. Given these circumstances, gentle reader, before reading 'The White Road', I must insist the the previous books be read, in order, before this one, beginning with [b:Every Dead Thing|175242|Every Dead Thing (Charlie Parker, #1)|John Connolly|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393929687s/175242.jpg|890720]. Ignoring my advice may cause a severe lack of enjoyment in reading this book due to confusion.
Rachel and Charlie Parker are expecting their first child. They have bought a Scarborough, Maine farmhouse near ancient salt marshes and they are happy! Yes, happy! Oh, the misery of Parker's clients continues to keep Parker busy, but the presence of Rachel along with the expectation of the birth of his baby has partially insulated him from the dark nature of his work as a private detective. He seems to draw clients with the bleakest problems!
Perhaps Elliot Norton, attorney and old friend from the days when Parker was a police detective, has a reason to be calling from Charleston, South Carolina for Charlie's help which does not involve torture, rape and violent death! Gentle reader, as much as I hate to disturb your tranquility, I'm afraid such hopes are in vain.
Oh well. Charlie was feeling a bit tense. Solving murders takes the edge off. Perhaps a little trip to South Carolina will help ease his mind over the still incomplete case of the fanatical Baptists. The monstrous murderer from the previous story, Reverend Faulkner, is only temporarily incarcerated while waiting trial for his crimes. He has a good chance at making bail since the evidence against him is distressingly thin. If Charlie can arrange protection for Rachel, which he can, then he and his good friends Louis and Angel, assassin and thief respectively, can accompany him down to South Carolina and help Elliot.
Parker finds himself in the center of many deaths trying to uncover the truth behind a horrible killing in which racism appears to be the cause. But the question is, whose racism? Did Norton's client, Atys Jones, an impoverished black man, kill his white girlfriend, Marianne Larouse, daughter of rich industrialist Earl Larouse? Did the remnants of the KKK, members of whom still are in residence around the swamps and towns of South Carolina, decide to frame Atys after killing Marianne? Or was the death connected somehow to the ongoing feud of generations between the Jones and Larouse families, created by 'the peculiar institution' of slavery in the previous century?
Parker, who inexplicably can see dead people since the murders of his wife and three-year-old daughter a few years ago, finds his new ability may be expanding into seeing evil beings flying about. He really doesn't care to know any more about this ability, so he ignores it as much as possible. Unfortunately, the land of South Carolina is drenched in the blood of dead slaves....
Rachel and Charlie Parker are expecting their first child. They have bought a Scarborough, Maine farmhouse near ancient salt marshes and they are happy! Yes, happy! Oh, the misery of Parker's clients continues to keep Parker busy, but the presence of Rachel along with the expectation of the birth of his baby has partially insulated him from the dark nature of his work as a private detective. He seems to draw clients with the bleakest problems!
Perhaps Elliot Norton, attorney and old friend from the days when Parker was a police detective, has a reason to be calling from Charleston, South Carolina for Charlie's help which does not involve torture, rape and violent death! Gentle reader, as much as I hate to disturb your tranquility, I'm afraid such hopes are in vain.
Oh well. Charlie was feeling a bit tense. Solving murders takes the edge off. Perhaps a little trip to South Carolina will help ease his mind over the still incomplete case of the fanatical Baptists. The monstrous murderer from the previous story, Reverend Faulkner, is only temporarily incarcerated while waiting trial for his crimes. He has a good chance at making bail since the evidence against him is distressingly thin. If Charlie can arrange protection for Rachel, which he can, then he and his good friends Louis and Angel, assassin and thief respectively, can accompany him down to South Carolina and help Elliot.
Parker finds himself in the center of many deaths trying to uncover the truth behind a horrible killing in which racism appears to be the cause. But the question is, whose racism? Did Norton's client, Atys Jones, an impoverished black man, kill his white girlfriend, Marianne Larouse, daughter of rich industrialist Earl Larouse? Did the remnants of the KKK, members of whom still are in residence around the swamps and towns of South Carolina, decide to frame Atys after killing Marianne? Or was the death connected somehow to the ongoing feud of generations between the Jones and Larouse families, created by 'the peculiar institution' of slavery in the previous century?
Parker, who inexplicably can see dead people since the murders of his wife and three-year-old daughter a few years ago, finds his new ability may be expanding into seeing evil beings flying about. He really doesn't care to know any more about this ability, so he ignores it as much as possible. Unfortunately, the land of South Carolina is drenched in the blood of dead slaves....
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I really enjoyed The White Road. I liked the historical background and that it was not only Bird's issues but also Angel and Louis's this time. I can't wait to see Angel get his revenge.
I was planning on going with 4 stars with The White Road but that ending brought this all the way to 4.5 stars for me!
This book was a slow burn and then went out with a bang!
This book was a slow burn and then went out with a bang!
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My brother-in-law gave me a box of John Connolly books, so I figured I'd give him (John, not my brother-in-law) a chance, but after having read three of the books, the grace period is over. Part of my problem with the series is that I prefer my supernatural/fantasy stuff and my detective/thriller stuff kept distinctly separate. In addition, the details of the novels have way too many unbelievable coincidental moments; for example, (no spoiler) at one point an angry character slams his cell phone down on the edge of the restaurant table and a couple of seemingly drunk guys knock it off and then switch phones while pretending to pick it up. The new phone blows up when the angry guy goes to answer it, literally losing face over the incident. How in any possible world could the plotters have known that the exploding phone switcheroo would work since it all depended on the angry guy in the restaurant setting his phone on the edge of the table. One more stylistic complaint: Parts of the novel are narrated from a first person point of view, which, of course, creates certain limitations on the story telling since the narrator can only express what he knows, sees, feels, etc.; however, at times we get such comments as, "If I had looked back I would have seen a malevolent creature staring at me" or something like that. First person narration can't work that way.