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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Being the 18th book in the series, but also a prequel of sorts, this novel is quite different from the usual fare.
This time, we're in Arkansas and Charlie Parker is fresh off the police force, which was kind of by mutual agreement. He's also relatively fresh off the brutal murder of his wife and daughter. Upon searching for clues in that case, he becomes tangled up in a local murder mystery involving the deaths of three young girls. The local law invites him to stay and assist in their investigation and at first, Parker declines. But upon further thought on his way out of town, he turns back and agrees to help. Will he be able to help track down this brutal killer? You'll have to read this to find out!
It was hard going back with Charlie so fresh after his heartbreaking losses. His grief feels so real to the reader, I swear I felt my own heart crack. Even this soon after the tragedy though, his eyes and body language speak intensity and violence to whomever he meets. He's not popular in Burdon County, pretty much right off the bat, and the animosity builds every day he remains in town.
I'm going to leave off the plot, other than a few generalities. There were 2 characters I was hoping to see, and they do make an appearance. Even at that time period, we can see and feel how loyal and how strong of a friendship was formed between them. There were other characters, though, both alive and dead that didn't make an appearance, and though I noticed that, I did not miss them.
Once again, John Connolly delivers. It's never just the usual murder mystery with him, but this time, it actually was. There was barely a hint of the supernatural at all. It really doesn't matter to me at this point. If John Connolly wrote it, I'll read it and tell everyone about it!
My highest recommendation!
Available November 3rd, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/3cFZORw
*Thank you to Atria, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
This time, we're in Arkansas and Charlie Parker is fresh off the police force, which was kind of by mutual agreement. He's also relatively fresh off the brutal murder of his wife and daughter. Upon searching for clues in that case, he becomes tangled up in a local murder mystery involving the deaths of three young girls. The local law invites him to stay and assist in their investigation and at first, Parker declines. But upon further thought on his way out of town, he turns back and agrees to help. Will he be able to help track down this brutal killer? You'll have to read this to find out!
It was hard going back with Charlie so fresh after his heartbreaking losses. His grief feels so real to the reader, I swear I felt my own heart crack. Even this soon after the tragedy though, his eyes and body language speak intensity and violence to whomever he meets. He's not popular in Burdon County, pretty much right off the bat, and the animosity builds every day he remains in town.
I'm going to leave off the plot, other than a few generalities. There were 2 characters I was hoping to see, and they do make an appearance. Even at that time period, we can see and feel how loyal and how strong of a friendship was formed between them. There were other characters, though, both alive and dead that didn't make an appearance, and though I noticed that, I did not miss them.
Once again, John Connolly delivers. It's never just the usual murder mystery with him, but this time, it actually was. There was barely a hint of the supernatural at all. It really doesn't matter to me at this point. If John Connolly wrote it, I'll read it and tell everyone about it!
My highest recommendation!
Available November 3rd, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/3cFZORw
*Thank you to Atria, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
Notes:
Oddly, Jeff Harding's narration sounds a bit stiff & detached. I realized his narration changed between the "tell" and "show" parts of the story. Stiff for the telling parts and relaxed & engaged in the show.
Parts of the story was great but that's hampered by the awkward POV changes & large sections of tell vs show. I would have preferred a series of novella length stories that covered the early cases Parker worked on after his tragedy.
Oddly, Jeff Harding's narration sounds a bit stiff & detached. I realized his narration changed between the "tell" and "show" parts of the story. Stiff for the telling parts and relaxed & engaged in the show.
Parts of the story was great but that's hampered by the awkward POV changes & large sections of tell vs show. I would have preferred a series of novella length stories that covered the early cases Parker worked on after his tragedy.
4.5 stars. I was nervous about this trip down memory lane but Connolly can’t write a bad Parker book, it seems. Would probably have been a 4 star book for me, but the appearance of everyone’s favourite ethical assassins (for whom the phrase Be Gay, Do Crime was surely coined) towards the end bumps it up.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This was an interesting addition to the Charlie Parker catalog. I've spoken at length about the gradual decline of this series. I can't imagine it's especially easy to tell 18 stories about anything much less a man who traffics in death, and not just any kind of death. Charlie Parker is an old testament avenging angel who has battled the kind of killers who are so evil we wish they weren't human even while we realize that only humans are capable of the kind of depravity they engage in. Writing about that sort of thing just has to weigh on a person after awhile. And to do it with the sort of literary gifts John Connolly has must be even harder.
I was trying to explain to my husband why I love his writing so much and it's very difficult to articulate that you enjoy reading about people being flayed alive with a paring knife because "the language is really lovely" but I don't know what else to say. He makes the absolute worst kind of torture sound like a love sonnet. Fortunately we've been married for awhile so he embraced my particular brand of insanity awhile ago.
But even that's been suffering. And again I get it! Maintaining something like for 2 books let alone 18 must be just utterly exhausting.
So I've been cutting him some slack and slogging through whats become somewhat formulaic writing and unfortunately formulaic plotting. Charlie gets wind of a gross out murder that's got some sort of supernatural fumes wafting around it, gets Louis and Angel (actual murder husbands who seem scary but are probably the best people you could ever hope to meet) to do some damage, gets on the wrong side of actual law enforcement and probably just misses getting to the truth of this weird amorphous evil that's been chasing him for what seems like my entire life at this point.
However, this time around Connolly opted to go back in time to the days when Mr. Parker had barely begun his search for The Traveling Man, a faceless evil who murdered his wife and young daughter. Aided by higher ups and certain contacts in various arms of law enforcement Charlie began his search to destroy this monster by following any crime or murder that even resembled what was done to his family and so finds himself as this book begins in the festering armpit known as Burdon County, Arkansas. Three women have died. Black women and thus unworthy of much notice from a police force in the pocket of a local family bound and determined to lock in a deal that may finally raise Burdon County from the impoverished pit of despair its been mired in for generations. But there are few good people left who want to see justice done and though it takes him away from his hunt Charlie can't seem to resist the stronger need to help those who know one else will.
Connolly's been playing around with the whole "one suffering for the greater good" thing for awhile now but it feels especially relevant in this book. He eschews all of the supernatural stuff in favor of harsher, darker truths like the evils of the meth trade and the havoc true poverty wrecks on a community. His prose is much starker than its been before. The words are less flowery and seemingly chosen more for how hard they'll wound than how pleasing they'll be to the reader.
It's also interesting to see Charlie at such a crucial time in his development as a character. His rage and grief are cold and raw and that's really all there is to him. He simply has no interest in the world or the people in it. The fear he invokes isn't so much because of what he says or does, its more because you just sort of know what he's capable of. There's something in his silence that's infinitely more frightening than his fists.
I'm not quite used to having to work out whodunnit in a Charlie Parker story. Its usually pretty obvious but unlike other novels we don't spend much time with the killer in this one. In that sense (and here's where the three stars come in) it's a pretty pedestrian revenge tale that isn't too hard to work out and isn't terribly satisfying. I think this might have more to do with the fact that Connolly's earliest killers; the Traveling Man, Caleb Kyle and god help me those frickin' fundamentalist twins who murdered people with WASPS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!! still give me nightmares. It's kind of hard to get scarier than those guys and frankly I suppose I prefer that Connolly hasn't really tried.
We even get a brief visit with my favorite odd couple Angel and Louis who's loyalty to Charlie is something to behold. It's pretty cool to see them in their prime even if it feels a bit like pandering to the fans. Then again I would have been genuinely upset to go a whole book without seeing them.
I still don't feel the visceral, bone numbing thrill I used to get from his books but this was a good read. Not a great read, but a good one. An interesting prologue for one of the more fascinating detectives every written at any rate.
I was trying to explain to my husband why I love his writing so much and it's very difficult to articulate that you enjoy reading about people being flayed alive with a paring knife because "the language is really lovely" but I don't know what else to say. He makes the absolute worst kind of torture sound like a love sonnet. Fortunately we've been married for awhile so he embraced my particular brand of insanity awhile ago.
But even that's been suffering. And again I get it! Maintaining something like for 2 books let alone 18 must be just utterly exhausting.
So I've been cutting him some slack and slogging through whats become somewhat formulaic writing and unfortunately formulaic plotting. Charlie gets wind of a gross out murder that's got some sort of supernatural fumes wafting around it, gets Louis and Angel (actual murder husbands who seem scary but are probably the best people you could ever hope to meet) to do some damage, gets on the wrong side of actual law enforcement and probably just misses getting to the truth of this weird amorphous evil that's been chasing him for what seems like my entire life at this point.
However, this time around Connolly opted to go back in time to the days when Mr. Parker had barely begun his search for The Traveling Man, a faceless evil who murdered his wife and young daughter. Aided by higher ups and certain contacts in various arms of law enforcement Charlie began his search to destroy this monster by following any crime or murder that even resembled what was done to his family and so finds himself as this book begins in the festering armpit known as Burdon County, Arkansas. Three women have died. Black women and thus unworthy of much notice from a police force in the pocket of a local family bound and determined to lock in a deal that may finally raise Burdon County from the impoverished pit of despair its been mired in for generations. But there are few good people left who want to see justice done and though it takes him away from his hunt Charlie can't seem to resist the stronger need to help those who know one else will.
Connolly's been playing around with the whole "one suffering for the greater good" thing for awhile now but it feels especially relevant in this book. He eschews all of the supernatural stuff in favor of harsher, darker truths like the evils of the meth trade and the havoc true poverty wrecks on a community. His prose is much starker than its been before. The words are less flowery and seemingly chosen more for how hard they'll wound than how pleasing they'll be to the reader.
It's also interesting to see Charlie at such a crucial time in his development as a character. His rage and grief are cold and raw and that's really all there is to him. He simply has no interest in the world or the people in it. The fear he invokes isn't so much because of what he says or does, its more because you just sort of know what he's capable of. There's something in his silence that's infinitely more frightening than his fists.
I'm not quite used to having to work out whodunnit in a Charlie Parker story. Its usually pretty obvious but unlike other novels we don't spend much time with the killer in this one. In that sense (and here's where the three stars come in) it's a pretty pedestrian revenge tale that isn't too hard to work out and isn't terribly satisfying. I think this might have more to do with the fact that Connolly's earliest killers; the Traveling Man, Caleb Kyle and god help me those frickin' fundamentalist twins who murdered people with WASPS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!! still give me nightmares. It's kind of hard to get scarier than those guys and frankly I suppose I prefer that Connolly hasn't really tried.
We even get a brief visit with my favorite odd couple Angel and Louis who's loyalty to Charlie is something to behold. It's pretty cool to see them in their prime even if it feels a bit like pandering to the fans. Then again I would have been genuinely upset to go a whole book without seeing them.
I still don't feel the visceral, bone numbing thrill I used to get from his books but this was a good read. Not a great read, but a good one. An interesting prologue for one of the more fascinating detectives every written at any rate.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes