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museoffire 's review for:
The Woman in the Woods
by John Connolly
I love the phrase, a sense of an ending. Endings are always viewed as such negative things. We equate ending with death or loss but putting it this way always makes me think more of falling into a pleasant sleep, finding peace after a very long, very hard road.
I have a sense, finally, that the ending is coming for Charlie Parker. And while that is a tragedy it also fills me with a sense of grave joy. Because if ever a man has deserved a long rest it is Parker.
John Connolly picks up the narrative in this latest (16th if you please) installment of the saga of private detective, righter of wrongs, killer of devils, protector of the weak, and possibly divinely inspired Charlie Parker where he usually does, in a sort of murky haze that Charlie always seems to find himself in when there's no one to rescue or violently murder. Fortunately its not long before the unidentified body of a young woman is discovered in a strange grave in the frozen wilds of Maine and everyone who might know who she was starts dropping like flies. When its revealed that the woman died from complications during childbirth and the baby is no where to be found the stakes get even higher.
Hired to look into matters by lawyer Moxie Castin (I defy you to find me a better name for a lawyer) Charlie hits the road. He's still under contract with the Feds and the mysterious cabal of watchers who are led by the "Principal Backer" are, as ever, watching him and for some strange reason everyone seems to have a very serious interest in this young woman. Using his usual mix of tough guy charm, genuine empathy for the victims, and total lack of fear of literally anything Charlie's on the trail and zeroing in on the truth long before anyone else.
I cannot begin to express how thrilled I was with this book. This seems to be my year for beloved authors I've read for years getting their shit back together after disappointing me over and over and over again.
Does this story inspire the sort of mind numbing fear of [b:Dark Hollow|175243|Dark Hollow (Charlie Parker, #2)|John Connolly|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364165262s/175243.jpg|950230]? No but it does something else equally cool. Instead of fear being a thing that jumps out and grabs you this time around Connolly makes it an oozing, festering sore that creeps up on you and refuses to let go.
There's another phrase I love. "The banality of evil." John Connolly has long been a master of violent, heart stopping evil that tortures and murders and works evil, terrifying plans but it turns out he's also master of a subtle evil. Evil that looks perfectly respectable and above board, evil that could just as easily be confused with good.
Evil in this book is a mild mannered, educated, well dressed Englishman named Quayle who enjoys reading medieval poetry and collecting old books. There's one book in particular that he's been searching for. Its a very special book that, if used correctly, could change the world itself.
And the very last owner the book had might just be the mysterious woman in the woods.
Parker has never faced evil quite like this before. I'm not used to sympathizing with Connolly's villains but I almost couldn't help it with Quayle. I don't know what his story is yet but I suspect it is a long and dark one, perhaps almost as dark as Parker's and equally littered with dead loved ones and horrible tragedies. Though he does terrible things he doesn't do them for pleasure, you almost get the feelings he simply has no choice and hasn't had one for a lifetime. Maybe longer.
I feel like I got into the heads of Connolly's characters in a way I haven't for a long time. Charlie's best friends Angel and Louis are ever present but now they are confronting a new reality, Angel's recovery from cancer. Seeing a cold blooded hitman like Louis nearly crippled by uncertainty and terrified at the very thought of life without his partner gave a character who's often relegated to clever dialogue and last minute gun fights some much needed depth. And though they don't appear too much Charlie's daughters (the living and the dead) take on a much clearer role in the story.
Long, long story short I think I am beginning to see the pattern in the chaos. I am getting the sense of an ending. Charlie has always wrestled with his own mortality, with the state of his soul. He's come perilously close to death on more than one occasion but this is the first time I've sensed him, and the other characters who live in his world, confronting the reality of death.
As ever Connolly's writing is devastatingly beautiful and wickedly funny. If there is one thing he does better than any other writer its making the blood and gore and fear utterly magnificent to behold. Whether its the decaying wraith of a dead mother haunting her child or a man staring down the barrel of a gun at his own death or Charlie gently ribbing Louis about his anger issues
it all sounds like poetry.
There was much more to feel and deeper depths to plumb in this book. It was a rich and haunting reading experience and that's not something I've been able to say about Mr. Connolly in a long, long time.
I have a sense, finally, that the ending is coming for Charlie Parker. And while that is a tragedy it also fills me with a sense of grave joy. Because if ever a man has deserved a long rest it is Parker.
John Connolly picks up the narrative in this latest (16th if you please) installment of the saga of private detective, righter of wrongs, killer of devils, protector of the weak, and possibly divinely inspired Charlie Parker where he usually does, in a sort of murky haze that Charlie always seems to find himself in when there's no one to rescue or violently murder. Fortunately its not long before the unidentified body of a young woman is discovered in a strange grave in the frozen wilds of Maine and everyone who might know who she was starts dropping like flies. When its revealed that the woman died from complications during childbirth and the baby is no where to be found the stakes get even higher.
Hired to look into matters by lawyer Moxie Castin (I defy you to find me a better name for a lawyer) Charlie hits the road. He's still under contract with the Feds and the mysterious cabal of watchers who are led by the "Principal Backer" are, as ever, watching him and for some strange reason everyone seems to have a very serious interest in this young woman. Using his usual mix of tough guy charm, genuine empathy for the victims, and total lack of fear of literally anything Charlie's on the trail and zeroing in on the truth long before anyone else.
I cannot begin to express how thrilled I was with this book. This seems to be my year for beloved authors I've read for years getting their shit back together after disappointing me over and over and over again.
Does this story inspire the sort of mind numbing fear of [b:Dark Hollow|175243|Dark Hollow (Charlie Parker, #2)|John Connolly|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364165262s/175243.jpg|950230]? No but it does something else equally cool. Instead of fear being a thing that jumps out and grabs you this time around Connolly makes it an oozing, festering sore that creeps up on you and refuses to let go.
There's another phrase I love. "The banality of evil." John Connolly has long been a master of violent, heart stopping evil that tortures and murders and works evil, terrifying plans but it turns out he's also master of a subtle evil. Evil that looks perfectly respectable and above board, evil that could just as easily be confused with good.
Evil in this book is a mild mannered, educated, well dressed Englishman named Quayle who enjoys reading medieval poetry and collecting old books. There's one book in particular that he's been searching for. Its a very special book that, if used correctly, could change the world itself.
And the very last owner the book had might just be the mysterious woman in the woods.
Parker has never faced evil quite like this before. I'm not used to sympathizing with Connolly's villains but I almost couldn't help it with Quayle. I don't know what his story is yet but I suspect it is a long and dark one, perhaps almost as dark as Parker's and equally littered with dead loved ones and horrible tragedies. Though he does terrible things he doesn't do them for pleasure, you almost get the feelings he simply has no choice and hasn't had one for a lifetime. Maybe longer.
I feel like I got into the heads of Connolly's characters in a way I haven't for a long time. Charlie's best friends Angel and Louis are ever present but now they are confronting a new reality, Angel's recovery from cancer. Seeing a cold blooded hitman like Louis nearly crippled by uncertainty and terrified at the very thought of life without his partner gave a character who's often relegated to clever dialogue and last minute gun fights some much needed depth. And though they don't appear too much Charlie's daughters (the living and the dead) take on a much clearer role in the story.
Long, long story short I think I am beginning to see the pattern in the chaos. I am getting the sense of an ending. Charlie has always wrestled with his own mortality, with the state of his soul. He's come perilously close to death on more than one occasion but this is the first time I've sensed him, and the other characters who live in his world, confronting the reality of death.
As ever Connolly's writing is devastatingly beautiful and wickedly funny. If there is one thing he does better than any other writer its making the blood and gore and fear utterly magnificent to behold. Whether its the decaying wraith of a dead mother haunting her child or a man staring down the barrel of a gun at his own death or Charlie gently ribbing Louis about his anger issues
it all sounds like poetry.
There was much more to feel and deeper depths to plumb in this book. It was a rich and haunting reading experience and that's not something I've been able to say about Mr. Connolly in a long, long time.