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A BOOK OF BONES
The new Charlie Parker novel is always a highly anticipated event for me. It's like getting together with a group of old friends that studiously avoid social media and the way that medium devalues the joy and sometimes sadness of "catching up". A Book of Bones was more like being invited to a wedding to which those old friends had also been invited and getting the highlights of what we'd all been up to despite the distractions of the other guests and the too loud music. In this case the too loud music was without a doubt the intrusion of the historical "short stories' injected into the almost 700 page novel.
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THE WHITE ROAD
In this the fourth Charlie Parker outing, John Connolly takes a definite step nearer to the supernatural. The move from Maine to the deep south adds another flavour to the tale and allows Connolly's lyrical style to flourish. He makes good use of the combination of standard crime thriller and supernatural horror story to maintain his own brand of thriller.
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THE KILLING KIND
The third instalment in the Charlie Parker detective series introduces us to Elias Pudd and his secret weapon of eight-legged assassins. A long-time arachnophobe I squirmed my way through the passages where Pudd does his dirty work. Enough to keep me awake and begging for more.
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DARK HOLLOW
The second in the Charlie Parker series is every bit as chilling and thrilling as the debut novel. Connolly, rather cheekily some might think, manages to move his hero to Maine and then turn the dial up on the supernatural elements of the tale. Cheeky because the master of horror, Stephen King, based his tales of the unexpected in Maine also. The risk paid off though and this novel holds its own in comparison to anything King has produced.
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EVERY DEAD THING
Charlie 'Bird' Parker is as robust a detective fiction character as any of the greats - including Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and Harry Bosch - with a complexity that satisfies the reader and avoids any of the cliches. Parker is a sympathetic bad boy with a reason for revenge and an unapologetic approach to how he achieves it. Former cop turned less than stunningly successful private eye, he takes on the real world villains while searching for the focus of his vengeful anger.
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THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS
I think it's only fair to admit I'm a big fan of John Connolly's Charlie Parker novels and I opened this book with high expectations of a standard of writing that elevates a modern novel towards real literature; I wasn't disappointed. The language and descriptive prose are of Connolly's usual high quality, but it at no time overpowers the story or the flow of the narrative. In fact the subject matter lends itself well to the considered turn of phrase that characterises this author's work.
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WRATH OF ANGELS
I realise waiting until the 11th novel in a sequence is not the best way to introduce oneself to a writer or his by now legendary character, but having said that it didn't hinder me in any way from enjoying Wrath of Angels by John Connolly or accepting Charlie Parker as the detective I'd most likely turn to in an emergency. Apparently Connolly writes each novel to be read either as a standalone experience or part of a 'sequence' rather than a 'series' and that paid off for me because while I picked up the existence of a rich past history shared by a number of the characters I didn't get the feeling I was left out of a private joke
