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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. HTML:"Connolly has crafted one of the most darkly intriguing books this reviewer has encountered in more than three decades of reading crime fiction." �Publishers Weekly (starred review) The second thriller in John Connolly's bestselling, chilling series featuring haunted private investigator Charlie Parker. Charlier Parker, a former New York City detective with a haunted past, befriends a down-and-out mother with a small child. When she turns up dead, Charlie's first suspect is her estranged husband. Charlie follows the man's trail to Maine and there he becomes entangled in a series of strange occurances which all seem to harken back to a string of unsolved murders that took place generations before. The murders were never solved and now Charlie must hunt for a killer and the connection between two crimes that span a century.… (more)
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I dream of a figure moving through the forest, of children flying from his path, of young women crying at his coming. I dream of snow and ice, of bare branches and moon-cast shadows. I dream of dancers floating in the air, stepping lightly even in death, and my own pain is
I dream in black and white, and I dream of him.
I dream of Caleb, who does not exist, and I am afraid.”
Charlie Parker, almost a year after the murder of his family, is trying to find peace. He has returned to Maine where he spent his youth and has moved into his Grandfathers old house in Scarborough with the intention of doing it up. Unfortunately he doesn’t get very much done as before long he is drawn into the hunt for the killer of another mother and child. The obvious suspect is the woman's violent estranged husband.
But there is another possibility – his grandfather (a policeman) was haunted by a shocking series of unsolved murders in the area, the perpetrator was meant to be the monster known as Caleb Kyle. As the decades past Kyle sank into the mythology of Dark Hollow only to be resurrected by tired mothers as the bogey man used to scare errant children. "Caleb Kyle, Caleb Kyle, when you see him run a mile"
Far to the north an elderly lady, from a nursing home, is found wandering in the snowy woods saying she has seen Caleb Kyle…
There is a whole different atmosphere to this book, from EDT, it feels sinister, forbidding and very gothic! The intensely visual descriptions of a freezing winter in Maine, drip with a dark, brooding menace. I felt cold the whole time I was reading it!
As the author says:
“I wanted to use the Maine landscape, the changing of the seasons, the cycles of nature, to illuminate the novel. The book is filled with images of predatory nature and, combined with the onset of winter; I hope gives the book some of its power.”
It is a genuinely haunting, dark and unsettling read but Connolly’s lyrical writing, almost mystical in parts, make it a breathtaking experience.
Interesting and dark. Charlie is an interesting character with a lot of motivations and his friends are complicated and nothing is straighforward or transparent. I'm liking the series and the characters but there are moments when it's a bit gruesome.
His ability to create a chilling atmosphere is only second to his top notch
You'd think that having this much going on at once would be overwhelming but Connolly maintains control throughout. I never felt lost at any point throughout the novels 500 pages and never felt that anything was unnecessary. Connolly often rewrites his books, sometimes in excess of 20 times so he makes sure his novels are tight. Further development is given to Parker's accomplices Louis and Angel. The nature of Louis' employment puts a strain on his relationship with Parker for the first time. We also get a glimpse into how Angel became intertwined with Parker in the first place. This excites me as Louis is given a more central role in a Parker novel down the road and his character is already interesting by the 2nd novel - I can only guess what Connolly has in store for the next few outings.
Dark Hollow focuses a bit more on who these central characters are, their backgrounds and Charlie's reason for continuing down this road. Connolly should be praised for his ability to write thrillers this good but nothing is better than proper character development, it keeps the series interesting.
Lots of bad guys, all with their own agenda, and all these agendas were contrary to Charlie's wishes, so lots of violence and killings and
It had a bit of, I dunno, psychobabble in the form of dreams which I didn't really like (I'm reading for the violence and justice, not to hear about the spirit world)... but there wasn't so much of this that it tainted the story too much. I suppose these damaged heroes have to have something that made them what they are - Charlie's burden is his wife and daughter's death.
At least there was no moralizing in the book. And justice was served. And the returning characters are great. I'm starting the next in the series right now.
Back Cover Blurb:
Private detective Charlie Parker has come home. To the Maine landscape of his youth, the ghosts of his past and the brutal
And the body count is rising....
To stop the killer, Parker will have to solve a thirty-year-old puzzle and map the nightmare wilderness of his own past and his own heart.
And confront a legend that is evil incarnate.
Note: creepy is not the same as scary.
Charlie 'Bird' Parker, a former NYPD officer who left the job when his wife and daughter was killed, now has his PI license. He does a favor for Rita Purdue. He finds her former husband, Billy, and gets him to pay some of the support and alimony that he owed Rita.
Unfortunately, some of the money Billy gave to Charlie, was in new bills in the same denomination as was stolen a few days earlier.
This sets forces against Billy. Tony Celli's gang, two independent killers and someone else enters the story to seek out Billy and retrieve the money.
The killing and torture that accompanies the search for Billy doesn't bother the searchers.
Charlie still regards Billy as a friend and thinks Billy is over his head so tries to find him and warn him.
John Connolly seems influenced by the early work of Stephen King. His good characters are quite sympathetic and his evil characters are devilisly evil. It is easy to follow Charlie as he fights agains the evil forces to save an innocent person.
There is suspense throughout the book culminating at the conclusion. There were a few surprises along the way to add to the entertainment of the novel and overall, this was a very enjoyable read.
I dream of a figure moving through the forest, of children flying from his path, of young women crying at his coming. I dream of snow and ice, of bare branches and moon-cast shadows. I dream of dancers floating in the air, stepping lightly even in death, and my own pain is
I dream in black and white, and I dream of him.
I dream of Caleb, who does not exist, and I am afraid.”
Charlie Parker, almost a year after the murder of his family, is trying to find peace. He has returned to Maine where he spent his youth and has moved into his Grandfathers old house in Scarborough with the intention of doing it up. Unfortunately he doesn’t get very much done as before long he is drawn into the hunt for the killer of another mother and child. The obvious suspect is the woman's violent estranged husband.
But there is another possibility – his grandfather (a policeman) was haunted by a shocking series of unsolved murders in the area, the perpetrator was meant to be the monster known as Caleb Kyle. As the decades past Kyle sank into the mythology of Dark Hollow only to be resurrected by tired mothers as the bogey man used to scare errant children. "Caleb Kyle, Caleb Kyle, when you see him run a mile"
Far to the north but now an elderly lady, from a nursing home, is found wandering in the snowy woods saying she has seen Caleb Kyle…
There is a whole different atmosphere to this book, from EDT, it feels sinister, forbidding and very gothic! The intensely visual descriptions of a freezing winter in Maine, drip with a dark, brooding menace. I felt cold the whole time I was reading it!
As the author says:
“I wanted to use the Maine landscape, the changing of the seasons, the cycles of nature, to illuminate the novel. The book is filled with images of predatory nature and, combined with the onset of winter; I hope gives the book some of its power.”
It is a genuinely haunting, dark and unsettling read but Connolly’s lyrical writing, almost mystical in parts, make it a breathtaking experience.
".. I felt the urge to push him away, but I was stopped by a stronger instinct that
But it was more than that. He exuded a sense of extreme lethality, a capacity for inflicting hurt and pain that was so profound as to be almost sexual. It seeped from his pores and flowed viscously over his skin, seeming almost to drip visibly from the tips of his fingers and the end of his ugly brutish nose. Despite the cold, tiny bits of perspiration glittered on his forehead and upper lip, spangling his soft features with moisture. Touch him, I sensed, and your fingers would sink into his flesh, the skin yielding clammily to the pressure as it sucked you in.
And then he would kill you, because that was what he did. I was certain of it."
And here's a beef I have with so many male authors. They have to talk about women like they're just there for their use, and to look at, and to judge their body parts. There's no reason to do this:
" 'what do you want to know?'
'tell me about last Monday night.'
Again, he exchanged a look with jim, then seemed to resign himself to talking.
'It was a freak call, that's all. Guy rang from the Eastland over on high street, wanted a girl. I asked him if he had any preferences and he gave me short, blonde, small tits, neat ass. Said that was what he liked. Well, that was rita. I gave her a call, offered her this a job, and she said yes. It was only her third time, but she was Keen to make some cash. Cash for gash.' He smiled emptily."
This part infuriates me:
"how many times had I heard that voice whispered to me in the darkness, a Prelude to the soft caress of a warm hand, the feel of her breath against my cheek, my lips, her small breasts hard against my body, her legs like Ivy curling around me? I had heard it in times of love and passion when we were happy together, in moments of anger and rage and sadness as our marriage fell apart. And I had heard it since in the rustling of leaves on the grass and the sound of branches rubbing against one another in the Autumn breezes, a voice that carried from far away and called to me from the shadows.
Susan, my susan."
The f*** is wrong with this author? Do women authors talk about 'his tiny penis was felt against my leg in the night. His huge buttocks, on the other hand, more than made up for his tiny penis?'
Charlie Parker supposedly has some connection with the dead, imparted to him from the big woman in Louisiana, the blind woman:
"... That was Tante Marie's gift to me: I saw and heard my dead wife and child, and I saw and heard others too. Eventually, Tante Marie was among them. That was her gift, passed in the touch of a hand, and yet I could not explain it.
I think that it may be a kind of empathy, a capacity to experience the suffering of those who have been taken painfully, brutally, without mercy. Or perhaps what I experienced is a form of madness, a product of grief and guilt; maybe I am disturbed, and in my disturbance I have imagined alternate worlds where the dead seek reparation from the living. I do not know for certain. All I can say is that those who are absent, by its means become present.
But some gifts are worse than curses, and the dark side of the gift is that they know. The lost, the stragglers, those who should not have been taken but were, the innocents, the struggling, the tormented shades, the gathering ranks of the dead, they know. And they come."
This next part should have a caveat, apart from it, to tell readers that this is what happens to the "meat" that they have on their plate, before it's cut up and gets there:
"the tone of his voice grew gentler, but his face hardened as he spoke again: 'I'm sorry we have to do this to you, but I need to be sure that you understand what we've discussed. If at any point you feel you have something to add to what you've told me, just moan louder.'
He nodded at whoever was behind me and I was forced down to my knees again. A rag was stuffed in my mouth, and my arms were pulled back and secured with cuffs. I looked up to see hairlip limping toward me. In his hand, he held a short metal rod. Crackling blue lightning danced along its length.
The first two shots from the cattle prod knocked me backward and sent me spasming to the ground, my teeth gritted in pain against the rag. After the third contact I lost control of myself and blue flashes moved through the blackness of my mind until, at last, the clouds took me and all went quiet."
Despite all the things that pissed me off about this book, I'll probably read the next Charlie Parker in the series.
The prologue was a little hard
How this series has not been made into a show on Netflix or Amazon is mystifying.