Charlie Parker #14
By: John Connolly
ISBN: 9781501118326
Publisher: Atria
Publication Date: 8/2/2016
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars Dangerous and driven private investigator Charlie Parker returns in the latest gripping thriller of internationally bestselling author John Connolly’s series, in which ungodly fears haunt a strange and isolated community. Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings, and in doing so destroyed himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized. But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death, but was saved; of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade. Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war. Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder. All in the name of the being they serve. All in the name of the Dead King.
My Review
A special thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A TIME OF TORMENT, John Connolly's latest chilling and gripping suspense thriller crossing over to the dark (er) supernatural side with Charlie Parker #14.
The Cut, an area of ten square miles of Plassey County, east of Charleston, West Virginia.
An independent quasi-medieval community, an irreligious cult, presided over by capable, ruthless men with names such as Oberon and Cassander.
A litany of killings and disappearances over the best part of a century and a half.
If the people of the Cut took it upon themselves to give the county an edge by warning off anyone who viewed it as an easy conquest for drugs, prostitution, racketeering, or excessive corruption. Time to bring the Cut to an end.
Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings, and in doing so destroyed himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized. He wants Charlie to clear his name.
Enter, private detective Charlie Parker.
He speaks of the girl who was marked for death, but was saved; of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.
Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.
Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.
Somewhere in Plassey County, West Virginia was a Dead King.
Now the disgraced Burnel, is out of jail and seated in the Great Lost Bear across a table from private detective Charlie Parker and his associates, Angel and Louis. Burnel claims he was set up: for the child pornography at the very least, and quite possibly to have been robbed and killed in that gas station heist. By the time Parker decides to take the case, Burnel has already been seized and taken into “the Cut”.
Charlie Parker is haunted by his past with an investigation leading him into a creepy cult group called the Cut.
Parker’s investigation leads him in several directions before eventually pointing him towards a weird, creepy, cult-like evil group who call themselves the Cut. This is a group you do not want to cross, especially the master, Dead King.
PI Charlie uncovers a dark secret.
"Was it a symptom of their collective madness, an infection of the mind passed down through generations. A voice given, to a form that they themselves had created?"
From wickedly dark and evil, full of horror, a man haunted by the death of his wife and child, he continues to courageously fight the battle against the darkness. Entertaining!
"It should be noted that children at play are not merely playing; their games should be seen as their most serious actions." -Michael de Montaigne
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About the Author
John Connolly was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and has, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a dogsbody at Harrods department store in London. He studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which he continues to contribute.
His first novel, Every Dead Thing, was published in 1999, and introduced the character of Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. Dark Hollow followed in 2000. The third Parker novel, The Killing Kind, was published in 2001, with The White Road following in 2002. In 2003, John published his fifth novel—and first stand-alone book—Bad Men. In 2004, Nocturnes, a collection of novellas and short stories, was added to the list, and 2005 marked the publication of the fifth Charlie Parker novel, The Black Angel.
John's seventh novel, The Book of Lost Things, a story about fairy stories and the power that books have to shape our world and our imaginations, was published in September 2006, followed by the next Parker novel, The Unquiet, in 2007, The Reapers, in 2008 The Lovers, in 2009, and The Whisperers, the ninth Charlie Parker novel, in 2010. The tenth Charlie Parker novel, The Burning Soul, was published in 2011, to be followed in 2012 by The Wrath of Angels. The Wolf in Winter, the twelfth Parker novel, was published in April 2014 in the UK and in October 2014 in the US. 2015 saw the publication of A Song of Shadows, the 13th Parker novel, and Night Music: Nocturnes Volume 2, the second collection of short stories. The 14th Parker novel, A Time of Torment, will be published in April 2016 in the UK and in July 2016 in the US.
In 2009, John published The Gates, his first novel for young adults. A sequel was published in 2011 as Hell's Bells in the UK and The Infernals in the United States; the third in the Samuel Johnson trilogy, The Creeps, was published in 2013 in the UK and in 2014 in the US. DreamWorks Studios acquired the Samuel Johnson trilogy in 2015 for development as a possible franchise.
Books to Die For, a nonfiction anthology co-edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke, won the 2013 Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards for Best Critical/Biographical Book of the year.
With his partner, Jennifer Ridyard, John published Conquest, the first book in the Chronicles of the Invaders series for teenaged readers, in 2013. The second book in that series, Empire, followed in 2015, and the third, Dominion, will be out in February 2016 in the UK and in May 2016 in the US.
John Connolly is based in Dublin but divides his time between his native city and the United States, where the Charlie Parker mysteries are set. Read More
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