- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Atria (Sep 3 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743453344
- ISBN-13: 978-0743453349
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.4 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 603 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #384,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Move over, Spider-Man. Arachnophobes, proceed at your own peril. Elias Pudd, the archfiend in Connolly's masterful third suspense novel (following Every Dead Thing and Dark Hollow) finds such grizzly uses for spiders of all, er, stripes that he makes that dastardly villain Hannibal Lecter seem like Little Lord Fauntleroy. Pudd, however, is just one in a splendidly drawn cast that propels this gripping, intricately plotted tale. When a road crew in northern Maine accidentally unearths a grave site, the bodies turn out to be members of the Aroostook Baptists, a cultlike religious group whose members disappeared in the 1960s. Meanwhile, private investigator Charlie Parker (from the earlier novels) is hired to investigate the suspicious suicide of Grace Peltier, who was working on a graduate thesis concerning-guess what?-the Aroostook Baptists. Further muddying the waters is the Fellowship, a group led by the supremely unctuous Carter Paragon (nee Chester Quincy Deedes, "the name on his birth certificate and his criminal record"), which turns out to be far more sinister than anyone realized. From Connolly's opening words-"This is a honeycomb world. It hides a hollow heart"-it's clear that this is no ordinary thriller; indeed, his random musings on the manifestations of evil, coupled with Parker's visions and flashbacks, lend the book a dark, intriguing overlay. Lest things become too intense, however, the author's wry sense of humor easily lightens the situation, often harking back to earlier noir writers: "she had the kind of body that caused highway pileups after Sunday services." In his novel's acknowledgments, Connolly modestly writes, "As each novel progresses, the depths of my ignorance become more and more apparent." Also becoming more apparent are the depths of this author's psychological acumen, literary skills and prodigious creativity.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
After Every Dead Thing and Dark Hollow, Connolly's damaged P.I. Charlie Parker is back in his third foray into an underworld populated with cruel villains and criminal psychopaths. Parker is a singularly tortured individual who not only sees dead people but feels compelled to seek retribution for their deaths on their behalf. This time around, he is hired to find the killer of a graduate student who had been researching a fundamentalist sect that disappeared into the backwoods of Maine 40 years before. Parker's investigations, ranging from Maine to New York City, draw the ire of some very bad people, who come after him armed with guns, Bibles, and spiders. The Dublin-based Connolly has again written a compelling story full of sadistic bad guys, moral ambiguity, and some serious violence. But he manages to offset some of the unpleasantness with occasional one-liners that manage not to minimize the perversity but make the characters who must deal with it seem more human. Recommended for most popular fiction collections. Lisa Bier, Southern Connecticut State Univ., New Haven
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
IT WAS SPRING, AND COLOR had returned to the world. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
IT WAS SPRING, AND COLOR had returned to the world. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent, Captivating Read,
By Natalie P. (Mississauga, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Killing Kind: A Thriller (Mass Market Paperback)
I was walking though the bookstore where I work and came across this book, and I am happy that I did. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading the other books this author has written. I love Connolly's main character Private Detective Charlie Parker and his shady and colorful associates, Angel and Louis. It has taken me all of 2 days to read this book and I look forward to reading the 2 previous to this novel and the 2 after it. Excellent Writer.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Less gunfire, more terrifying anyway,
By
This review is from: The Killing Kind: A Thriller (Mass Market Paperback)
The first two Charlier Parker novels, by Irish journalist John Connolly, were violent and very disturbing, pocked with gunfire and dead bodies, and visions of horrors from the afterlife. Parker himself is a strange, tortured soul, who can see those who have been killed violently, so that he can't ignore them and return to his quiet life. This third Parker book is even nastier in some ways: the author has managed to make things even more sinister by making the violence more dramatic, more creepy, more hidden.In this installment, Parker's relegated himself to watching wayward husbands and doing boring industrial security work. He imagines that his presence somehow makes violent people worse, or perhaps brings them out of the woodwork. He's patched up his relationship with Rachel and made peace with the world, and now is trying to make ends meet without killing anyone. This reverie is disturbed by Jack Mercier, a retired senator who is wealthy and wishes to hire Parker to investigate a murder. Initially reluctant, Parker becomes engrossed in the case and those who quickly become suspects, largely a strange, reclusive cult of religious fanatics called The Fellowship. They appear outrageous and silly, not particularly dangerous if repugnant in their beliefs (which range from anti-abortion to anti-semitism) and somewhat nuts. Parker suspects something deeper, and soon discovers that he's right. The book travels from there, with a plethora of wonderful characters, from a mob boss to a very different porn producer to a Jewish assassin with no face to a bad guy with a strange fascination for spiders. All are drawn interestingly, with wonderful dialog and mannerisms, and prose that makes you think this might even be poetry. I enjoyed the first two Charlier Parker novels a great deal. This third one isn't anywhere near as violent and bloody as the first two, but given the haunting images that the author paints as he writes his books, the shootouts aren't really needed. Instead, the murky atmosphere almost makes this into a Clive Barker novel, without the supernatural nasties. Instead, your skin crawls from spiders and strange characters who've been killing for decades. For me that's more affecting, not less.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Bullet Between The Eyes...,
By paul mason "dedarkone" (Barrie On) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Killing Kind: A Thriller (Mass Market Paperback)
Reading John Connolly is like a literary bullet between the eyes, and in his third Charlie Parker novel his aim is right on target.Ex police officer private detective Charlie Parker is hired to investigate the mysterious "suicide" of a young woman who was herself investigating the death of a religious group. While on this case Parker meets his newest nemesis "Pudd". A man who enjoys death and has an affinity for arachnids. Connolly's writing is very blunt, and he pulls no punches when it comes to dealing with such issues as the nature of evil, redemption and revenge. There are a few very graphic scenes in this, like in his previous novels yet Connolly counters the violence of Parker's world with a lyrical prose that make the pages hum as the reader turns them faster and faster in an effort to find out how his novel ends. Very exciting very grisly, and most important very touching and well written crime novel with a hint of the supernatural.
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