A Time of Torment: A Charlie Parker Thriller
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

In the latest Charlie Parker thriller, the tormented private eye takes on the case of a man who believes he's marked for death. Initially skeptical, Parker soon learns that the man was right, and that buried deep in the rural countryside is a community that has existed for many years, isolated and almost entirely unknown to the outside world. As regular readers of the series are well aware, there are virtually no lengths to which Parker won't go to bring evil to its knees. Right from the start, the Charlie Parker series, whose first installment, 1999's Every Dead Thing, won a Shamus Award for best first private-eye novel, has grabbed readers with its combination of hard-boiled-detective and supernatural elements. Even in a genre full of tortured protagonists, Parker's history is darker than most: the murders of his wife and daughter, frequent battles with otherwordly foes, even a brief foray into the world of the dead. And yet this is one of the things that make the Parker novels so good Connolly keeps Charlie solidly grounded in the real world. He's not a supernatural being himself. He's an ordinary man, an ex-cop turned private eye; and the books aren't horror novels, they're private eye stories. Another excellent entry in a consistently fine series.--Pitt, David Copyright 2016 Booklist

As in the best noir, the violent events that propel the plot of Connolly's grim but compelling 14th novel featuring PI Charlie Parker (after 2015's A Song of Shadows) are triggered by a seemingly innocuous choice. Jerome Burnel, a jewelry store manager, in the middle of an armed robbery at a gas station outside Portland, Maine, manages to kill the criminals and save the intended victims. Two months later, someone frames Burnel by planting child porn in his house. During his subsequent imprisonment, Burnel is violated repeatedly by a sadist who says that he works for an entity known as the Dead King. After Burnel's release, he hires Parker to look into who set him up so he'd go to prison, only to disappear soon afterward, leaving the sleuth another mystery that takes him down some extremely mean streets. Connolly again displays his mastery at combining the hard-boiled with the supernatural. Eloquent prose is a plus ("A man driving on a dark fall evening, a gas station appearing in the distance: to stop or go on. On such decisions were lives saved, lives ended, and lives destroyed"). Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In the latest Charlie Parker thriller, the tormented private eye takes on the case of a man who believes he's marked for death. Initially skeptical, Parker soon learns that the man was right, and that buried deep in the rural countryside is a community that has existed for many years, isolated and almost entirely unknown to the outside world. As regular readers of the series are well aware, there are virtually no lengths to which Parker won't go to bring evil to its knees. Right from the start, the Charlie Parker series, whose first installment, 1999's Every Dead Thing, won a Shamus Award for best first private-eye novel, has grabbed readers with its combination of hard-boiled-detective and supernatural elements. Even in a genre full of tortured protagonists, Parker's history is darker than most: the murders of his wife and daughter, frequent battles with otherwordly foes, even a brief foray into the world of the dead. And yet—this is one of the things that make the Parker novels so good—Connolly keeps Charlie solidly grounded in the real world. He's not a supernatural being himself. He's an ordinary man, an ex-cop turned private eye; and the books aren't horror novels, they're private eye stories. Another excellent entry in a consistently fine series. Copyright 2016 Booklist Reviews.

Having heard the story of Jerome Burnel, sent to prison after thwarting several killings and fearful of a spooky someone or something, does Charlie Parker turn and run? Of course not! He heads straight to the desolate community called the Cut to face a group of men whose reign of terror is ordained by the Dead King.

As in the best noir, the violent events that propel the plot of Connolly's grim but compelling 14th novel featuring PI Charlie Parker (after 2015's A Song of Shadows) are triggered by a seemingly innocuous choice. Jerome Burnel, a jewelry store manager, in the middle of an armed robbery at a gas station outside Portland, Maine, manages to kill the criminals and save the intended victims. Two months later, someone frames Burnel by planting child porn in his house. During his subsequent imprisonment, Burnel is violated repeatedly by a sadist who says that he works for an entity known as the Dead King. After Burnel's release, he hires Parker to look into who set him up so he'd go to prison, only to disappear soon afterward, leaving the sleuth another mystery that takes him down some extremely mean streets. Connolly again displays his mastery at combining the hard-boiled with the supernatural. Eloquent prose is a plus ("A man driving on a dark fall evening, a gas station appearing in the distance: to stop or go on. On such decisions were lives saved, lives ended, and lives destroyed"). Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (Aug.)