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Summary: Master Of Thrills
Review: John Connolly is the rare kind of author that just seems to get better and better with each new book he writes. His thrillers, masterfully crafted stories full of intriguing subplots that usually end up leaving you breathless, never cease to amaze. Don't start a Connolly novel before going to bed, because you'll never get the chance to get some sleep.We once more find Charlie "Bird" Parker reluctantly trapped in the middle of a murder investigation that is everything except what it appears to be. This time, the victim is a woman Parker used to know. Although her death appears to be a suicide, her family isn't too certain about it. They hire Parker to investigate. What Charlie finds is more terrifying than any nightmare you could imagine. The murder seems to be linked with an old religious sect that ceased to exists decades ago when all its members mysteriously dissapeared. But when a grave filled with bodies is uncovered, the past once more comes to haunt Charlie and everyon involved in the investigation. This is one of the best thriller you will find on your bookstore's shelves. There isn't a dull moment in this book, not a false moment to be found. The characters feel real, talk real, act real, and the plot is always very entertaining and relentless. Connolly is a master at mixing genres, and he does so again with this one. And the fact that Connolly gives us one of the best finale you will ever find in a thriller only makes him better in my book. I can't think of one bad thing to say about this novel. Connolly and his Charlie Parker are already making their quick ascend to the top of the mystery charts. It's great to see that people are finally turning to the very best there is. The Killing Kind is a rare mystery that you won't soon forget. Summer reading at its very best, and very finest.
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Summary: From the Feather of an Irish Man
Review: Macabre, macabre, macabre. Written for the faint hearted to swoon, Connolly doesn't spare anyone the grizzly details of corpses, and you will find many strewn throughout the story. He targets religious intolerance in the USA which of course stands in dire opposition to the constitution minced by the founding fathers. Killing for religious reasons is as old as mankind; in modern times dogma, sinner, and apocalyptic judgment collides with free choice. Written with much skill, in this story the power of the evil Fellowship is exaggerated beyond the realms of the possible; read at your own risk and be shocked and stunned.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bullet Between The Eyes...
Review: 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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Summary: Outstanding Thriller
Review: See book description above. Mr. Pudd, a violent and truly evil character, is just one of the memorable things about this outstanding thriller. A very well written novel that's vivid and intense, including some very graphic storytelling. John Connolly is indeed an author that goes to the top of my list. Nice Job. Inside the cover: "This is a honeycomb world, each hollow linked to the next, each life inextricably intertwined with the lives of others. The loss of even one reverberates through the whole, altering the balance, changing the nature of existence in tiny, imperceptible ways." Highly recommended.
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Summary: THIS UNBELIEVABLE SERIES KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER!!!
Review: Since I read John Connolly's first novel, EVERY DEAD THING, I've quickly become an avid fan of his. His second book, DARK HOLLOW, confirmed my belief that here was a gifted writer who deserves a much larger "fan" base than he currently has in the United States. Now, having read his third novel in the "Charlie 'Bird' Parker" series, I know that this is an author who's on his way to the "bestseller" lists. He's simply that good! Mr. Connolly knows how to create in-depth characters that stand out, weave intricate plots and subplots that keep the reader guessing, and has a style of prose that is almost poetic in its sheer elegance. In THE KILLING KIND, Charlie Parker returns to investigate the death of a young college student, Grace Peltier, and her connection to a religious organization in Maine known as the Fellowship. It seems that she was writing a thesis on small group of religious zealots, the Aroostook Baptists, and their mysterious disappearance in the year of 1963. Her search for information eventually led her to the Fellowship and its founder, Carter Paragon. Shortly there after, she was found in her car alongside a dirt road with a revolver in her hand, a bullet in her head, and a Bible at her side. Grace's father, Curtis Peltier, doesn't believe that his daughter committed suicide, and he wants our New England P.I. to find the killer. As Charlie begins his investigation, however, a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of the Aroostook Baptists is accidentally discovered along a riverbank in northern Maine, and this also seems to be somehow tied in with the Fellowship and Carter Paragon. When Charlie starts to probe a little too deeply into the workings of this supposedly religious organization, Mr. Pudd (a man who is the very essence of evil and loves to kill his victims with deadly spiders) and his mute, female assistant are sent to warn him off the case. Since Charlie has never been one to heed the warnings of other people, he continues to plow ahead and soon people start dropping dead around him. Even when Louis and Angel arrive to offer their help, they prove to be barely a match for our illusive Mr. Pudd, and come to know the true meaning of terror on a first-hand basis. No one will ever be the same again once the evil Mr. Pudd gets his hands on them. THE KILLING KIND carries the writings of John Connolly to a much higher level of expertise than his earlier two novels. Like the first two, it has several plot lines coming from different directions that join together into a smoothly written, utterly satisfying ending. Both the familiar and new characters in the book ring true to the ear, especially the terrifying Mr. Pudd and the Jewish assassin known only as the Golem. Mr. Connolly has a remarkable skill in being able to create killers that stand out in ways other authors can only dream about. That's one of the things that make this series so much fun to read. Another aspect is the main character of Charlie Parker. This is a unique individual trying to make amends for the life he's lived by righting the wrongs done to other people. It also helps that he has friends like Louis and Angel who aren't afraid of doing a little killing, if the situation calls for it. As the series continues to develop, Charlie and the love of his life, Rachel, are drawn closer and closer to each other, and there's a wonderful surprise on the last page of this novel that makes me extremely eager to read the next one when it comes out. What makes this book stand out from EVERY DEAD THING and DARK HOLLOW is the sheer craftsmanship that Mr. Connolly displays as a writer. It's evident that he's now much more comfortable with his characters, plus I love reading his prose out loud. His sentences are written with skill of a poet, and the magic and power of his words continously transport me to a different world that's often difficult to leave. All in all, the three novels in the "Charlie Parker" series are great reads in every sense of the word that leave you starving for more from this extremely gifted author. John Connolly is definitely a writer on his way to stardom!
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Summary: A thriller of a religious group's connections
Review: The body of Grace, a Ph.D. candidate, is discovered on a Maine back road and nobody believes it was suicide - but when a mass grave is found nearby, the single murderer idea becomes an investigation into a wider mystery in this thriller of a religious group's connections to vengeance and death.
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Summary: Less gunfire, more terrifying anyway
Review: 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.
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Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: This is an excellent mystery novel. Connelly keeps getting better and better with each book. His writing is reminiscent of James Lee Burke insofar as his poetic writing style and the reader's identification with the main character, who is complex and has many problems but is still extremely likeable. This book has nonstop action with many twists, and just might be the best novel I have read all year. I didn't want the book to end! Great writing and a fantastic plot--watch out, Jeffery Deaver!
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Summary: Best thriller you'll read this year
Review: This is another amazing book by John Connolly. He builds on the characters once more, again revealing greater depth to Bird Parker's character. He gives us slightly more insight into Angel and Louis and because of the darkness of this book, the scenes in which they appear serve as some great relief. Connolly's writing is sheer beauty. His manner of description evokes, with seeming ease, any atmosphere he wishes to create. His prose is lyrical, and his descriptions may stop you in your tracks just for a second while you roll them over in your mind, picturing the image perfectly. In this novel, Connolly has created a wonderful plot, which seethes with an omnipresent, and almost omnipotent, evil and darkness. Also, he give us two of the best villains fiction has ever produced. Mr Pudd, the enforcer of a shady organisation known as "The Fellowship" who is violent, scary, completely without a drop of humanity, and The Reverend Aaron Faulkner, an egotistical religious maniac, head of a group known as the Aroostook Baptists. Faulkner is a completely venemous characters who just oozes poison from every action. Over the course of the novel, Parker, Angel and Louis, will come into contact with both these men, and this contact will try to drag them down into the depths of an equal hell. The plot is much less complicated than his debut, Every Dead thing, and the entire novel is much more refined and focused, which adds immense power to the book. It's completely chilling and very scary (an effect aided by the way Connolly likes to blend in subtle elements of the supernatural in with his books) and, almost certainly, the best thriller that will be published in the US this year.
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Summary: Connolly does it again
Review: This third novel from John Connolly maintains the same frenetic pace of his earlier two books. Parker and his cohorts confront another evil foe and manage to come out on top once again. This is a great series and each book grabs you from page one and keeps you hooked until the finish. Connolly continues to produce some of the most evil characters you will find anywhere. I just hope his imagination doesn't run dry. Parker is something of a cross between Lew Archer, Philip Marlowe and Travis McGee. Unique in his own way he manages to get the job done with the help of his two rather odd friends, Louis and Angel. These books have lots of action, great characters and a fast paced story line. If you are a fan of this genre, you won't find anything better.
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