A Time of Torment
A Charlie Parker Thriller
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4.5 • 116 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
#1 internationally bestselling author John Connolly delivers a masterful combination of “the hard-boiled with the supernatural” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) with this return of dangerous and driven private investigator Charlie Parker as he battles an old evil that haunts a strange and isolated community.
Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings, and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart, imprisoned and 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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").
Customer Reviews
Charlie Parker if back in action again evil and monitors
Author John Connolly has once again penned a solid thriller filled with emotion, criminal deeds, evil as old as the world, and a hero with a thirst to right wrongs and bring justice to a world spinning out of control.
The character development in this novel was skillful as Mr. Connolly grabs the reader from the first page of this fast paced novel. Mr. Connolly is talented in revealing the depth of evil humans are willing to pursue and inflict on one another. His portrayal of the Cut as an interbred, secluded, and isolated community of criminals which have for decades existed on their criminal activity was very skillful. Their hold of fear and terror on this small county was absolute, but things are changing as Charlie Parker is on his way.
Mr Connolly had many threads to bring together to create a cohesive novel and he did so perfectly. Mr. Connolly never disappoints and this book is no exception. The pace was fast with plots which kept coming and held the reader's attention. The paranormal elements added depth to the story-line.
I received this book from Negalley in return for an honest book review.
Kudos
I really enjoy this one. Big fan. Looking forward to the next book for this series.
The King
The most entertaining and the very best author in the world. Bar none.