The Lovers

This book is the first in the Charlie Parker series that I have read, and it grabbed my attention from the very first page. Charlie, an ex-New York cop, is legally trying to regain his private investigator license while working at the Great Lost Bear, a beer bar in Portland, Maine—an interesting place I’d like to visit someday.

In his spare time, Charlie decides to investigate the mystery surrounding his father's death when he was twelve years old. He travels back to New York to speak with Jimmy Gallagher, his father's partner on the police force. According to reports, Charlie's father, Will Parker, shot two teenagers in cold blood before taking his own life. The case was quietly closed, and its details were moved into a mysterious show more file known as Unit Five, which is accessible only to top officials. Now in his thirties, Charlie feels it is time to delve into his family's past and uncover the truth about his father's actions.

During his investigation, ex-journalist and true crime writer Mikey Wallace, hoping to write a bestseller, approaches Charlie for an interview. Despite Charlie's warnings to back off, Mikey is determined to dig into Charlie’s past. This decision ultimately leads to his death when he breaks into the house where Charlie’s wife and daughter met their violent ends. This event marks the beginning of a darker journey for Charlie. As he uncovers the details of his father’s turbulent past, his mother’s secrets, and his heritage, old demons resurface. Several of Will Parker’s old friends become involved in a twisted ordeal as they stalk their true target: Will’s son, Charlie Parker. Unbeknownst to him, Charlie appears to be the target of an ancient curse that relentlessly pursues him.

Terrifying and shadowy, this book will keep you up at night, even after you finish it. I love a good cop thriller with supernatural elements. If you are the same, this series is for you. show less

John Connolly es un escritor de novela negra atípico. Se atrevió a hacer algo que a otros escritores dentro del género consideran un sacrilegio: mezclar novela negra con fenómenos paranormales. Personalmente, creo que ha revolucionado el género. Su personaje, Charlie "Bird" Parker, es un detective que quedó marcado tras un hecho atroz: la tortura y asesinato de su mujer y su hija. Estaba tan unido a ellas y su afán de venganza era tan grande, que al no querer abandonar su recuerdo, sus espíritus han seguido junto a él. No es que sea médium ni nada parecido, pero es capaz de sentir la oscuridad que rodea las muertes violentas. Y es que parece que el mal persigue a Parker, que los casos más escalofriantes le estén show more predestinados. Pero Parker no está solo en esta cruzada contra el mal. Le acompañan Louis, asesino profesional, y Ángel, ladrón, dos de los personajes más atípicos que uno se pueda encontrar en la novela negra. Connolly se atrevió también a introducir la homosexualidad en un género típicamente masculino. Y es que Ángel y Louis son gays, pero nadie lo diría porque, aparentemente, no tienen nada en común.

Con estos antecedentes, vayamos con 'Los amantes', octava entrega de Charlie Parker. En ella nos encontramos con un Parker al que se le ha retirado provisionalmente la licencia de detective. Ahora trabaja de encargado en un bar y ha decidido dedicar un tiempo a investigar su pasado. Cuando tenía 16 años, su padre, policía de Nueva York, mató sin motivo aparente a dos jóvenes, una chica y un chico, y posteriormente se suicidó. Parker quiere saber la verdad, aunque venga acompañada de algo que no le guste. Al mismo tiempo, están apareciendo cuerpos con unas extrañas marcas en la piel.

Connolly escribe como los ángeles. Su prosa es tan rica y descriptiva que disfruto enormemente. Es capaz de describir las escenas más truculentas de la manera más lírica. El punto fuerte de Connolly es la atmósfera de misterio y oscuridad que logra crear, sin abandonar las claves del género negro.

Sus libros son maravillosos. Tal vez no sea muy objetivo, ya que soy un fan de Connolly, pero ahí están sus libros para corroborarlo. show less

As I was doing the unthinkable--physically browsing library shelves instead of requesting on-line--I saw a number of Connolly's Charlie Parker books. Despite friends' enthusiastic reviews, I've been unsure about trying the series, as I'm generally sensitive to horror. However, I really enjoyed his young adult series, so thought it was worth testing my squimishness and selected one of the books that didn't seem quite so focused on mass killings. I confess: I was riveted. How good? I drove back to work after I accidentally left the book there, because it would have been three days before I could finish it.

Charlie Parker has a deeply unfortunate past and is haunted--perhaps literally---by the murders of his wife and daughter. He had been show more working as a private investigator, but a recent suspension of his license leads him at loose ends, so he decides to investigate a very old case: his father murdering a young couple and subsequent suicide. Atmospheric, ranging in time and place, from the Parker's home in the Irish town of Pearl River, to New York City, to the bar Parker's working at in Maine.

Something about Connolly's writing just works for me. I found myself trying to read faster so that I'd find out what was happening, and the reasons for the father's crime. There's a nice balance between description and action, and in general, I find his characters intriguing.

"Or perhaps that was just a game memory was playing on me as I churned up the mud in the reservoir of the past and, when the dirt had settled, picked my way across the bottom to see what had been exposed."

Narrative did occasionally shift viewpoints, following Parker, a reporter, a young woman on the move, and a range of smaller players. Early in the book there is a section about a search for a missing boy. It's engrossing, and in only three pages, two of the searchers realistically created. Unfortunately, they are only bit characters in a scene most likely meant to titillate the reader into realizing the killing are continuing. It's too bad, as I thought the scene was exceptionally well done--yet as the dead character is a mere footnote to the larger story, it really had no plot significance. The most extensive non-Parker narrative was from someone recounting historical events, and it was one of the only times I found myself disengaging from the story. The text was entirely italicized, so it was also visually off-putting. It might have worked better for me had the viewpoint remained rooted in the present tense, with the narrator or Parker actively engaging. It just didn't flow as well for me. Come to think of it, it might have even worked as a flashback. Nonetheless, it remained an interesting sub-story that ended up explaining much.

"He stayed on the step until I reached the sidewalk, then he waved once and closed the door. I looked up at the window with the broken pane, but there was nobody there. That room was empty. Whatever remained there had no form; the ghost of the boy was inside me, where he had always been."

The horror-ish bits were bearable for me, and generally over quickly. There were some quiet, enjoyable but rather under-developed paranormal elements. It reminded me quite a bit of the early and grim episodes of the tv series Supernatural, including the hints at a larger agency/conspiracy. The climax was small letdown, as I expected more agency from Parker. His plan for the confrontation is kept from the reader until Parker the scene, and I thought it just a bit of a stylistic disappointment, an unimpressive surprise. Yet despite all these quibbles, it was a book that was difficult to put down. For book eight in a series, it was extremely readable and I don't think I lost much by my random pick-up point. I understand Parker has a bit of character growth through the series, so I think I'll go back and start with book one. But I guarantee I won't be reading before bedtime. show less

This series fully jumped the shark with this installment. There had been a touch of the supernatural in previous installments, but it came unmistakably to the fore in this. I do not read detective novels for supernatural thrills. There is a tendency in crime fiction to too easily divide the world into the good and the evil. And when the supernatural enters crime fiction, this tendency is cemented. Good and evil exist, of course. But they are aspects of the wide variability of fully human behavior. To reify these poles of variability is to take a step away from recognizing that the line between good and evil, referring to the words of Solzhenitsyn, runs through every human's heart. I look to crime fiction to illustrate the real evil show more variable and the real human effort to control the worst extremes. However, in its favor, this book did teach something about the use of the Enochan Watcher myth in the work of John Dee, an Elizabethan occultist , and other books in this series have taught some interesting things in the lore of supernatural evil. I will probably continue the series. show less

This is a book that I received from the publisher as a giveaway on a book related site.

Have you ever read a book where you kept saying to yourself, “I really have to go do x y or z … five more minutes…one more chapter…” and then one chapter turns into two until you’ve read far longer than you intended and you still can’t stop? This is that book.

The Lovers tells the story of Charlie Parker, a PI with a temporarily suspended investigator’s license, and his attempt to understand once and for all what has haunted him since he was a boy: why his father, a New York City policeman killed two unarmed teenagers for no apparent reason, and then committed suicide. Alongside Parker’s story, the novel interweaves narratives of show more several apparently unrelated homicides.

Never having read any of the previous seven Charlie Parker novels, I had no idea what to expect from this book beyond assuming it to be the usual thriller/detective type story. I could not have been more wrong. John Connolly writes beautifully, and the novel is peopled with richly drawn characters. One in particular, that of Parker’s father’s partner, Jimmy Gallagher, poignantly depicts the ramifications of being a gay Irish cop in the NYPD in the early 70’s. The portions of the novel exploring the psychological aspects of Parker’s suffering as well as that of the people he has helped and hurt get equal play with the fast paced action, making this much more than a standard thriller.

Make no mistake, this book is dark, and at times quite disturbing. It also veers into the paranormal sphere at some point although this is no simple horror story. As one who almost never reads horror or paranormal works (with the exception of Stephen King’s Misery and Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles read many years ago), I have to admit that this part of the book was not really to my taste. That said, for those who like that kind of fiction, this is very well written and thoroughly compelling. If you’re looking for a story that grabs you from the first page and propels you along to a terrifying end, this is it. Just don’t expect to sleep soundly the night you finish it.

As a point of information, this novel can easily be read as a stand alone book, although there were a few references that I felt I missed not having read any of the previous books in the series. show less

It is time...yes my friends, time to rise, time to stand up and say proudly...."I like horror". Yes there will be those who mock, those who will cast you out. They will attack you with their vampire romance but you must be strong. To test your faith, I have a task for you. Go to your nearest bookshop, enter the crime section (no-one said it would be easy) and find John Connolly's books. Then you must move them, one by one and carefully place them in the horror section (if you can find it) and if anyone moves them back you must persist and return them to the horror section once again. Should you be challenged in your task, by a well meaning staff member perhaps, say only these words.."it's a horror novel".

You see, without wishing to show more cause civil unrest in your local Borders (although come to think of it, that might be fun) there is a serious point to be made here. John Connolly is one of my favourite authors and the reason I like him so much is that he injects his crime novels with a fair old dose of supernatural adrenalin. His writing has an edge, a darkness, it's on the borderlands but with The Lovers Connolly has crossed over to the darkside. The supernatural elements don't remain in the background here they are at the forefront, indeed without the spectre of the occult this book could not exist.

Charlie Parker is John Connolly's hero, a troubled, even broken man, his history is one filled with blood, death and loss. The previous books have detailed some of this history but have left several large boulders unturned. The Lovers fills in a few of these blanks and in particular the mystery surrounding the death of Parker's father. Why a seemingly mild mannered family man and respected police officer shot two, apparently innocent young people and then took his own life. I can't go into any detail without spoiling the book for you, suffice to say the answer explains much of the supernatural elements that have lurked in the pages of the previous books.

A word of caution though, if you are new to Charlie Parker then please start at the beginning and work your way to this book. Start at Every Dead Thing and read them chronologically, yes you could probably read them out of sequence but if you do you won't get the full sense of mystery, the subtle hints at something deeper. Without that history this book would be much weaker as it is though it is an immense achievement, tying up several loose ends in dramatic and unexpected fashion whilst at the same time unravelling a few other areas of mystery which will no doubt lead us deeper down the supernatural rabbit hole (I can't wait).

So highly recommended this is the book which finally gets to the soul of Charlie Parker and does it with style, inventiveness, vivid characterisation and beautiful prose. In my mind Connolly keeps getting better with each book and seems to be getting the rewards he deserves in terms of sales (currently No4 in Tesco Book charts just ahead of Michael Jackson: Life Of A legend!). So, on second thoughts, maybe we shouldn't upset the applecart, leave the public to appreciate the nuances and skill of a great horror writer, even if they do think they are reading a crime novel. show less

The Lovers progresses the Charlie Parker character in a way that has not been done since The White Road. In his last two outings, excluding The Reapers, we’ve been given small advancements here and there in Parker’s fledgling relationship and his continued haunting by his deceased wife and child – but nothing major.

In the final pages of The Unquiet’s superb ending, Connolly alludes to something being covered up in Charlie’s childhood. One of Parker’s more recent associates (The Collector), who lightly dances on the line of good and evil, hints at Parker’s lineage. The circumstances surrounding his father’s death have never really been explained or investigated in the Parker series until now. The Lovers dives deep into show more Parker’s history and subsequently throws the entire series upside down establishing the foundation of why Parker is who he is. Forcing the reader to jump back and forth from the present to the past, we come to realize that Parker will be forever surrounded by evil.

It might seem like I’m telling you that Connolly reveals all, but truly he knows better. Why spoil the fun? Clearly he has ambitious hopes for the character as he continues to write more and more novels. He’s careful to leave just enough out to keep us all interested.

I blew through this book rather quickly. Not quite as swiftly as The Reapers but it was pretty enthralling. As with every Parker book, it’s really hard to maintain an opinion that this is fantastic from start to finish as he usually bogs down in character development; which has its advantages but on some occasions can feel tiresome. That being said, on a good note, the flashback scenes and the character histories are a little lighter.

I was a little disappointed in the fact that Louis and Angel are rarely in this one. However, as having just starred in their first stand alone novel, Connolly seemed to feel that he could keep them at bay as this was a case strictly to do with Parker and his family. I was a little wary at first but it all worked out for the best. Parker’s estranged girlfriend and daughter are kept at a minimum, only surfacing once or twice to continue an acknowledgment of their existence. Basically, they seem to be there so Parker can get rid of his dog.

All in all, while not as good as The Reapers, it’s still a solid entry that I enjoyed more than The Black Angel and The Unquiet. I may have had some critical things to say about The Lovers but my Connolly fandom will always shine through. Maybe I’m just analyzing a little closer than I’m used to due to my overwhelming appreciation for the series. show less