The Black Angel

I thoroughly enjoyed BLACK ANGEL, John Connolly's fifth novel featuring the brooding private investigator Charlie Parker (EVERY DEAD THING, DARK HOLLOW, The KILLING KIND, The WHITE ROAD being the previous four). BLACK ANGEL begins with Parker helping his friend--and sometime enforcer--Louis to find his missing cousin Alice, a drug addict and prostitute who worked the Bronx's notorious Hunt's Point. Parker and Louis' search for Alice amongst the junkies, hookers and pimps, leads them eventually to the more sophisticated and much more perverse occult circles of secret societies and demon worshippers. A world where Charlie Parker will learn much about himself and what compels him. For BLACK ANGEL Connolly takes inspiration from a wide variety of religious and occult lore, further blending the genres of detective novel and supernatural thriller, which provides a fresh and enticing spin on familiar themes. Connolly's recently published The UNQUIET continues the Charlie Parker saga.

The 5th book in the Charlie Parker series, The Black Angel is probably the most ambitious work that author John Connolly has undertaken yet. Lurking behind the seemingly mundane, though by no means less disturbing, murder of a New York prostitute lies a more horrifying tale of evil featuring fallen angels and their insidious spread on earth. This is a compelling book that combines the modern day thriller with the dank realm of the myth and supernatural with spine tingling results. The story opens with a presentation of the myth that will drive the entire story. This myth involves The Black Angels known as Ashmael and Immael who gloried in the death and destruction that they brought down on the earth in the form of wars, rape and murder. But then Immael was confronted by a Cistercian monk and in the ensuing battle fell into a vast vat of molten silver where he was trapped, cast as a silver statue, and hidden. Ever since, Ashmael his brother has been searching for the map detailing where Immael was held. The map had been separated into fragments and scattered around the world. Should Immael be freed, an unthinkable fury would be unleashed on the world. Charlie Parker is a Maine private investigator who is still haunted by the death of his wife and daughter with a guilt that refuses to be diminished. He now has another baby daughter, Sam, and a girlfriend, Rachel, who he loves very much, but the strain of his dangerous job plus his inability to move on in life is taking its toll on their relationship. This strain is multiplied when, at his daughter's christening no less, he is caught up in the disappearance and possible murder of Louis' cousin Alice. Louis is Charlie's murderous, gay business partner, an extremely dangerous man from whom Rachel maintains a disapproving distance. Rightly or wrongly, Charlie immediately joins in the search for Alice leaving his girlfriend and daughter at home putting into doubt yet another relationship. The book separates into two stories here. The first is the investigation of Alice's disappearance as Charlie, Louis and Louis' partner Angel hit the streets of New York to try to retrace Alice's last known steps. The retribution that Louis is known for will come swiftly and brutally when he founds out the person responsible for any harm that has been done to his cousin. This part of the story is your standard hardboiled thriller filled with street violence, crime and fast-paced action. Now enter the Other side of the story. We know that the "person" behind Alice's murder is a man known as Brightwell, a huge monstrous man with a frightening disregard for human life and an unquenchable need to kill. But more frightening about this man is that he appears to have supernatural powers that he uses to gruesome effect on his victims. Brightwell leads a secret group of people known as "Believers" who are all on the hunt for the elusive fragments of the missing map. When they track down a piece they go to any lengths t

The accomplished John Connolly has an astute insight into the characterization of evil which he demonstrates brilliantly in his fabulous new thriller, "The Black Angel". In it he resurrects his dark anti-hero, Maine private investigator Charlie Parker. Parker is living on a tightrope, balancing a family life with his sometimes dangerous profession. Parker's criminal friends, familiar Connolly characters, homosexual lovers Angel and Louis are in Maine attending the baptiism of Parker's daughter. Quite unexpectedly Louis' Aunt Martha arrives at Parker's doorstep with a tale concerning her fears about the disappearance of her heroin addicted daughter Alice. Parker decides to join forces with Angel and Louis to investigate the disappearance. They soon get drawn into an unexpected series of events surrounding The Black Angel, a legend foretold in the Book of Enoch. Related to the casting out of angels from heaven, the myth was propagated and followed by a group called The Believers. This group was in part lead by a bizarre apparently immortal villain Brightwell imbued with supernatural powers. We learn that Alice's disappearnce involves a silver statue of The Black Angel hidden secretly long ago. It's location is of vital importance to The Believers. Parker aided by Angel, Louis and others encounter various strange and dangerous members of The Believers as they pursue the truth concerning the whereabouts of Louis' cousin Alice. What results is a trail of dead bodies and a riveting and cleverly conceived plot that mixes both religion and the paranormal. Connolly writes with a particular flair and style that is unique. As with his previous work, I felt compelled to do homework in the midst of reading, to more clearly understand some of the history he uses in fabricating this excellent novel.

Mystery, thriller, suspense with hints of the supernatural (or super disturbed,) The Black Angel will lure you into a world where evil brushes casually by on busy city streets, and it will keep you there way past your bedtime. From Maine to New York City to Sedlec, a place where human remains have been transformed into works of art, John Connolly masterfully paints evocative portraits of villains who are obvious, and those who are not, as he explores the interconnectedness of all things - good and evil, living and dead, the divine and the fallen. Torn between those in need and those he needs, Charlie Parker, Connolly's haunted hero, seeks redemption in the face of evil - head on and with dark humor, at one point likening an FBI agent attempting to cross a snarled New York Street to "federally funded Frogger." Go ahead, cross the street with Charlie - you won't regret entering his fascinating, darkly funny and eminently chilling realm, guided by an author with one of the most distinctive and literate voices in contemporary fiction.

Charlie Parker finds himself drawn back into the world he is trying to escape when the niece of his friend Louis goes missing. Parker is attempting to draw Rachael and his new daughter closer and forge a new life. Feeling not only an obligation to Louis, but to the missing girl, Charlie accompanies Louis, and Louis' boyfriend Angel, to look into her disappearance. They soon learn she was hooked on heroin and had become a prostitute. Pressing on, they discover that she has been murdered, quite gruesomely. With Louis set on retribution, Charlie starts to look into the situation and soon finds himself in the center of a search for a statue that some say is actually a fallen angel trapped in silver. Parker finds his past and his very person connected to the legend of the Black Angel. As his personal life borders on ruin, he finds himself in a race to find the statue and the truth behind it. With this info, might come some insight into why he cannot escape his dark past. Connolly once again delivers an amazing story that is a mix of crime and horror. In the hands of a less talented writer, this would be just another creepy thriller. But John's phenomenal use of words makes Charlie a very real and tragic figure. Though John's writing is quite graphic and disturbing, it is also poetic and even spiritual. We always see the effects of the violence and weep for the fallen. For any fan of Mr. Connolly's previous work, this is a must read. If you enjoy darker crime fiction and have not tried him, I urge you to get The Black Angel immediately. Once you have read it, you will find yourself hooked on the wonderful words of John Connolly.