The Unquiet: A Charlie Parker Thriller

Wow! John Connolly has written another chilling Charlie Parker book. What we understood in Black Angel is continued in this book. Charlie is fighting a battle for his soul - his existence - redemption or damnation? The Hollow Men is one of my favorite poems, and when Connolly used that allusion, it hit me solidly. Those lost ones become hollow souls of their existence - there but not whole. The story deals with Charlie being hired by the daughter of a child psychiatrist who is being harrassed by a man (Merrick) who wants to find her father - The father, Daniel Clay has been missing and declared dead - but Merrick feels the daughter knows more than she is saying and holds the key to what happened to Merrick's daughter. Behind Merrick's action is The Collector - a being who finds those who are condemned by cosmic justice, and he 'collects' items from his victims. Parker is still trying to find out where he belongs 'cosmically' - is he doomed to darkness, or can he rise to the light? Even he doesn't know - he is haunted by his first wife and daughter who were brutally murdered long ago. His current wife and daughter, sensing danger, have left him but still love him. He has to come to terms with who he truly is - and those that have stakes in his soul's path will continue to observe and participate in his progress. This is such an amazing book - dealing with a story of possible child abuse and its effect - it also is a parallel book of spirits. It is a chilling book, on all its levels. And it is excellent.

The first novel I ever read by John Connolly was one that I plucked from a remainder bin at a store that was called The Book Warehouse. The edition was a signed copy of The Killing Kind and within the covers was the signature of the author above a small hand-drawn rendering of a gallows. I suppose, in retrospect, the rendering was what hooked me into thumbing through the pages (and then wondering at the mistake of a book that well written being placed in a remainder bin). Well, for whatever reason, it was my good fortune. And I haven't stopped thumbing and reading anything and everything published by Mister Connolly before or since. This latest volume seems to bookend the one that I found that day in a bookstore that has since closed it doors. This is the sixth novel, of a series of novels, that traces the origins of a character named Charlie Parker (a former New York City police detective and current private eye). There is a seventh novel (Bad Men) but Charlie Parker appears only briefly and so is not really mentioned. The prologue to The Killing Kind opens with the statement: "This is a honeycomb world. It hides a hollow heart." The prologue to The Unquiet contains the words: "This world, too, is a fragile construct, a honeycomb place...." And this latest volume continues the journey that began with the brutal murders of Mister Parker's wife and daughter (the brutality of that occurring during the opening scenes of Mister Connolly's first novel: Every Dead Thing). Having read all of the editions in the Parker series (I say `series'... but each of the novels stand alone, while at the same time furthering the development of the main character) suggests that I should comment on an edition that I find to be even more mature and more complete (and that opinion being rendered by a person judging the other novels as being equally brilliant in theme and execution). Charlie has traveled far and wide and has witnessed evil and been subjected to evil. And his soul has suffered as result. But now he is feeling in control (somewhat) and has arrived at the place where he is questioning the `whole' of it. He is wondering if he himself is really one of the `good guys' or... one of the `bad'. And during that internal monologue, he is drawing us all into some very uncomfortable conclusions. This is the journey of a man tormented by the passing of time and the festering of personal guilt. And this latest entry involves a mystery stretching from near to distant past and drawing characters further and further into a web of deceit and betrayal. And no one should feel surprise at the villains in this edition. They are no less mysterious or frightening than previous incarnations. Some of these characters have wandered the scenery before and will undoubtedly wander again. This time around there is a specter of child murder and sexual abuse looming above all and weaving threads of several tales and several characters (with those characters and tales convergin