The White Road

Have not read, but am appalled at the condition of this book. Should have been classified as VERY USED UP.

The enormously talented John Connolly once again strikes gold in his latest revival of his sensitve but flawed protagonist, private investigator, Charlie Parker.Parker is currently cohabiting with his pregnant girlfriend Rachel in his home town of Scarborough, Maine. He receives an impassioned phone call from a previous acquaintance Elliot Norton. Norton was a lawyer and assistant DA when Parker was on the NYPD. Norton begs Parker to come down to South Carolina where he is defending a young black man accused of murder. Unfortunately the victim Marianne Larousse was the young daughter of Earl Larousse head of a wealthy old blue blooded Southern aristocratic former slave owning family. In short the young black man Atys Jones was already convicted prior to the trial.Against his better judgement Parker departs for Soth Carolina. Parker who is very compassionate to victims of crime, has the gift of the ability to sense the dead and departed. His investigation leads him to uncover ancient crimes thought to be buried in the Congaree swamps of South Carolina. He also crosses paths with Neo Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan who try to free the deranged Reverend Aaron Faulkner, villain of Connolly's The Killing Kind.Connolly is without question one of the top young mystery and suspense writers on the scene today. His next offering is eagerly awaited.

By this fourth novel, it is quite clear that Irishman John Connolly is a brilliant, effusive and poetic writer. Who else could take such dark themes, and with his art of writing, create such somber yet optimistic landscapes. In this book, this brilliance sometimes gets in the way of the plot, and manages to slow the pacing of the book down at times, but it is nonetheless a mesmerizing addition to the Charlie Parker series.Parker has a remarkable narrative tone, and his humor is downright incredible at times. I don't think readers will enjoy this as much as they should if they haven't read at least "The Killing Kind," the brilliant predecessor to this work. There are too many holdovers from that novel to enable anyone to fully grasp the situation if they haven't met Reverend Faulkner and Pudd before.Some real surprises here, including the murderous rampage of Louis and Angel; Angel's morose attitude since the incident with Rev. Faulkner in the previous book; Rachel's pregnancy and her love for the sometimes misguided Charlie; a horrifying killer in Cyrus Nairn; Connolly's elegant use of the supernatural in his detective tales; and a compelling "ghost"...all add up to another fantastic read.You can't do much better than this series; in four novels, Connolly has demonstrated what a terrific writer he is.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

South Carolina lawyer Elliot Norton calls his pal Charlie Parker to help him with a case in which his client a black man has been accused of murdering his white girlfriend, the daughter of wealthy powerful parents. Charlie would like to help his friend, but is concerned about leaving his pregnant girlfriend Rachel alone. He fears that their enemy Reverend Aaron Faulkner will retaliate for the deaths of his murderous son and daughter though he is standing trial for killing his congregation members and other people.Charlie reluctantly travels to South Carolina, but arranges for Rachel's protection while he is away. In the South, Charlie becomes involved in a world where hatred is the norm and the pretrial may prove deadly for the defense team. Though perilous, Charlie investigates the case that leads him to several other murders and a trip to hell down THE WHITE ROAD coaxed by a malevolence beyond anything he ever faced before even while evil stalks Rachel back in Maine.John Connolly provides an exhilarating Parker tale as the audience receives more than an investigative novel. Readers obtain a taste of the historical South cleverly interwoven into the drama as well as a powerful crime story occurring in two states. Parker is at his best as he tries to solve a mystery, stay alive, keep his friend and client safe, and struggle with being in two places at the same time in order to insure no harm comes to his beloved. Readers will want to travel THE WHITE ROAD and when attaining the final destination will look for previous Parker treks (see THE KILLING KIND).Harriet Klausner

Charlie "Bird" Parker has settled down in rural Maine with his new love, Rachel, and is awaiting the birth of their child when he gets a call from an old friend, Elliot Norton. Elliot is a lawyer in Charleston, SC, who is handling a powder-keg of a case -- a young black man accused of the rape/murder of the daughter of a rich and powerful white family. When Elliot all but grovels as he begs Charlie to come to SC and do some investigation for him, Charlie can't say no.And so begins Charlie's odyssey on the long and twisted White Road. Connolly writes of the dank Congaree Swamp and other Low Country environs as though he were born in the languid South rather than Ireland, and every paragraph he writes flows like dark and haunted poetry. For every step forward Charlie takes in seeking information to help Elliot's client's case, forces and villains from his past converge to drive him backwards and to kill him if they can. (*Note: do read "The Killing Kind" first to understand who Faulkner, Pudd, et al., are.) And then there is the hooded Lady in White, who might or might not be real as she wanders the shimmering White Road where the past meets present and future and where old wrongs are righted.This stunning novel is absolutely mesmerizing as it races forward to a shattering denouement. It will leave you breathless, but don't read it at home alone late at night.

This is the best of the four. Every Dead Thing was a good read, but overcomplicated with too many characters and plots. Dark Hollow was much better. ANd even that warranted five stars. Then came The Killing Kind which was stupendously excellent. The best thriller of 2001. Even better than Dark Hollow. But now comes The White Road. And it's even better. John Connolly's prose is simply wonderful. It is superbly lyrical, and his descriptions are superbs. I was in awe when he described a world as being "painted on glass". He has many sentences like that, which stop you in your tracks and make you realise how truly [darkly] beautiful his writing is. Charlie Parker is back, and fighting for his life, and thst of his lover and unborn child. the demonic preacher Faulkner is out for revenge, the instruments of which will be horrfying killer Cyrus Nairn, who keeps his secrets buried by the riverside. At the same as Parker is investigating the rape of the young daughter of the wealthy Earl Larousse. Accused is her black boyfriend, Atys Jones. But deep in the nearby swamps something lurks...something connected to a long ago crime, and it wants vengeance...This is a stunning novel. The darkness of it is haunting, and its complexity astounding, but JOhn COnnolly manages to tell you the tale in an easy to undderstand way. It is truly chilling. The way Connolly blends subtle elements of horror in with a crime novel is awe-inspiring. And with this book he has created his most dark plot yet, yet it seems to contain a tiny snub of light shining through at points. At times the darkness becomes too much, and the light disappears as if gone forever, but at others, it reappears, burning brightly anew, and you can hold out some hope for Charlie Parker and his quest. I cannot praise this novel highly enough. The resolution, and the way in which it is all brough together is brilliant, and the final solution shocking. Connolly, with this book and the last created possibly the most chilling villain in the religious fanatic Reverend Aaron Faulkner, and in this book he is even more chilling than before. He simply oozes evil. This time, he is out to get Parker, and he is going to use killer Cyrus Nairn, recently released from the wing of his prison, to execute that revenge. It is a truly chilling book, with a wonderful plot, and a colourful cast of characters, including Angel and Louis, who are back in full force. This time we learn a little about why they are who they are. From the excellent prologue to the epilogue this book is a sucess on every level. Connolly just gets better and better. If you haven't read him yet, you're missing out.