THE LOVERS
John Connolly
Atria Books
Thriller
ISBN: 9781416569541
It’s hard to classify or pigeonhole John Connolly. You could say he writes mysteries, or thrillers, or horror novels, and you would be right on all counts. He has this magnificent series of books featuring a private investigator named Charlie Parker, who has been doing a deadly dance with some frighteningly evil people for over a decade now. THE LOVERS is the eighth of these works --- nine if you want to count BAD MEN, on account of Parker’s brief cameo --- and it shines new light on what has gone before while setting things up for future books in the series. It will also occasionally scare the heck out of you.
Parker writes in a more literary style than most of his contemporaries, so that one is put in the mind of Dickens, Poe, or Collins when reading his books. However, Parker is very much in the here and now. When a character walks into a coffee shop and a CD by The Pixies is playing, there is no question you are in the 21st century. Much of THE LOVERS, however, concerns Parker’s past. He is at a low point as the novel opens, having lost his PI license, his concealed carry permit, and, as we will see, one of his best friends. Marking time by tending bar, he uses his involuntary retirement to begin an investigation into his own background.
Parker’s father was a well-liked New York cop who murdered two teenagers in cold blood before taking his own life. Parker begins checking into the circumstances behind the killings, even as he initiates a query into his own parentage. What Parker finds is that everything he knows about himself is wrong, and that the people he knew as his parents, though flawed, were possessed in their separate ways with more strains of decency and charity than he ever could have guessed.
Of more significance for Parker, however, is that from the moment of his conception --- and before --- he and those whom he loves have been pursued by a shadowy, seemingly indestructible couple obsessed with eradicating him. Worse, it appears that they are on the verge of making another run at him, one that seems to have every chance of succeeding. As always, Parker has allies; his friends Angel and Louis are there to help, as well as others, including two of the most important people in or out of Parker’s world.
Connolly’s pacing throughout is exquisite, as Parker’s past is slowly revealed to him, and his true friends and enemies reveal themselves. Connolly is not hesitant to continue detonating a bombshell or two even after things are apparently brought to a close, so that your ears will still be ringing and your eyes watering long after you read the final paragraph.
If you are new to Charlie Parker, THE LOVERS is a perfect place to jump on. You can spend the next year catching up on Connolly’s backlist in anticipation of the next installment. I am almost positive that I know where he is going with this, which means I probably will be wrong. One thing for sure, however, is that, as brilliant as he has been to date, Connolly is just warming up. Get that cardiac examination you’ve been putting off and jump on now.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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