Every Dead Thing - (Charlie Parker) by John Connolly (Paperback)

About the Book

PI Charlie Parker, a former New York policeman, searches for the killer of his wife and daughter. Two women help him, a pretty criminal psychologist and an old Creole woman with psychic vision.

Book Synopsis

Tortured and brilliant private detective Charlie Parker stars in this thriller by New York Times bestselling author John Connolly.

Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the deaths in his family--a serial killer who uses the human body to create works of art and takes faces as his prize. But the search awakens buried instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love, and, ultimately, for killing.

Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end, Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man.

In the tradition of classic American detective fiction, Every Dead Thing is a tense, richly plotted thriller, filled with memorable characters and gripping action. It is also a profoundly moving novel, concerned with the nature of loyalty, love, and forgiveness. Lyrical and terrifying, it is an ambitious debut, triumphantly realized.

Review Quotes

Every Dead Thing is intelligent, deep, and literate, and it is difficult to believe that this is John Connolly's first novel, so confident is the writing...Buy it and be scared.-- "The Saturday Times (London)"

"A genre of one."-- "BookReporter.com"

"A unique voice."-- "New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly"

"Connolly is a master of suggestion, creating mood and suspense with ease, and unflinchingly presents a hard-eyed look at the horrors that can lurk in quiet, rustic settings."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Connolly transcends."-- "Los Angeles Times"

"Leaves unshakable images lurking on the edge of the reader's consciousness."-- "Booklist"

"One of the best thriller writers we have."-- "#1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben"

"Powerful...Both harrowing and memorable."-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

"Strongly recommended for plot, characterization, authenticity... horror... and humanity."-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

A stunner...as riveting and chilling as The Silence of the Lambs.-- "San Francisco Examiner"

About the Author

John Connolly is the author of the #1 internationally bestselling Charlie Parker thrillers series, The Book of Lost Things and its sequel The Land of Lost Things, the Samuel Johnson Trilogy for younger readers, and (with Jennifer Ridyard) the Chronicles of the Invaders series. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at JohnConnollyBooks.com, or follow him on X @JConnollyBooks.