EVERY DEAD THING
by John Connolly
I wish I’d written this ...
... because it pushes the thriller genre into the realms of the supernatural!
This one dug fingers into my eye sockets and held me transfixed from the first page to the last. It really is exceptionally good for a first novel (by which I mean, yes, its faulted, but I found those faults surmountable). The lead character, Charlie Parker, is tough but deeply damaged, which adds an extra level of psychological tension to his various encounters, all of which felt completely convincing to me. Too, while this novel might be classed as a thriller or as detective fiction, the psychological tension is so well realised that the story nudges into the horror genre. Certainly, the supernatural lurks at its peripheries until, midway through, the creepiness is really dialled up. It definitely left an impression. There are, however, as I have mentioned, very typical debut novel problems. The story is too drawn out and feels like two novels mashed together; the author over-describes, telling us what every character is wearing, and even, at one point, taking us through the recipe and process of a meal being cooked; and there are far too many characters. I think John Connolly tried to do too much with this one. For me, though, the strengths far outweighed the weaknesses, and I’ll definitely continue with the series.
From the publisher
Hailed internationally as a page-turner in a league with the fiction of Thomas Harris, this lyrical and terrifying bestseller is the stunning achievement of an "extravagantly gifted" (Kirkus Reviews) new novelist. John Connolly superbly taps into the tortured mind and gritty world of former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker, tormented by the brutal, unsolved murders of his wife and young daughter. Driven by visions of the dead, Parker tracks a serial killer from New York City to the American South, and finds his buried instincts — for love, survival, and, ultimately, for killing — awakening as he confronts a monster beyond imagining ...
