The Whisperers by John Connolly

The Whisperers is Irish writer John Connolly’s eleventh CHARLIE PARKER thriller. The books are set for the most part in the USA, mostly in Maine, where Parker, the ex-cop turned private-eye turned something-more makes his home.

Underlying the plot of The Whisperers is a current theme, the question of how wounded soldiers returning home are treated by the government that put them in harm’s way. In this book, a group of Iraq war veterans is smuggling looted antiquities across the Canadian border. Their original purpose was to help their brothers-and-sisters-in-arms, those who returned disabled and are not getting what they need, but things have changed now and become much more sinister. One of the artifacts brings danger. And the veterans, one by one, are dying by their own hands.

Parker is hired ... Read More

The Burning Soul by John Connolly

The Burning Soul, by John Connolly, is an autumnal book, reminding us that winter is coming, a time when we will be more in darkness than light. Surprisingly, given the moody, atmospheric writing, the thriller aspect of the story is grounded in everyday reality, with few supernatural elements — in fact, only a few ghosts haunt this book, and one ghost is missing, its absence a shock.

Charlie Parker is a private investigator. He is a man whose wife and young daughter were taken from him by a serial killer, and a combatant in an eternal war, the shape of which he is only beginning to see. Parker confronts garden-variety human evil in The Burning Soul. In the small town of Pastor’s Bay, Maine, a fourteen year old girl, Anna Kore, has gone missing. The unspoken truth about child abductions is that the longer they go on, the wor... Read More

A Book of Bones by John Connolly

2019’s A Book of Bones is the 18th book in John Connolly’s CHARLIE PARKER series. This series is dark, with a thriller plot steeped in supernatural elements. Over the years, we’ve seen Parker, his human helpers Louis and Angel, and his supernatural protectors Sam and Jennifer face a variety of entities. A Book of Bones seems to resolve most of the issues around a specific Not-God and an evil murderous cult called the Familists. The two nasty villains, a book collector named Quayle and a creepy woman called Pallida Mors — a play on “Pale Death” — return from the previous book, and Parker is on their trail.

Parker is giving evidence in a child sex-trafficking case in Texas when he is called away by his FBI connection, Special Agen... Read More

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

A vulnerable boy makes his way into an alternate world filled with magic and danger. To return to his own world, he must find a talisman held by the land’s king. He is beset by dangers, unsure who to trust.

So far, this sounds like many other books and stories; myths, fairy tales, “Thomas the Rhymer,” The King of Elfland’s Daughter, The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, even The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is... Read More

Conquest by John Connolly & Jennifer Ridyard

At first, Conquest by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard reminded me of a blend of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth; the Final Conflict, and the history of the Roman Empire. The Roddenberry sense comes from the descriptions of the aliens who conquer Earth; tall, slender and graceful, some with shaven heads, and a melodic, trilling name, the Illyri. By the second chapter, though, I felt firmly grounded in Roman conquest, as Andrus, the Illyri governor of Earth, and his primary general discuss an attack at an Illyri fortress, presumably by the human Resistance. The “Roman outpost” feeling is helped along by the settings, first Edinburgh and later the Scottish Highlands.

The Illyri adults we follow in this YA adventure have a nagging sense of something rotten back at the heart of the Empire, through the wor... Read More

Empire by John Connolly & Jennifer Ridyard

(Warning, may contain spoilers for Conquest.)

Empire, by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard, is filled with action, suspense, and characters we care about. It is YA but adults will enjoy it.

In Conquest, the first book of THE CHRONICLES OF THE INVADERS, Earth had been conquered by a technologically superior race, the Illyri. Syl, a young woman, was the first Illyrian born on Earth. Paul Kerr was a member of Earth’s Resistance movement. Fate threw these two unlikely lovers together, but their commitment goes beyond their feelings for each other. Paul and Syl uncovered a conspiracy by a parasitic alien race that is controlling many of the Illyrians. Now, in Empire, Read More

Dominion by John Connolly & Jennifer Ridyard

The CHRONICLES OF THE INVADERS by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard comes to a satisfying conclusion with Dominion, the final book of the trilogy. We get a post-apocalyptic survival story on earth, an off-planet prison break, space battles, and political skullduggery and espionage in the halls of the Nairene Sisterhood. Each character faces multiple layers of jeopardy as the story comes to a close, and it’s not certain that everyone we like will live.

In the past, the Illyri invaded and conquered Earth. The conquest was uneasy because the human resistance movement kept fighting. Illyri girls Syl Hellais and her friend Ani Cienda met Paul and Steven, human members of that resistance. Syl and Paul fell in love, and soon discovered so... Read More

The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology by Christopher Golden (ed.)

FORMAT/INFO: The New Dead is 400 pages long divided over nineteen short stories. Also includes a Foreword by the editor Christopher Golden, and biographies on all of the anthology’s contributors. February 16, 2010 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of The New Dead via St. Martin’s Griffin. Cover art provided by Per Haagensen. The UK version will be published on February 18, 2010 via Piatkus Books under the altered title: Zombie: An Anthology of the Undead. Subterranean Press is also producing... Read More

Today's feature comes courtesy of Mihir Wanchoo, who reviews over at Fantasy Book Critic.



When I saw Amanda’s call going out for readers everywhere to write about their favourite authors and “why others should read them too” I was intrigued. When I thought about who I could write about, one name popped out in my head…. John Connolly. Its not as if John needs any help from me or any other blogger for that matter, his books are popular on both sides of the Atlantic as well with readers from both genres of mystery thrillers & SF, but I couldn’t resist encouraging others to read him. John was first published in 1999 with Every Dead Thing. It was a thriller which began with the murder of Charlie Parker’s wife and daughter. After a dark beginning the story started introducing us to Parker’s world: ... Read More

I'm reporting about Day 2 today. Read about Day One here.

There were lots of interesting panels today, and it was frustrating to try to boil them down into the ones I wanted to see.

My first choice was “Retelling Old Stories: The New Fairy Tales.” I’ve got all the modern fairy tale collections edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow and many other rewritings, so I was eager to hear this discussion, and it didn’t disappoint. The first question addressed by the panel was the obvious one: why rewrite fairy tales? Read More