Having your own stamp is a guarantee of success in any creative field. The narrative of John connolly offers particularities never seen in the noir genre. The image of his detective Charlie Parker accompanies his foray into this crime-noir genre of which he has made his subgenre.
It is true that other authors of crime novels from here and there (see the national references of Dolores Redondo in the Baztán trilogy, or recently Cristina C. Pombo, with The caress of the beast), they insert fantastic elements as a kind of wink to bring misty aspects to the plots. but what of this Irish author is a total integration of the fanciful with the authentically black. And it achieves a common participation absolutely well compacted, without fanfare.
A certainly recommendable author when you want to read something different with links to the dark or the fantastic (depending on your tastes, leaving both two reading options fully satisfied), of whom I dare to recommend those three essential novels, all of them under the influence of their absolute protagonist Charlie Parker, undoubted alter ego of the writer and the state of Maine, perhaps in a gesture of admiration towards Stephen King, the genius that sets many of his novels in this part of the United States:
3 Recommended Novels By John Connolly
deep in the south
Doom always faces west but hell is always south. There is no trip down that you can't get burned if you give in to the temptation. After more than twenty years of inexhaustible leading roles in novels, his friend Parker slightly changes his course this time to orient us all towards his reasons for facing evil.
No one can escape the past. Detective Charlie Parker is no exception, and the past catches up with him when he receives a mysterious phone call: a body has been discovered in a dark and fetid lake, Karagol, located deep in the south, in Burdon County, a of the most impoverished areas of Arkansas.
The news leads Parker to remember what happened to him years ago, in 1997, when he arrived in Burdon County following a lead that could lead him to the murderer of his wife and daughter; obsessed with avenging what had happened so recently to his family, plunged into insurmountable pain, he ended up in that area, where he soon provoked the suspicions of all the neighbors, and of course the police; however, when he learned that a young black woman had just been murdered, Parker's life took an unexpected turn.
His conscience woke up. Also his wishes for justice. Possibly there was born the Charlie Parker that everyone will end up admiring... and fearing: the one who looks evil in the face and does not hesitate to defend lost causes.
the song of shadows
Introducing the theme of Nazism into a noir plot, and ending up adorning everything with a dark sense of the power of evil is a brutal mix. “To regain strength, Parker has retired to Boreas, a small town in Maine. There he befriends a widow named Ruth Winter and her young daughter, Amanda.
But Ruth has secrets. She hides from her past, and the forces that besiege her date back to what happened during World War II in the town of Lubsko, in a concentration camp that is unlike any place in the world.
Old atrocities are about to be revealed, and old sinners would be able to kill to hide their sins. Now Parker is about to risk his life to defend a woman he hardly knows, a woman who fears him almost as much as those who stalk her.
Parker's enemies believe him vulnerable. Fearful. Lonely. They are wrong. Parker is not afraid, and he is not at all alone. Because something is emerging from the shadows ... »
Winter of the wolf
Charlie Parker needs to die for the people of Prosperous to survive. The Prosperous community in Maine has always thrived while others suffered. Its inhabitants are rich, their children are assured of their future. Avoid outsiders. Protect yours.
And in the center of Prosperous are the ruins of an ancient church, transported stone by stone from England centuries before by the town's founders. Some ruins that hide a secret. But several events, including the death of a homeless man, draw Prosperous to obsessed and lethal private investigator Charlie Parker. Parker is a dangerous man, moved not only by compassion, but also by anger and the desire for revenge.
The people of Prosperous perceive Parker as a threat worse than any they have faced in their long history. Parker, in turn, will find in them the most ruthless adversaries he has ever faced. And it is that it has been decided that Charlie Parker dies so that the people of Prosperous survive.
Other recommended books by John Connolly…
Night music
A set of shocking stories. Going from the first to the second story, it seems as if you have found yourself before a volume of disjointed stories. Until you start to detect that night music ...
A kind of soundtrack of evil that begins as a slight rattle and ends up leading to a great symphony of a symphony orchestra that plays from the hell of lost souls. All the characters in this story have only one detail in common, they end up surrendering to evil or living with it from the first start of the story.
It is not always good to have too much free time, as is the case with the retiree with whom we begin to slide down the winding roads to madness and doom. Nor does youth ensure maximum enjoyment of vitality and joy.
In a young soul all that energy can be concentrated towards evil, ending as a powerful devastating force or simply as a hatred capable of crushing your will towards brutal revenge. Evil is sometimes not entirely intended.
When thieves break into a house, they do not contemplate killing the grandmother who lives there, but there are involuntary clients of the underworld who do not know how to sit still in a corner while they are dispossessed of their most valuable assets.
The horizon of evil can always be glimpsed. We just have to give in to the inner unstable balance, succumb to what pushes us to fall, give in to the devil who offers us everything in exchange for our full servility. Taking a tour of this volume ends up being an entrance to the most gloomy musical composition, marked by a staff of gloomy notes that end up moving all the characters in the book in the same dance hall.
Think you mean “Dirty South” not “Deep in the South”…??