October 29, 2012
From its ominous first pages, Connolly’s 11th Charlie Parker thriller (after 2011’s Every Dead Thing) takes readers on a gruesomely entertaining ride. Marielle Vetters, to honor her late father Harlan’s wishes, meets PI Charlie in Portland, Maine, to tell him of Harlan’s discovery, during a hunting trip in the woods outside their small town of Falls End, of a crashed plane with $200,000 and a short typewritten list of morally compromised public figures aboard. Charlie’s interest is piqued by hearing that the serial killer Brightwell, who murdered the detective’s wife and son, also came looking for the wreck. Later, Charlie learns of the existence of an alternate version of the list, apparently of souls belonging to the devil, that includes his name. Efficiently sketched characters, both old (e.g., the psychopathic self-styled avenger, the Collector) and new (e.g., the badly scarred but beautiful Darina Flores), bring to life Connolly’s portentous but exciting fusion of the occult and the hard-boiled. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary.