Both stories incorporate a bit of the supernatural, something I just learned is typical of Connolly’s books. named Kepler, who desperately seeks one particular coin—“with the right coin,” he believes, “even gods could be bought. In the first story, The Sisters Strange, Charlie Parker is hired by a man to protect the woman he loves from a dangerous man. Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Though he isn't present in every scene, he conveys each piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he were an omniscient narrator, capable of accessing every character's interior perspective.

As usual, he turns to his good friends for help so we have appearances from Louis and Angel and the Fulci brothers. I have a soft spot for scary tales during the Halloween season, so I am happy to report that John Connolly and his trusty protagonist do not disappoint. Both of these stories make it clear that even when investigating smaller cases – at least compared to some of the previous books in the series – Charlie Parker is a force for good and a character with plenty of stories left to tell.I wasn't sure how it would go with the two shorter stories, but if it's Connolly writing about my 3 favorite men in fiction, then how could I not love it? Add to the mix the fact that these were written at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and you have the perfect little horror treat to read for Halloween.

Lord knows, he took every other opportunity to sit when it was offered, so there seemed to be no comprehensible reason why he couldn’t have extended that policy to peeing, too. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people. Now, private investigator Charlie Parker is drawn into a world of modern furies in two linked stories. New York Times bestselling author John Connolly pits Parker against two separate—but vitally connected—investigations, which prove to be among the most complicated of his entire career. In The Furies, Parker is hired on two separate cases by women trying to save their daughters from evil men.

He has a favorite watering hole, friends, and even the occasional client, but he is extremely discriminating about the types of cases he signs on to anymore. Revolving around the theft of ancient coins, one of which has supernatural powers, Parker is pulled into the investigation by a person concerned about the sisters Strange: Dolors and Ambar.

Meanwhile, Melissa Thombs is in an abusive relationship that she is trying to get out of with Parker’s assistance. We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The narrator, soon established as Elliot Chase, then zooms out to address the reader directly, introducing the players—most importantly movie star Lana Farrar. I love Charlie Parker, I love Louis and Angel, I even love Tony and Paulie Fulci (how could you not? These characters become real to the reader and Connolly is one of the best suspense novelist (maybe the best). Strangely enough, things are going well for Parker, who has found some semblance of a life in Maine.

Back in Pennsylvania, a “poisonous” old man named Edwin Ellerkamp is found choked to death, his mouth and throat engorged with coins dating as far back as the seventh and eighth centuries. It introduced the character of Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. In an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, 'Milkman'.But fear not, even if you had read The Sisters Strange as it was being written, it is worth reading once again as John has expanded it into a full length novel. In the title novel, The Furies, two separate women come to Charlie for help in troublesome cases--one, involving the theft of precious mementos held for ransom, and the other, a case of domestic violence that could turn deadly.