John Connolly

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly chills with this brutal, spine-tingling Charlie Parker thriller depicting a terrifying consequence of the Iraq War that nobody could have foreseen. In the dark reaches of Maine's North Woods, a group of Iraq War veterans are engaged in a ruthless smuggling operation across the Canadian border. But what they have unleashed is far more dangerous than even they realize--an ancient evil locked away in Iraq for centuries. Evil has dogged Charlie Parker's steps, costing him his career as a cop and his license as a private investigator. Now, as veterans begin dying mysteriously, he is called in to stop the bloodletting. But the smuggled objects have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod and his henchman, the shadowy figure he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other: the killer known as the Collector.

The third in the epic YA Sci-Fi series by bestselling author John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard, brimming with jaw-dropping action, and set in a stunningly realised world.

Still recovering from his life-threatening wounds, private detective Charlie Parker investigates a case that has its origins in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II in this "all-out thrill ride" (Suspense Magazine). Parker has retreated to the small Maine town of Boreas to regain his strength. There he befriends a widow named Ruth Winter and her young daughter, Amanda. But Ruth has her secrets. Old atrocities are about to be unearthed, and old sinners will kill to hide their sins. Now Parker is about to risk his life to defend a woman he barely knows, one who fears him almost as much as she fears those who are coming for her. His enemies believe him to be vulnerable. Fearful. Solitary. But they are wrong. Parker is far from afraid, and far from alone. For something is emerging from the shadows...

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly brings his "visionary brand of neo-noir" (The Irish Times) to this "riveting and chilling" (San Francisco Examiner) Charlie Parker thriller about new secrets buried and old secrets unearthed. There are some truths so terrible that they should not be spoken aloud. Here is one of those truths: after three hours, the abduction of a child is routinely treated as a homicide. When a girl disappears from a small Maine town, her neighbor--a recluse named Randall Haight--starts receiving anonymous letters that contain tormenting references to a different teenage girl, murdered long ago. For many years, Randall has kept a secret: when he was fourteen, he was convicted of killing that girl. Now, his former life has returned to haunt him, and he hires private detective Charlie Parker to make it go away. But in a town built on blood and shadowed by old ghosts, where too many of the living are hiding secrets, the past cannot be dismissed so easily. As Parker unravels a twisted, violent history involving a doomed mobster and his enemies, the police, and the FBI, his search returns again and again to Randall Haight. Because Randall is still telling lies...

With the fate of the world at stake, Syl and Paul battle the sinister forces of the Nairene Sisterhood in this second thrilling Chronicles of the Invaders novel from New York Times bestselling author John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard that "should not be missed" (The Guardian). The Illyri have conquered and occupied the Earth. The Resistance are nothing more than an annoyance to the alien race of superior technology and military strength. When caught, young rebels are forced to join the Brigades, sent to the edges of the growing Illyri Empire. Paul Kerr is one such soldier--torn from his home and from his beloved Syl Hellais. She is the first alien child born on Earth, a creature possessed of unimaginable powers. Now Paul and Syl must endure the terrible exile that her race has deemed just punishment for their love. But the conquest of Earth is not all it seems. There is another species involved--the Others--and the Illyri will kill to keep its existence secret. Light years from Earth and millions of miles apart, Paul and Syl must find a way to reveal the horrifying truth behind the Empire and save all that they hold dear from the hunger of the Others. Even at the cost of their own lives.

Thirteenth in the 'series of superb novels built around the haunted private detective Charlie Parker' Daily Mail, A SONG OF SHADOWS sees Parker revisit the crimes of a WWII concentration camp while he struggles to regain his health after the near-fatal shooting in The Wolf in Winter.

Darkly brilliant and intuitive private detective Charlie Parker returns in the next thrilling installment of the New York Times bestselling series by John Connolly about an elite group of killers. The Reapers are the elite of killers, the best at their trade, and Louis, confidante of troubled private detective Charlie Parker, is one of their number. Now the sins of his past are about to be visited upon him, for someone is hunting Louis, targeting his home, his businesses, and his partner, Angel. The instrument of his revenge is Bliss, the killer of killers, the most feared of assasins, and a man with a personal vendetta against Louis. But when Louis and Angel decide to strike back, they disappear, and their friends are forced to band together to find them. They are led by Parker, a killer himself, a reaper in waiting... The harvest is about to begin.

Haunted private detective Charlie Parker returns in this "not to be missed" (Bookreporter) thriller by New York Times and internationally bestselling author John Connolly. Daniel Clay, a once-respected psychiatrist, has gone missing, following revelations about the harm done to children in his care. Now, a killer obsessed with finding the truth about his own daughter's disappearance is seeking revenge, and Charlie Parker finds himself trapped between those who want the truth about Clay to be revealed, and those who will go to any lengths to keep it hidden. As with his previous novels, John Connolly masterfully intertwines mystery, emotion, and violence in this gripping page-turner. Fast-paced, hypnotic, and elegantly written, The Unquiet is John Connolly at his chilling best.

From the bestselling author of the Charlie Parker mysteries--"the finest crime series currently in existence" (The Independent)--comes a new anthology of chilling short fiction. A decade after Nocturnes first terrified and delighted readers, John Connolly, bestselling author of thirteen acclaimed thrillers featuring private investigator Charlie Parker, gives us a second volume of tales of the supernatural. From stories of the monstrous for dark winter nights to fables of fantastic libraries and haunted books, from a tender account of love after death to a frank, personal, and revealing account of the author's affection for myths of ghosts and demons, this is a collection that will surprise, delight--and terrify. Night Music: Nocturnes 2 also contains two novellas: the multi-award-winning The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository and The Fractured Atlas. Night Music: Nocturnes 2 is a masterly collection to be read with the lights on--menace has never been so seductive.

Detective Charlie Parker returns in The Black Angel, the sixth thriller by acclaimed New York Times bestselling author John Connolly. The Black Angel begins with the mysterious abduction of a young woman. Intrigued by the case, Charlie Parker's longtime friend and professional killer, Louis, begins a solo search for the girl. The ties of friendship inevitably draw Parker into the search, as he soon discovers that the girl's disappearance is linked to a church of bones in eastern Europe, to the slaughter at a French monastery in 1944, and to the myth of an object known as the Black Angel. But the Black Angel is not a legend. It is real. It lives. It dreams. And the mystery of its existence may contain the secret of Parker's own origins... As with his previous novels, John Connolly masterfully intertwines mystery, emotion, violence, and the supernatural in this raw and gripping thriller. Fast-paced, spellbinding, and elegantly written, this is John Connolly at his chilling best.

Internationally bestselling author John Connolly takes readers into the dark world of private detective Charlie Parker, whose deadly fight against evil begins when the daughter of a South Carolina millionaire is raped and murdered. In South Carolina, a young black man faces the death penalty for the rape and murder of Marianne Larousse, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the state. It's a case that nobody wants to touch, a case with its roots in old evil, and old evil is private detective Charlie Parker's speciality. But Parker is about to enter a living nightmare, a red dreamscape haunted by the murderous spectre of a hooded woman, by a black car waiting for a passenger that never comes, and by the complicity of both friends and enemies in the events surrounding Marianne Larousse's death. This is not an investigation. This is a descent into the abyss, a confrontation with dark forces that threaten all that Parker holds dear: his lover, his unborn child, even his soul... For in a prison cell far to the north, an old adversary is about to take his revenge on Charlie Parker, its instruments the very men that Parker is hunting, and a strange, hunched creature that keeps its own secrets buried by a riverbank: the undiscovered killer Cyrus Nairn. Soon, all of these figures will face a final reckoning in southern swamps and northern forests, in distant locations linked by a single thread, a place where the paths of the living and the dead converge. A place known only as the White Road.

Troubled ex-cop turned private investigator Charlie Parker returns in the latest "compulsively readable" (Publishers Weekly) thriller from #1 internationally bestselling author John Connolly. John Connolly takes battered ex-cop Charlie Parker on his third outing after Every Dead Thing and Dark Hollow. Still struggling with the horrific ghosts of his past, Parker is now a disillusioned private eye hired to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Grace Peltier--which neither her father nor a former US Senator believe was suicide. The trail leads to a mass grave in northern Maine where a Baptist community disappeared forty years earlier. The deaths of the Baptists and Grace are connected and point in the direction of a shadowy organization known as the Fellowship. With the assistance of some idiosyncratic and murderous acolytes, Parker soon confronts the Fellowship's demonic leader and finds himself caught in a situation more gruesome than even he could ever have imagined.

The second in the epic Chronicles of the Invaders trilogy by bestselling author John Connolly, and Jennifer Ridyard. For fans of THE 5TH WAVE and I AM NUMBER FOUR. She is the trophy of a civilization at war with itself. He is its rebel captive. Separated by millions of light years, their dreams are united. And they will risk everything to make their world - all worlds - right again. EMPIRE. The second in the epic Chronicles of the Invaders series.

The Politics and Crisis Management of Animal Health Security addresses the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic in the United Kingdom - one of, if not the, most significant crises ever to face the UK farming industry. Underpinned by interviews with politicians and bureaucrats and with significant primary documentary analysis the book shows that the crisis was a critical juncture in how disease outbreaks have been planned and managed ever since. The author explores how this event affected policy and governance arrangements for managing subsequent disease-induced threats (such as avian influenza and bovine TB) and concludes by considering the ’temporality’ of lesson learning by the UK government including the current and future challenges associated with managing incongruent risks (e.g., flood protection, swine flu and Ebola). This book provides students of public policy and administration with a significant illustration of how key concepts and analytical lenses from public policy can be applied to the study of the contours of practical policy change.

"Connolly has crafted one of the most darkly intriguing books this reviewer has encountered in more than three decades of reading crime fiction." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) The second thriller in John Connolly's bestselling, chilling series featuring haunted private investigator Charlie Parker. Charlier Parker, a former New York City detective with a haunted past, befriends a down-and-out mother with a small child. When she turns up dead, Charlie's first suspect is her estranged husband. Charlie follows the man's trail to Maine and there he becomes entangled in a series of strange occurances which all seem to harken back to a string of unsolved murders that took place generations before. The murders were never solved and now Charlie must hunt for a killer and the connection between two crimes that span a century.

Tortured and brilliant private detective Charlie Parker stars in this thriller by New York Times bestselling author John Connolly. Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the deaths in his family--a serial killer who uses the human body to create works of art and takes faces as his prize. But the search awakens buried instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love, and, ultimately, for killing. Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end, Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man. In the tradition of classic American detective fiction, Every Dead Thing is a tense, richly plotted thriller, filled with memorable characters and gripping action. It is also a profoundly moving novel, concerned with the nature of loyalty, love, and forgiveness. Lyrical and terrifying, it is an ambitious debut, triumphantly realized.

In 1693, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has known three hundred years of peace. Until now. For men are descending on Sanctuary, their purpose to hunt down and kill the wife of their leader and retrieve the money that she stole from him. All that stands in their way are a young rookie officer, Sharon Macy, and the island's strange, troubled policeman, the giant known as Melancholy Joe Dupree. But Joe Dupree is no ordinary policeman. He is the guardian of the island's secrets, the repository of its memories. He knows that Sanctuary has been steeped in blood once; it will tolerate the shedding of blood no longer. Now a band of killers is set to desecrate Sanctuary and unleash the fury of its ghosts upon themselves and all who stand by them. On Sanctuary, evil is about to meet its match.

"A beautiful book...one that should not be missed " (The Guardian): The first in a stunning science fiction trilogy, this mesmerizing novel introduces a world where young rebels must unlock their powers to rescue humankind from a powerful alien rulership. Earth has been invaded by the Illyri--a beautiful, civilized, yet ruthless alien species. But humankind has not given up the fight, and Paul Kerr is one of a new generation of young Resistance leaders waging war on the invaders. Syl Hellais is the first of the Illyri to be born on Earth. Trapped inside the walls of her father's stronghold, hated by the humans, she longs to escape. But on her sixteenth birthday, her life will change forever. Syl becomes an outcast, an enemy of her people, for daring to save the life of one human: Paul Kerr. Only together do they have a chance of saving not only each other, but also the planet they both call home. For there is a greater darkness behind the Illyri conquest of Earth, and the real invasion has not yet even begun...

EVIL TAKES MANY FORMS. PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR CHARLIE PARKER HUNTS THEM ALL.'The finest crime series currently in existence' Independent on SundayHis client is dead. But Charlie Parker will not rest . . . The community of Prosperous, Maine, has always thrived when others have suffered. Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children's future secure. It shuns outsiders. It guards its own. The death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to Prosperous. Parker is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, by rage, and by the desire for vengeance. In him the town and its protectors sense a threat graver than any they have faced in their long history, and in the comfortable, sheltered inhabitants of a small Maine town, Parker will encounter his most vicious opponents yet. Charlie Parker has been marked to die so that Prosperous may survive. From the number one Sunday Times and multi-million-copy bestselling author John Connolly comes the most compelling and unsettling Charlie Parker thriller yet. The Charlie Parker novels can be read and enjoyed in any order. The Wolf in Winter is the twelfth book in this globally bestselling series.

Samuel Johnson is not in a happy place. He is dating the wrong girl, demons are occupying his spare room, and the town in which he lives appears to be cursed. But there is some good news on the horizon. After years of neglect, the grand old building that once housed Wreckit & Sons is about to reopen as the greatest toyshop that Biddlecombe has ever seen, and Samuel and his faithful dachshund Boswell are to be guests of honour at the big event. A splendid time will be had by all, as long as they can ignore the sinister statue that keeps moving around the town, the Shadows that are slowly blocking out the stars, the murderous Christmas elves, and the fact that somewhere in Biddlecombe a rotten black heart is beating a rhythm of revenge. A trap has been set. The Earth is doomed. The last hope for humanity lies with one young boy and the girl who's secretly in love with him. Oh, and a dog, two demons, four dwarfs and a very polite monster.