A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

Books To Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels is a collection of essays edited by two of Ireland's top mystery writers, John Connolly and Declan Burke, both of whom also contribute essays to the collection. Ever wonder what seminal mystery works inspired, influenced or otherwise shaped your favorite mystery novelists?  This volume gives insight in to mystery writers, mystery novels, and the mystery genre itself.  This is a great way to find out what other mystery writers have read and to find some new mystery titles to add to your own reading list.  The essays' subjects range from Scandinavian mysteries to Irish mysteries to American mysteries to South African mysteries and the essays' authors are just as varied as the subjects.  Any longtime, hardcore fan of the mystery genre will want to pick up this volume. --Reviewed by Ms. Angie

This is the latest installment in the epic adventures of the private investigator, Charlie Parker, the one whom evil fears.  Before I get to the review I just have to get somethings off my chest. The whole premise of this book (allegedly, according to its jacket) is that Charlie Parker is hired to find a mysterious plane wreck out in the boonie nether regions of Maine.  His ulterior motive (besides finding it and securing it before the wrong people do) is that the wreckage contains a manuscript that lists the names of those who have sold their soul to the devil.  Charlie wants to find the list because he's afraid his name is on it.  Um.  If you sold your soul, don't you think you'd know it?  I'm pretty sure I'd recall making that transaction. As I'm reading along (and obsessing about why wouldn't Charlie remember selling his soul, if indeed it was sold, and if not, then why would his name be on that list?) a question occurs to me: does John Connolly h...

The Burning Soul is the latest installment of the Charlie Parker series.  With Connolly's books it's sometimes hard to write reviews--the plots often have multiple strands that connect by the conclusion and it's hard to balance how much to include in the review to convey the flavor of the story without giving the entire thing away.  There is more hinting in this book that something bad is coming Parker's way at some point and that (possibly) something else bad is keeping tabs on him unless the entity keeping tabs is the same nastiness headed his way in which case it's not fair that evil's doing reconnaissance on an unsuspecting Parker! Pastor's Bay is a tiny, insulated town on the Maine coast whose inhabitants are wary of outsiders and protective of its own citizens.  It has its small town, small time, petty crime, but little does it know that big government is luring some big city, big time, nasty criminals to its environs to orchestrate a take down of s...

If there was one thing Jimmy didn't care for, it was competition, ... There were some exceptions to that rule: he was rumored to have a sweet deal with the Mexicans, but he wasn't about to try to reason with the Dominicans, or the Columbians, or the bikers, or even the Mohawks. If they wanted to avail themselves of his services, as they sometimes did, that was fine, but if Jimmy Jewel started questioning their right to move product he and Earle would end up tied to chairs in the [bar] with pieces of themselves scattered by their feet, assuming their feet weren't among the scattered pieces, while the bar burned down around their ears, assuming they still had ears. from page 86 The Whisperers is John Connolly's newest Charlie Parker installment in which some beloved characters reappear and in which previous characters from another Parker installment reappear to shed further light on the big baddie that may or may not be coming for Parker in the future. This newest inst...

I tell myself that this is not an investigation. It is for others to be investigated, but not for my family and not for me. I will delve into the lives of strangers, and I will expose their secrets and their lies ... but I do not want to pick and scratch in such a way at what I have always believed of my mother and father. They are gone. Let them sleep. But there are too many questions left unanswered, too many inconsistencies in the narrative constructed of their lives, a tale told by them ... I can no longer allow them to remain unexamined. from page 3 So John Connolly released the latest installment of the saga that is Charlie Parker's life earlier this month and I finally got my hands on a copy, read it, and was not disappointed. This new novel is narrated by Parker and focuses on his story; Connolly's previous novel, The Reapers , focused on Louis and Angel. The Lovers returns to the questions first raised about Parker's parentage and history by the Collector in...

There are so many killings, so many victims, so many lives lost and ruined every day, that it can be hard to keep track of them all, hard to make the connections that might bring cases to a close ... One death invites the next, extending a pale hand in greeting, grinning as the ax falls, the blade cuts. There is a chain of events that can easily be reconstructed, a clear trail for the law to follow. from chapter 1, page 13 of The Reapers The Reapers by John Connolly can be considered a stand alone novel. Although references are made to past events from the Charlie Parker series (see related YouTube review here by yours truly) and characters recur from previous Parker books, this is not a Parker novel. You don't really need to read any of the other Parker novels before you read this one. There was once a fraternity of killers of killers; they were called Reapers. Louis, our friendly neighborhood assassin who often helps out Charlie Parker on particularly nasty cases, is a Reaper....

We have uploaded yet another taped review to our YouTube channel located at http://youtube.com/matthewslibrary . This review discusses a series of books featuring Maine private investigator, Charlie Parker. It is written by the wickedly talented John Connolly. You can view the video here. The video features interviewer, Ms. Natalie, a former library assistant, and the reviewer for this installment is Ms. Angie. We hope you'll check out this video, and perhaps give the featured titles a try. The titles in the series are as listed below: Every Dead Thing is located here at Matthews and also available upon request from Annville Free Library, Palmyra Public Library. Dark Hollow is currently only available upon request through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). The Killing Kind is available upon request from Lebanon Community Library. The White Road is available upon request from Palmyra Public Library. The Black Angel is available upon request from Annville Free Library and Lebanon Communit...