Customer Reviews

Bad Men

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3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

John Connolly delivers an impressive thriller, which I found almost impossible to put down after jumping into its exquisitely elaborated plot. He switches back and forth between the past and the present with ease, demonstrating his skills. Dutch Island is situated at a one and a half hour ferry ride from Portland, and it has been the setting of mysterious and unsettling events throughout its history. This is the setting for the marvelous story presented by Connolly.

In the late seventeenth century Indians consistently raided the various islands in the area outside of what is known today as Portland, pushing the white settlers away. But in 1691 thirty individuals arrived to Dutch Island, which at the time was also known as Sanctuary, and decided to give it a try. Bauer, one of the men that formed part of the group, was justly accused of attempting to rape another man's wife. When he asked his own wife for shelter against his pursuers she did not comply and he was captured. However, he was able to escape and he returned years later with renegade Indians as his "hired help" bringing mayhem to the village. After the horrible events that developed in the island, the ghosts of the dead were left behind to cohabitate with the living. Usually, they do not interact much with humans, but now something is growing, and some people in the island can feel it.

Connolly creates interesting and well-developed characters, like the giant Joe Dupree, seven feet two inches and three hundred and sixty pounds, who is in charge of the police department in Dutch Island. He is courting Marianne, a woman who has some secrets in store, but he also has some secrets of his own. Moloch is sitting in jail awaiting his forced appearance before the Grand Jury, and knowing that when that happens he will be facing charges that deserve the capital punishment. When he sleeps, he has disturbing dreams, in which he leads a gang of renegade Indians into an island in search for his wife who had betrayed him. Finally, there are a couple of other characters that add flavor to the mix: Jack, a painter with little talent, but whose paintings evolve after he is done with them, and Richie, a twenty-five-year-old "kid" who has the ability to see unnatural events unfold.

It is reinvigorating to find authors that besides creating exciting stories that keep you reading all night, possess the gift of writing. This is the case of John Connolly, who not only leads us towards the end of the story with a fast-paced plot full of suspense, but who also knows how to make us enjoy the ride to get there.

I suppose it is impossible to see similarities between John Connolly's "Bad Men" and the novels of Stephen King, not just because the main setting for this horror novel is an island in Maine, but more because the title characters really are bad men and they are joined in the festivities by some supernatural counterparts. But even with King's penchant for engaging in gross out gore, Connolly takes it to a level more akin to true crime books.

The novel's heroine, Marianne Elliott, was married to a psycho-killer named Edward Moloch that she betrayed to the police. He is in prison back in Virginia and even though they have thrown away the key Marianne has taken a new name, changed her look, and found herself on a remote Maine island called Sanctuary. However, it seems that way back in 1693 the island was overrun by a gang of "bad men" who raped and pillaged before they slaughtered the entire community. There is a feeling in Sanctuary, articulated by "Melancholy" Joe Dupree, the 7-foot-2-inch gentle giant who is the island's only police officer, that the massacre tainted the land. This seems a reasonable interpretation of events since any one who ends up wandering around in the forest near where the bones of the settlers are buried tend to meet mysterious deaths. Now giant gray moths are appearing all over the island and the ghostly figure of a little girl has been seen. All the signs suggest that something wicked will be coming this way.

Of course, that terms out to be Moloch. All these years in prison he has been spending his days obsessing about finding and butchering Marianne, but at night he is having dreams of the massacre on Sanctuary during colonial times. It also turns out that he has a fan club and in due course Moloch has his own gang of "bad men" that are moving north on a bloody killing spree taking heads and visiting other indecencies on their victims. The climax takes place on the requisite dark and stormy night on Sanctuary, where Marianne turns out to have some allies in welcoming her husband to her new home.

Ultimately the comparison that comes to mind by the time you finish this blood-drenched book is not Stephen King or Thomas Harris but Laurell K. Hamilton. Like Hamilton, Connoly's book will probably never be filmed because to do it right would be to mandate at least an NC-17 rating. If you can stomach the blood and gore, then you will fine "Bad Men" a good late-night read. The pace is brisk and each of the characters is made memorable, although some of them in a way you might prefer not to remember. I have not read any of Connolly's other novels featuring the Portland-based private eye Charlie Parker, which makes sense to me because if they were anything like this one I surely would have heard about him and his work because when you have somebody who can carry off this sort of a bloodbath word gets around.

Until BAD MEN I had not read a John Connelly book since EVERY DEAD THING, his debut novel. I have no excuse; I liked EVERY DEAD THING and was apparently in good company, since it won the prestigious Shamus Award. But I somehow missed the others, all featuring driven and disturbed private investigator Charlie Parker: DARK HOLLOW, THE KILLING KIND and THE WHITE ROAD. I accordingly was sandbagged when I picked up BAD MEN. Somewhere along the way, Connelly went from a writer with an impressive debut to one of our best in the space of just a few novels.

BAD MEN is not a Parker novel. No matter; if you're a fan of Parker you won't be disappointed at his absence, for BAD MEN reads like a collaboration between Dennis Lehane and Stephen King, with Garth Ennis throwing in an occasional farthing. Parker does make two brief appearances that very tangentially tie in to the haunting incidents of BAD MEN, but the protagonist of this brilliant work is Sanctuary, also known as Dutch Island, a dot on the map off the coast of Maine. Sanctuary has a unique history, one that Connelly introduces early on here. The original settlers of Sanctuary were betrayed and slaughtered by enemies led by one of their own. The island took its own revenge, and in the intervening 300 years, things have been quiet, with its inhabitants being a somewhat quirky and, for the most part, harmless assortment of characters.

The island, however, is awakening. Joe Dupree is Dutch Island's policeman; nicknamed Melancholy Joe, he stands over seven feet tall and bears his status as a freak with a quiet grace that has earned him the respect of the island people. But Dupree knows the secrets of the island and can sense its awakening in response to the coming of evil. The evil is coming in the form of Ed Moloch, an escaped convict who has assembled a disparate and degenerate crew of personalities for the purpose of bringing down a long simmering and terrifying revenge upon the person responsible for his incarceration. Moloch does not know it, at least not initially, but he is on a collision course with Dutch Island, a place that has been calling to him in his dreams and that he knows intimately, though he has never been there.

BAD MEN is written in the omnipresent third person, a literary device that permits Connelly to reveal the thoughts of each of his characters. As a result, the reader is made aware of the nightmarish workings of Moloch's mind, which are not only driven but also infused with pure evil. Willard, one of Moloch's crew, is even more terrifying than Moloch himself. A quiet, almost angelic looking youth, Willard possesses a cruelty and yearning for mayhem made all the more frightening by the casual manner in which he wields it. The element of Willard's persona that is the most terrifying, however, is his relatively ordinary appearance. He's the type of person you might encounter without giving a second glance, believing him, at worst, to be a little odd, perhaps a bit mentally slow, without noting the feral intelligence underneath. Connelly exhibits one of his many literary strengths here, drawing the reader into Willard and Moloch's circle of terror by showing rather than telling the reader where things are going with these two. All that stands in their way is Dupree, a rookie cop and, of course, Sanctuary.

Connelly's narrative here is seamless. BAD MEN is not a stream of consciousness tale, yet it reads as if he sat down and wrote it in the midst of a 72-hour fever dream. You will never forget Connelly, BAD MEN or Moloch. And watch out for Willard. God help us all, he's out there too.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Forget what you know about thrillers or for that matter horror novels. Mr. John Connolly has re-written the book and broken all the rules. The result is a novel of exquisite horror and 'down to the bone' suspense.
Being a fan of the horror and thriller genre for more years than I care to say.....BAD MEN is the pinnacle of blending a story of revenge with a tale of redemtion and survival on a small island off the coast of Maine. Known many years ago as 'Sanctuary' this island is the home to ordinary people living out their daily existance unaware that a group of human demons are on their way to exact revenge and claim 'what is theirs' and no one will stand in their way.
The lead BAD MEN named Moloch is a creation from Mr. Connolly who in the past has brought readers villians such as Mr. Pudd from THE KILLING KIND and the evil Caleb Kyle from DARK HOLLOW. Both Charlie Parker novels.
BAD MEN is a departure for Mr. Connolly and a stand alone novel. But readers will note that Charlie Parker does make a cameo.
I don't want to give too much away. So, sit back forget all you know about 'what scares you' and delve into a novel that blends the best of everything.....the undead, cannibalism, adultery, compassion, honor and revenge.
As it has been said: "Sanctuary does not always mean safety"!

A fabulous read. I literally could NOT put this book down. This was so well written, that I decided to pick up the entire chronicle. Not having the best attention span for novels, I was especially impressed with his ability to keep me intrigued. Which indeed I was. For hours on end, I found myself thumbing through the pages in an effort to find closure to this crazy story. Unlike most stories, when I reached the end, I was very satisfied. Bravo, John Connolly. And thank you.

John Connolly is emerging as one of the boldest, freshest and superior novelists of our time. BAD MEN is a brutal, gut-wrenching, mesmerizing, violent and excellently penned thriller. Connolly wastes no time in getting us introduced to the bad men of the title, and they are definitely BADDDDD!
Edward Moloch lies in prison having dreams of a seventeenth century bloodbath on a remote island north of Maine. Moloch wants revenge on the wife who betrayed him and took off with almost a million dollars of his money. He recruits some really cold-blooded, despicable associates to help get his wife and his money.
The wife has moved on to Sanctuary Island, the very island of Moloch's dreams. She has a new name for both her and her son, and she has fallen in love with the island's sheriff, Joe Dupree. Joe is an enormous man, considered a "giant" and maybe even a freak by the islanders, but he is a gentle, kind man, and despite his size, is respected and admired.
A lot of corpses accompany the escaped Moloch and his crew as he slowly winds his way to the confrontation with his wife.
Connolly creates a terrifying mood of suspense, and even adds the supernatural in that the slaughtered villagers from the 17th century are hanging around and thousands and thousands of moths, too! In less competent hands, this addition would be preposterous. In Connolly's, however, they only add to the sheer terror of this breathtaking thriller.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Saralee says

Charlie Parker, the ex-cop turned private detective, is the usual protagonist in the popular mystery series by author John Connolly that includes The Killing Kind (Pocket Star), Dark Hollow (Pocket Books) and The White Road (Pocket Star). Connolly's books featuring Parker have developed a loyal following because of the author's ability to write a great story and his distinctive style of writing which includes a wry sense of humor.

Although Parker does make a very brief appearance, Bad Men (Atria Books) introduces us to Joe Dupree. Joe's job is to protect the small island called Dutch Island once called Sanctuary in Maine, where most of the book takes place. As the story begins, the reader learns that something terrible happened in Sanctuary more than 300 years ago. There are bad people who want to murder and wreak havoc in the present and spirits who may or may not be helping them. Edward Moloch is as evil as bad men come and he plans to escape from prison and find his wife Marianne who is hiding on Dutch Island with their son. It is up to Dupree and rookie police officer Sharon Macy to protect the citizens of Dutch Island from the horrors, which are often unexplained, along with preparing for Moloch's arrival.

Did you think this book was too violent? Parts of it made me squeamish and were hard to read. How does Connolly compare to Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Thomas Harris as far as scaring you? Is Bad Men to be read late at night or in the safety of daylight? As for me, I will read the next book by Connolly that features Parker with joy and relief.

Larry's language

The pace never slows in Bad Men as author Connolly, not to be confused with Los Angeles mystery writer Michael Connelly, takes us on a murderous journey from a Native American Indian attack 300 years ago to a jailbreak today to a cross country killing spree. Each of these events seems to happen in isolation, both in reference to each other and in terms of being cut off from the rest of society.

For our book club questions, this kind of writing is meant to evoke things that go bump in the night. Do you ever awaken suddenly thinking that you heard an unusual noise? Do you ever wonder if some stranger or alien presence is in your home? If so, this is not the kind of book to read when you are alone.

Connolly tightly weaves this story of a young mother, Marianne Elliott, fiercely protecting her young son Danny by moving across the country to a desolate island off the coast of Maine. Elliott completely changes her life and a good thing considering what a mess she had made up to that point.

Every good story needs a classic villain. The father, Edward Moloch, escapes from prison in a bloody rampage and, with his band of merry killers, Moloch sets out to trace his missing wife and child.

Connolly's most endearing character is Joe Dupree who serves as the sole island police officer and whose father and grandfather held the same job. Because of his huge physical size and gentle manner, Dupree is isolated from the other folks on the island but this only strengthens his resolve to serve and protect.

This book succeeds in establishing the insecurity and sense of fear that is necessary primarily by emphasizing the island's lack of connectedness to the mainland and by carefully creating a sense of place and a 300-year history of evil as Connolly describes the island.

This book confirms Connolly as one of our best thriller novelists along with authors Dean Koontz, Lee Child and Stephen King. Much like these other authors, Connolly succeeds in each of his books because of his sharp characterization, distinctive plotting and his writing instills a deep sense of unease and suspense in the reader.

Since a sufficient number of previous reviewers have outlined the plot of this thriller, I see no need to repeat that information, but I would like to add a couple of comments. Since the supernatural elements in Bad Men are so crucial to the plot, I am happy that Mr. Connolly chose not to make this overtly part of the Charlie Parker series (although Parker does have a couple of cameo appearances); the supernatural elements in the Parker books are not necessary for plot resolution. Also, while this is a quite violent novel, Connolly often substitutes good writing for graphic displays. (In describing photos of a murder, we are told that they "came out pretty good, considering the amount of red in them"), and there are also a number of rather poetic passages, such as "(she) appeared to live her life as if she were being paid by the tear". While not advertised as a horror novel, this book will be a strong candidate for any awards in that field, if only the necessary people take notice.

This stand-alone thriller combines a chilling thriller with a haunting supernatural tale as modern day evil parallels a 300-year-old massacre on an island off the Maine coastline. It's a break from the Charlie Parker series, although he does make a blink and you'll miss it cameo early on.

The island known as Dutch Island to some and Sanctuary to others is home to around 1000 inhabitants. The locals are used to strange events on the island, with unexplainable deaths throughout its history not being particularly rare. Just lately there have been a growing number of these strange events casting a rather uneasy feeling over the island.

A couple of the main characters on the island are the memorable policeman and giant Joe Dupree, the rock-steady Dutch Island local who oozes common sense and capability, and the quiet newcomer, Marianne Elliott who is plagued with dark secrets from her past. Both play integral parts in the story and both draw feelings of sympathy from the reader. I thought in their own ways, they were very tragic characters.

On the other hand, we follow the progress of a group of cold-blooded killers making their way north. Moloch, their leader has broken out of prison and is tracking down his wife in order to serve his own form of justice for handing him to the police and stealing his money. On their way they leave a shocking trail of bodies, illustrating just how dangerous they are. The tension builds as they near their destination, until it peaks in a devastating confrontation on Dutch Island.

I thought this was a well-crafted story that was able to slowly build up the pressure until the final rip-roaring few chapters. Although the ending is rather inevitable, the pleasure lies in it's telling and Connolly has done an excellent job in this department.

When I picked up this book, I did not expect it to turn out the way it did at all.

In a lone island called the "sanctuary" is where it all seem to have started out. The Reincarnated souls of a wife and husband, one bad and one innocent somehow find themselves together again in the next afterlife it seems.

A simple betrayal of the wife leads her running from her stark raving husband who is locked in jail is counting down the days when he and his "fan club" of other bad men would break him out. all for the goal of spiltting the hundred thousands of dollars his wife, Marie had stolen from him when she fleed. falling for a cop Joe Depree, better known as "the Giant" of the island.

Upon his wake, Moloch had left litterally trails of bodies behind him as he went to hunt down his wife, not allowing a simple no for an answer, he will kill anyone in his path for revenge.

this is an amazing find. though it starts off really slow in the beginning and made me beg for the action to begin, it still got me hooked and unable to put the book down at all. i especially love how the ending turned out though. its wordy, depending on the mood, i will recomend it to some extent :D