Customer Reviews

The White Road

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Charlie "Bird" Parker has settled down in rural Maine with his new love, Rachel, and is awaiting the birth of their child when he gets a call from an old friend, Elliot Norton. Elliot is a lawyer in Charleston, SC, who is handling a powder-keg of a case -- a young black man accused of the rape/murder of the daughter of a rich and powerful white family. When Elliot all but grovels as he begs Charlie to come to SC and do some investigation for him, Charlie can't say no.

And so begins Charlie's odyssey on the long and twisted White Road. Connolly writes of the dank Congaree Swamp and other Low Country environs as though he were born in the languid South rather than Ireland, and every paragraph he writes flows like dark and haunted poetry. For every step forward Charlie takes in seeking information to help Elliot's client's case, forces and villains from his past converge to drive him backwards and to kill him if they can. (*Note: do read "The Killing Kind" first to understand who Faulkner, Pudd, et al., are.) And then there is the hooded Lady in White, who might or might not be real as she wanders the shimmering White Road where the past meets present and future and where old wrongs are righted.

This stunning novel is absolutely mesmerizing as it races forward to a shattering denouement. It will leave you breathless, but don't read it at home alone late at night.

This is the best of the four. Every Dead Thing was a good read, but overcomplicated with too many characters and plots. Dark Hollow was much better. ANd even that warranted five stars. Then came The Killing Kind which was stupendously excellent. The best thriller of 2001. Even better than Dark Hollow. But now comes The White Road. And it's even better.

John Connolly's prose is simply wonderful. It is superbly lyrical, and his descriptions are superbs. I was in awe when he described a world as being "painted on glass". He has many sentences like that, which stop you in your tracks and make you realise how truly [darkly] beautiful his writing is.

Charlie Parker is back, and fighting for his life, and thst of his lover and unborn child. the demonic preacher Faulkner is out for revenge, the instruments of which will be horrfying killer Cyrus Nairn, who keeps his secrets buried by the riverside. At the same as Parker is investigating the rape of the young daughter of the wealthy Earl Larousse. Accused is her black boyfriend, Atys Jones. But deep in the nearby swamps something lurks...something connected to a long ago crime, and it wants vengeance...

This is a stunning novel. The darkness of it is haunting, and its complexity astounding, but JOhn COnnolly manages to tell you the tale in an easy to undderstand way.

It is truly chilling. The way Connolly blends subtle elements of horror in with a crime novel is awe-inspiring. And with this book he has created his most dark plot yet, yet it seems to contain a tiny snub of light shining through at points. At times the darkness becomes too much, and the light disappears as if gone forever, but at others, it reappears, burning brightly anew, and you can hold out some hope for Charlie Parker and his quest.

I cannot praise this novel highly enough. The resolution, and the way in which it is all brough together is brilliant, and the final solution shocking.

Connolly, with this book and the last created possibly the most chilling villain in the religious fanatic Reverend Aaron Faulkner, and in this book he is even more chilling than before. He simply oozes evil. This time, he is out to get Parker, and he is going to use killer Cyrus Nairn, recently released from the wing of his prison, to execute that revenge. It is a truly chilling book, with a wonderful plot, and a colourful cast of characters, including Angel and Louis, who are back in full force. This time we learn a little about why they are who they are.

From the excellent prologue to the epilogue this book is a sucess on every level. Connolly just gets better and better. If you haven't read him yet, you're missing out.

This is my first John Connolly book, and it may be that part of my confusion comes from the fact that I have not read the other books in the series. Although I was ultimately able to catch up with Pudd and the Faulkner and the Traveling Man, there were an overhwelming number of backstory threads to assemble before I really got a full view of this book. The resulting reading experience for a first-time view of the series is jumpy and incomplete.

I liked Charlie Parker as a hero. I like the darkness and I am even willing to buy the flirtation with the horror/dark fantasy genre. A psychic detective is an interesting idea, and Connolly does a good job in fleshing him out.

The structural issues were the biggest flaw in the book for me. I disliked the way that it jumped times and place (too often, and without much sense). The use of foreshadowing irritated me (example: "I never sam him again, and I wonder now if my intervention cost him his life."). I also have a personal pet peeve with authors who manage to work every last loose end into one story. Particularly in a novel with so many threads (Faulkner, Cassie Blythe, Marianne Larousse, the lynchings, the White Road) it is a whole lot to swallow that they all end up linking so neatly together.

Overall, I liked the book enough that I will probably circle back around and start with the first in the series. I will hold off on an opinion as to whether I would recommend the series or not until after I have done so. In any case, I would not recommend that another first time Connolly reader start here.

By this fourth novel, it is quite clear that Irishman John Connolly is a brilliant, effusive and poetic writer. Who else could take such dark themes, and with his art of writing, create such somber yet optimistic landscapes. In this book, this brilliance sometimes gets in the way of the plot, and manages to slow the pacing of the book down at times, but it is nonetheless a mesmerizing addition to the Charlie Parker series.
Parker has a remarkable narrative tone, and his humor is downright incredible at times. I don't think readers will enjoy this as much as they should if they haven't read at least "The Killing Kind," the brilliant predecessor to this work. There are too many holdovers from that novel to enable anyone to fully grasp the situation if they haven't met Reverend Faulkner and Pudd before.
Some real surprises here, including the murderous rampage of Louis and Angel; Angel's morose attitude since the incident with Rev. Faulkner in the previous book; Rachel's pregnancy and her love for the sometimes misguided Charlie; a horrifying killer in Cyrus Nairn; Connolly's elegant use of the supernatural in his detective tales; and a compelling "ghost"...all add up to another fantastic read.
You can't do much better than this series; in four novels, Connolly has demonstrated what a terrific writer he is.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I remember finding Connelly's Every Dead Thing and how estatically thrilled I was to discover it being the debut novel of this, then, new writing talent. The wounded, damaged and self-deprecating character, Charlie Parker, hooked me immediately (reminiscent of the infatuation I developed for Dave Robicheaux nearly two decades ago), and I've eagerly awaited and enjoyed each subsequent installment. I (weren't we all) worried over Angel's fate at Faulkner's hands in Dark Hollow; am pleased to see he's not only survived, but (is this possible? I found myself hoping) may have unveiled a "ray of divine relief" through his association with Ben Epstein. Louis has always been the stronger presence, and, as remains the case, I enjoy him immensely. Rachel is a strong, intelligent woman; strong enough to let Bird follow his path, seek his karmic solution(s), and conquer his various demons. She's a worthy mate for our hero. The character development for these supporting players is often divied out with devilish economy, making readers yearn for more, more... as is appropriate, I believe.

What I find most interesting is it isn't the stories, the plot, of each book that we seek more fervently, rather Parker's personal journey is what keeps us holding the glass to the wall. Bravo, Mr. Connelly!

ps Black Coupe de Villes will never again be merely another car!

The enormously talented John Connolly once again strikes gold in his latest revival of his sensitve but flawed protagonist, private investigator, Charlie Parker.

Parker is currently cohabiting with his pregnant girlfriend Rachel in his home town of Scarborough, Maine. He receives an impassioned phone call from a previous acquaintance Elliot Norton. Norton was a lawyer and assistant DA when Parker was on the NYPD. Norton begs Parker to come down to South Carolina where he is defending a young black man accused of murder. Unfortunately the victim Marianne Larousse was the young daughter of Earl Larousse head of a wealthy old blue blooded Southern aristocratic former slave owning family. In short the young black man Atys Jones was already convicted prior to the trial.

Against his better judgement Parker departs for Soth Carolina. Parker who is very compassionate to victims of crime, has the gift of the ability to sense the dead and departed. His investigation leads him to uncover ancient crimes thought to be buried in the Congaree swamps of South Carolina. He also crosses paths with Neo Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan who try to free the deranged Reverend Aaron Faulkner, villain of Connolly's The Killing Kind.

Connolly is without question one of the top young mystery and suspense writers on the scene today. His next offering is eagerly awaited.

Can Connollys novels get any better than this? Since reading "Dark Hollow", i have devoured everything, mostly the C. Parker series, that John Connolly has on the market. I cannot believe that ive spent all these years without a clue to the treasure author which is Connolly. Can it get any better than "White Road"? Im almost afraid to find out but "Black Angel" is now in my sights.
One thing about his novels which he pulls no punches about are the villains. They are about as evil and despicable as they come and each so far has been unique in the way they dispense pain and death to their respective victims. These are baddies you want to see "get theirs" and Connolly ensures that they do, violently and brutally.
He doesnt go for hollywood endings, just blunt, forward, and justifiable.
These days, while authors just like to impress readers by how many pretty and fancy words they can come up with (King, Koontz) while ignoring a decent story and plot, Connolly outdoes them all, using that poetic language to write rousing, violent but enthralling novels.

Long live Charlie Parker, Angel and Louis. They just dont make em any badder than this bunch.

THE WHITE ROAD is John Connolly's fourth novel featuring Charlie Parker. Parker is a former NYPD detective with a troubled past that includes a slain family. He's now living in Maine and working sporadically as a PI. The novel, like all Parker novels, is mostly a first-person narrative told from Parker's point of view. The Parker books simultaneously pay homage to hardboiled noir fiction (Hammett, Chandler, Burke, MacDonald, etc.) while still maintaining a high degree of freshness and originality.

In this installment, Parker helps out an old friend named Elliot Norton. Norton, a lawyer down in South Carolina, is defending a young black man who is accused of murdering a young white woman from a rich family. He's convinced that his client didn't do it, but he's having trouble getting any local assistance, so he guilt-trips Parker into coming down from Maine to dig into the case. At the same time, back in Maine, the Reverend Faulkner, villain of the previous Parker novel, THE KILLING KIND, is doing his best to get bailed out of prison, with the assistance of a Klan/Nazi-type organization, which Parker also runs into while in South Carolina. Working for the racist group is a mysterious sadist called Kittim, who is one of Connolly's trademark deformed villains - in Kittim's case, he suffers from a strange skin disorder. In addition, this book gives us some more background information on Angel and Louis, Parker's interracial/gay/criminal sidekick couple. Finally Parker's relationship with psychologist Rachel Wolfe continues - she now lives with him in Maine and is pregnant. That may sound like a convoluted plot setup, but rest assured that Connolly pulls it all together in a satisfying way that does make logical sense.

As always, Connolly writes extremely well - not just the narrative, but the settings, characterizations, and dialogue are all well-done, which is always extra impressive as Connolly is an Irishman who writes primarily about American characters in American settings.

Besides just plain old good writing, a couple of other things that help his Parker novels stand out from the herd of the detective fiction genre. One is Connolly's fascination with deformed or otherwise physically abnormal villains - many of his bad guys have something wrong with them externally that reflects their inner evil (such as this book's Kittim.) The other is a genre-blending tendency to mix supernatural/horror elements in with the standard hardboiled crime conventions, which I for one absolutely love. WHITE ROAD is the most overtly spiritual novel yet in the series, though later installments arguably increase that element even more. Parker often sees dead people, especially victims of violent crimes, though whether he's genuinely seeing apparitions or if they're just some sort of hallucination is never explicitly stated. Connolly is also fascinated with the idea and imagery of fallen angels, and he weaves it into his tales expertly, though with varying degrees of subtlety.

If you like hardboiled crime novels and you're not a mystery genre purist who's going to be bothered by having some horror elements mixed in, you'll love this series - though I recommend reading them in order (EVERY DEAD THING, DARK HOLLOW, and THE KILLING KIND before this book) for maximum enjoyment and understanding. I just finished reading this book for the third or fourth time, if that tells you anything about how much I like the Parker series. I'm eagerly awaiting my pre-ordered copy of Connolly's latest, THE REAPERS, which is coming out later this month, and to kill time I'm rereading all the preceding Parker books.

Private Detective Charlie Parker, once again, is faced with a life-threatening situation. Aaron Faulkner, a fanatical preacher, is in prison under suspicion for the murders committed by his son and daughter (well documented in THE KILLING KIND). He is very likely to get out of prison on bail. Faulkner makes it well known to Parker that he will come after Parker's pregnant lover as soon as he is out. There appears to be little that could be done to legally keep Faulkner in prison.

Meanwhile, Parker receives a call from a friend in South Carolina who is defending a young black man accused of raping and killing a young and wealthy white girl. He will almost certainly be convicted and killed unless his innocence is proven. Parker decides to help his friend out with the case. Unfortunately, Parker is now faced with an angry community-- especially the white supremists. Yet in the swamps appears the spectral figure of a woman who might very well be enacting a revenge all her own. Parker must get to the bottom of it.

Once again, John Connolly has written a highly suspenseful hard-edged thriller examining the depths of pure evil. Major characters are haunted by the past and are quite unforgettable. The American South tends to play a major part of the work of this Irish writer. It is a mysterious and quite dangerous place as it is depicted in the books of John Connolly. He fills the swamps of South Carolina and Louisiana with a dark beauty that is almost reminiscent of James Lee Burke. However, the writing style is all his own. This is easily one of my favorite series and one that can be read not only for the compelling plot but also for the beauty of the writing.

In The White Road, Detective Charlie Parker has finally gotten over the suffering of his wife and daughter's murders, and is awaiting the birth of his first child by his lover Rachel, when he finds himself defending a young black man accused of raping his white girlfriend, the daughter of a powerful Southern millionaire. When he agrees to take on the case he finds nightmares from the past re-surfacing in this tense thriller.