The Whisperers: A Thriller (Charlie Parker Mysteries) [Hardcover]

John Connolly (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charlie Parker Mysteries | Publication Date: July 13, 2010

“‘Oh, little one,’ he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in fifteen years. ‘What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?’ ”In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods—drugs, cash, weapons, even people—are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil.The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can’t know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men’s hearts. As the smugglers begin to die one after another in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers’ actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that 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. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Ancient artifacts and the second Iraqi War provide the backdrop for Connolly's outstanding ninth novel featuring PI Charlie Parker (after The Lovers). When the former NYPD homicide detective looks into the suicide of an Iraq war veteran, he discovers that several members of the soldier's unit have also killed themselves and that they may have been involved in smuggling looted treasures into the U.S. Parker begins to fear that the returning soldiers have brought back more than their own personal demons. As he races to find an antique golden box before it falls into the wrong hands, Parker discovers that he's being shadowed by the enigmatic Collector, a repulsive killer whose nature is as problematic as that of Parker himself. Connolly displays a real knack for fusing the detective and horror genres, providing a rational chain of evidence and deduction for the plot while simultaneously creating a real atmosphere of numinous dread that reminds us that mystery can refer to more than a mundane tale of crime and human justice.
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Review

"Rita's story is one that will touch every family. . . . A loving, poignant tribute to her POW father and freedom."

—Senator John McCain --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; 1 edition (July 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143916519X
• ISBN-13: 978-1439165195
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #461,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and have, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a "gofer" at Harrods department store in London. I studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which I continue to contribute, although not as often as I would like. I still try to interview a few authors every year, mainly writers whose work I like, although I've occasionally interviewed people for the paper simply because I thought they might be quirky or interesting. All of those interviews have been posted to my website, http://www.johnconnolly.co.uk.

I was working as a journalist when I began work on my first novel. Like a lot of journalists, I think I entered the trade because I loved to write, and it was one of the few ways I thought I could be paid to do what I loved. But there is a difference between being a writer and a journalist, and I was certainly a poorer journalist than I am a writer (and I make no great claims for myself in either field.) I got quite frustrated with journalism, which probably gave me the impetus to start work on the novel. That book, Every Dead Thing, took about five years to write and was eventually published in 1999. It introduced the character of Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. Dark Hollow, the second Parker novel, followed in 2000. The third Parker novel, The Killing Kind, was published in 2001, with The White Road following in 2002. In 2003, I published my fifth novel - and first stand-alone book - Bad Men. In 2004, Nocturnes, a collection of novellas and short stories, was added to the list, and 2005 marked the publication of the fifth Charlie Parker novel, The Black Angel. In 2006, The Book of Lost Things, my first non-mystery novel, will be published.

I am based in Dublin but divide my time between my native city and the United States, where each of my novels has been set.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Demons of war, July 13, 2010

By 

S. Dellosa "misfit salon" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Whisperers: A Thriller (Charlie Parker Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I confess that I was drawn to The Whisperers for the Raiders of the Lost Ark-like cover alone. I found out once I received it that The Whisperers is part of a series featuring PI Charlie Parker; however, I could still follow the story and got hints of Parker's past throughout so that I got a great sense of his character and troubled history.

The Whisperers by John Connolly (and apparently the entire series) is a thriller with supernatural elements (most of which worked for me).

The cover is well-chosen as Parker's investigation into an ex-soldier's suicide eventually leads him to the discovery of ancient artifacts looted from a museum in Iraq now being smuggled across the border to Canada. As Parker continues his investigation, he learns about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and finds hints that the tragedies befalling the veterans one by one might have a more sinister and horrifying cause.

"They left you this way. Your emotions are no longer under control. You are no longer under your own control. You become depressed, paranoid, removed from those who care about you. You believe that you are still at war. You fight your bedclothes at night. You become estranged from your loved ones, and they leave you.

"And maybe, just maybe, you start believing that you are haunted, that demons speak to you from boxes, and when you can't satisfy them, when you can't do what they want you to do, they turn you against yourself, and they punish you for your failings.

"And maybe, just maybe, that moment of obliteration comes as a relief."

Connolly does an admirable job of not trumpeting political opinions about the war in Iraq - instead he shines the spotlight on the war's effect on the soldiers, how physically and emotionally shattered they become, the treatment (or lack thereof given to them), what little compensation they receive for laying their lives on the line, and what happens to them once they finally come home.

The Iraqis are not painted as the enemy here - another aspect of this thriller I liked --but there are plenty of villains. You have the government who is not taking care of its soldiers, other ruthless smugglers, and a revolting, face-is-being-eaten-by-a-disease killer by the name of Herod.

Connolly hits almost all of the marks for a great thriller - steady build up of suspense; surprises that keep the plot moving; intriguing, well-drawn characters; and an insightful, pertinent take on current events.

Some of the supernatural elements confused me - I'm not sure if it's because they're a continuation from prior books in the series. For example, the character called the Collector showed up in the last 3rd of the book as a vaguely omnipotent presence with an unidentified purpose and could either be good or evil. Again, I'm not sure if he's merely a literary device or part of an overall, running theme. My curiosity is sufficiently piqued regarding the Collector's role, as well as Parker's dark past, so that I intend on picking up the rest of the series.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Close, but No Cigar, July 19, 2010

By 

Jodi L. Castagnier "Jodi L VanWoerkom" (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Whisperers: A Thriller (Charlie Parker Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I have to admit I have been waiting for this book to come out since the moment I finished the last one. Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. The last third of the book was where I felt the story really came together.

The information on PTSD was too much and I felt it distracted from the story and the overall Charlie Parker series. I understand it was important, but really it could have been summed up in a chapter instead of continuing to pop up.

For me, the Black Angel was the culminating book for what I think is main plot of Charlie Parkers life. I think the super natural elements are important. I think that a show down between Charlie Parker and the super natural beings will ultimately close this series. I think we've seen peices of it in the Lovers and Whisperers, but that John Connolly has stepped back from it being a focal point. I think in his next book it should be brought to the front more.

I felt this book was a slow read. There was just too much information to sort through before the story got going.

I am still a fan and am eagerly awaiting the next one...

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charlie is back..., August 1, 2010

By 

J. Prather (IN USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Whisperers: A Thriller (Charlie Parker Mysteries) (Hardcover)

John Connolly is one of my favorite authors because he possesses the uncanny ability to combine exciting supernatural elements commonly found in horror fiction with the gritty realism of a good hard boiled detective novel. The Whisperers is no exception. Connolly succeeds in creating an atmosphere ripe with tension from the very first page. While I knew where this was going pretty early on, the myriad of characters he introduces and his haunting style kept me glued to the story just so I could figure out where all these players were going to fit into this puzzle laid out so expertly before me.

I have read all the Charlie Parker novels, and I can see where some might not like this one as much as the previous ones. First, this one is not really about Charlie. Some of the previous ones have been so personal to Charlie, this one stands out as being markedly different. Secondly, the supernatural elements of the story are more in the forefront from the very beginning. I for one was glad to see Charlie taking on cases again. It felt like the return of Charlie Parker, private detective instead of Charlie Parker man of vengeance and despair. It was nice to see that Charlie himself might have a future.

Charlie is called into action by the father of an Iraqi war veteran anxious to learn more about his son's apparent suicide and his connections to some of the men he served with in Iraq. What follows is a tale that is not all that original, but still very compelling. Antiquities stolen from the Iraq National Museum have found their way back to the United States along with a few entities that nobody expected. The author tells a darkly human story of greed and sacrifice, while also exploring some very ancient evils.

All of the information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was very interesting and served to further connect the reader to all the characters, making their role in the events both more understandable and sad. Louis and Angel are back, but with a somewhat smaller role this time. As always, they lend a delicious amount of tension and drama to any scene they are in. The villains in this tale are both old and new, and while I thought I had this all figured out, by the time the end rolled around I was in for some unexpected surprises.

The bottom line: this is a good read for any fan of crime or supernatural fiction. Though not quite as intense as the more recent Charlie Parker novels, still an edge of your seat page turner sure to satisfy. Recommended.