Stephen Hayes reviewed Dark Hollow by John Connolly
None
3 stars
I recently read [b:The Wrath of Angels|13274077|The Wrath of Angels (Charlie Parker, #11)|John Connolly|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341835369s/13274077.jpg|18478066] by [a:John Connolly|38951|John Connolly|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201288913p2/38951.jpg], and realised that I had forgotten much of the plot of this one,which was on our shelves, and which I had read 18 years earlier. So I reread it to get an idea of where it had started. Both books feature Connolly's private detective character, Charlie "Bird" Parker but the books are very different.
What struck me on re-reading this one is that Connolly seems to be going in the opposite direction to [a:Phil Rickman|182452|Phil Rickman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1292252234p2/182452.jpg]. Rickman started writing spooky supernatural stories, but his exorcist character, Merrily Watkins, is gradually reinventing herself as an amateur detective. Connolly's Charlie Parker seems to be going the other way, from private detective to exorcist, but the weapons of his warfare are very carnal indeed, doing his exorcisms with a Smith & Wesson rather than with …
I recently read [b:The Wrath of Angels|13274077|The Wrath of Angels (Charlie Parker, #11)|John Connolly|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341835369s/13274077.jpg|18478066] by [a:John Connolly|38951|John Connolly|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201288913p2/38951.jpg], and realised that I had forgotten much of the plot of this one,which was on our shelves, and which I had read 18 years earlier. So I reread it to get an idea of where it had started. Both books feature Connolly's private detective character, Charlie "Bird" Parker but the books are very different.
What struck me on re-reading this one is that Connolly seems to be going in the opposite direction to [a:Phil Rickman|182452|Phil Rickman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1292252234p2/182452.jpg]. Rickman started writing spooky supernatural stories, but his exorcist character, Merrily Watkins, is gradually reinventing herself as an amateur detective. Connolly's Charlie Parker seems to be going the other way, from private detective to exorcist, but the weapons of his warfare are very carnal indeed, doing his exorcisms with a Smith & Wesson rather than with holy water. I'm not sure that it works too well.
But there is little of that in Dark Hollow, which is a straightforward whodunit in which the police and a crime syndicate are looking for the same man, Billy Purdue, Purdue is a suspect in the murder of his wife and son, and the mob believe he stole their money, so both the police and the crime bosses are after him..Only Charlie Parker thinks that there could be someone else, but more and more people who are connected with Billy Purdue are getting killed.
There is barely a hint of the spooky stuff that features so prominently in The Wrath of Angels however, so I'm left wondring where it started to come in to the Charlie Parker series.