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"A one sitting read"

It seems like several lifetimes ago that Charlie 'Bird' Parker's world was perfect, but those happy times ended less than a year ago. He enjoyed working as an officer in the New York Police Department and loved his wife and his little girl. His idyllic life ended when a killer murdered his wife and child. Charlie crossed over the line and accompanied by a semi-retired burglar and a professional assassin, he killed his family's murderer.

Charlie lives alone in his grandfather's house in Scarborough, Maine, hoping he will attain some measure of peace. However, Charlie soon finds himself drawn into the troubled life of Billie Purdue, who many locals believe stole a million dollars from a desperate and nasty Boston gangster. When Billie's ex-wife and their child are killed with the mother's lips sewn tightly together, the police believe he did it. Charlie spirit dreams of being asked to help prove Billie is innocent and so reluctantly investigates a case filled with many players who want the inquiries stopped.

DARK HOLLOW is a very dark atmospheric gothic-like novel that takes place in shadows where few people dare venture. Charlie is an anti-hero seeking peace, but instead finds an opportunity for redemption after taking the law into his own hands. His cohorts are likable felons and good friends to Charlie. The plot is loaded with twists and turns and just when the reader expects a straight road to the climax, another curve surfaces, making it almost impossible to guess the ending. John Connolly is a brilliant storyteller who seems like a Ludlum with a dash of King to add spice to the fabulous mix.

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 28, 2001

A young woman, Rita Ferris, and her little son die at the

hands of an unknown killer, and the past and present

collide violently for Charlie Parker.

Still raw from the brutal slayings of his wife and

daughter, and the events surrounding the hunt for their

killer, the Traveling Man, Parkerhas retreated to the

wintry Maine landscapes of his youth. But his return

reawakens the ghosts of the past, forcing him to join the

hunt for Billy Purdue, Rita's ex-husband and the chief

suspect in the slayings.

As the death toll mounts, it becomes clear that someone

else is hunting for Billy Purdue, someone who seems to know

Parker almost as well as he knows himself, and that the

true answer to the puzzle lies thirty years in the past; in

a tree with strange fruit; in the troubled history of

Parker's own grandfather; and in the violent origins of a

mythical killer: the monster known only as Caleb Kyle.