Nocturnes

by John Connolly

Take his hand and follow him into the darkness ...John Connolly, bestselling author of five brilliantly scary mystery novels, now turns his pen to the short story to give us a dozen chilling tales of the supernatural. In this macabre collection, echoing masters of the genre from M R James to Stephen King, Connolly delves into our darkest fears - lost lovers, missing children, subterranean creatures and predatory demons. Framing the collection are two substantial novellas - "The Cancer Cowboy Rides" charts the fatal progress of a modern-day grim reaper, while "The Reflecting Eye" is a haunted house tale with a twist and marks the return of private detective Charlie Parker, the troubled hero of Connolly's crime novels. "Nocturnes" is a masterly volume to be read with the lights on - menace has never been so seductive ...

• ISBN10: 0340897333
• ISBN13: 9780340897331
• Publish Date: 6 June 2005 (first published 11 October 2004)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 28 January 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder Paperback
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

This was my first experience with John Connolly, and I think it was a really good place to start. His short stories are very Lovecraftian, and while I don't think they were as good as [author: Neil Gaiman]'s short story collections, I still enjoyed most of them. The opening story, The Cancer Cowboy Rides, is the weakest - I'd have preferred to see it pushed towards the end, or not included at all.

The novella at the end is part of Connolly's Charlie Parker series. I thought it was easy to enjoy without having read any of the rest, although I could see threads of stories that fans probably recognized. In any case, I liked it so much that it was the deciding factor in giving this collection 4 stars instead of 3. I will definitely be checking out more Charlie Parker novels in the future.