Every Dead Thing (Charlie Parker, #1)

by John Connolly

[pamela]

What a book! I thought I'd try John Connolly's Charlie Parker thriller's from the beginning rather than picking them up at the new releases and I am so excited to read the rest of them. Charlie 'Birdman' Parker is a brilliant character, who is flawed in a believable way, and makes believable choices and decisions for a man of his background. I was utterly invested and engrossed from the beginning.

Connolly has absolutely nailed his pacing. We have two different crimes tackled in both halves of the book which prove to have a connection, but not in such an overt way as to appear 'convenient'. The killings are equally gruesome and horrific and yet are imbued with humanity through Connolly's wonderful writing. The victims are people, with personalities, lives, and existence outside their status as victims in the novel. This is an issue I often have with crime novels, that the victims are simply treated as plot devices making their deaths seem somehow voyeuristic.

I was also impressed by Connolly's tactful use of supernatural elements. They were not presented overtly, but rather as feelings, intuition or indeed manifestations of a character's mind. He did not ascribe any deeper truth or meaning to them, and they served to humanise the characters.

I struggled to put this book down, and I think this might be my favourite foray into the crime genre to date. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.