Dark Hollow: A Thriller

Written by John Connolly

Narrated by Jeff Harding

“Connolly has crafted one of the most darkly intriguing books this reviewer has encountered in more than three decades of reading crime fiction.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The second thriller in John Connolly's bestselling, chilling series featuring haunted private investigator Charlie Parker.

Charlier Parker, a former New York City detective with a haunted past, befriends a down-and-out mother with a small child. When she turns up dead, Charlie's first suspect is her estranged husband. Charlie follows the man's trail to Maine and there he becomes entangled in a series of strange occurances which all seem to harken back to a string of unsolved murders that took place generations before. The murders were never solved and now Charlie must hunt for a killer and the connection between two crimes that span a century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Dec 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781442386907

John Connolly

John Connolly is the author of the #1 internationally bestselling Charlie Parker thrillers series, the supernatural collection Nocturnes, the Samuel Johnson Trilogy for younger readers, and (with Jennifer Ridyard) the Chronicles of the Invaders series. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at JohnConnollyBooks.com, or follow him on Twitter @JConnollyBooks.

Reviews for Dark Hollow

[Gay Gasper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lots of twist and turns. The book I s exciting right until the end.. Love the reader.

[brookeashley-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very dark and claustrophobic. I liked Every Dead Thing better; the winter-in-Maine setting in Dark Hollow was almost too bleak and heavy. Plus, DH did not have enough Rachel, who was a welcome presence in EDT. I already have book #3 eyeballed at the library, but if these books are all this dark, I might not be able to read too many in a row without a lighthearted break.

[Tyler Bittinger · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great. Could not recommend any more, right to the next

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fast-paced thriller with an over abundance of assailants, a lot of dead bodies, a fair amount of gore and slight supernatural elements. I skimmed over a lot of the ex-girlfriend details. Be warned that children and pets are among the victims. This is the second book in the series and I've read some of the more recent books. It's probably best to read the series in order from the beginning, but that's not what I did. However, it seems that the tone and level of action and violence remains consistent throughout the series. I might read a few more books in the series, but certainly not all of them. I like Charlie Parker and his colleagues but I think there's too much violence and general nastiness for me. Jeff Harding did a good job with the narration of the audiobook.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This series is like a combination of a police thriller and an old Stephen King book- back when he wrote creepy, spooky books, without his leftist politics,but these don’t use any of the juvenile dialogue like his did. These are graphic, violent non stop thrill rides.
The prologue was a little hard for me to follow but it all made sense once I got into the book.
How this series has not been made into a show on Netflix or Amazon is mystifying.

[burritapal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As in his other books I've read, John Connolly creates these super villains, seemingly exuding chaos, and also it seems their omniscient, that they can see you wherever you are, and be there before you get there:
".. I felt the urge to push him away, but I was stopped by a stronger instinct that told me not to touch him. I couldn't have explained why, but something foul appeared to emanate from him that discouraged any contact. To touch him, it seemed, would be to blight oneself, too risk contamination or contagion.
But it was more than that. He exuded a sense of extreme lethality, a capacity for inflicting hurt and pain that was so profound as to be almost sexual. It seeped from his pores and flowed viscously over his skin, seeming almost to drip visibly from the tips of his fingers and the end of his ugly brutish nose. Despite the cold, tiny bits of perspiration glittered on his forehead and upper lip, spangling his soft features with moisture. Touch him, I sensed, and your fingers would sink into his flesh, the skin yielding clammily to the pressure as it sucked you in.
And then he would kill you, because that was what he did. I was certain of it."

And here's a beef I have with so many male authors. They have to talk about women like they're just there for their use, and to look at, and to judge their body parts. There's no reason to do this:
" 'what do you want to know?'
'tell me about last Monday night.'
Again, he exchanged a look with jim, then seemed to resign himself to talking.
'It was a freak call, that's all. Guy rang from the Eastland over on high street, wanted a girl. I asked him if he had any preferences and he gave me short, blonde, small tits, neat ass. Said that was what he liked. Well, that was rita. I gave her a call, offered her this a job, and she said yes. It was only her third time, but she was Keen to make some cash. Cash for gash.' He smiled emptily."

This part infuriates me:
"how many times had I heard that voice whispered to me in the darkness, a Prelude to the soft caress of a warm hand, the feel of her breath against my cheek, my lips, her small breasts hard against my body, her legs like Ivy curling around me? I had heard it in times of love and passion when we were happy together, in moments of anger and rage and sadness as our marriage fell apart. And I had heard it since in the rustling of leaves on the grass and the sound of branches rubbing against one another in the Autumn breezes, a voice that carried from far away and called to me from the shadows.
Susan, my susan."
The f*** is wrong with this author? Do women authors talk about 'his tiny penis was felt against my leg in the night. His huge buttocks, on the other hand, more than made up for his tiny penis?'

Charlie Parker supposedly has some connection with the dead, imparted to him from the big woman in Louisiana, the blind woman:
"... That was Tante Marie's gift to me: I saw and heard my dead wife and child, and I saw and heard others too. Eventually, Tante Marie was among them. That was her gift, passed in the touch of a hand, and yet I could not explain it.
I think that it may be a kind of empathy, a capacity to experience the suffering of those who have been taken painfully, brutally, without mercy. Or perhaps what I experienced is a form of madness, a product of grief and guilt; maybe I am disturbed, and in my disturbance I have imagined alternate worlds where the dead seek reparation from the living. I do not know for certain. All I can say is that those who are absent, by its means become present.
But some gifts are worse than curses, and the dark side of the gift is that they know. The lost, the stragglers, those who should not have been taken but were, the innocents, the struggling, the tormented shades, the gathering ranks of the dead, they know. And they come."

This next part should have a caveat, apart from it, to tell readers that this is what happens to the "meat" that they have on their plate, before it's cut up and gets there:
"the tone of his voice grew gentler, but his face hardened as he spoke again: 'I'm sorry we have to do this to you, but I need to be sure that you understand what we've discussed. If at any point you feel you have something to add to what you've told me, just moan louder.'
He nodded at whoever was behind me and I was forced down to my knees again. A rag was stuffed in my mouth, and my arms were pulled back and secured with cuffs. I looked up to see hairlip limping toward me. In his hand, he held a short metal rod. Crackling blue lightning danced along its length.
The first two shots from the cattle prod knocked me backward and sent me spasming to the ground, my teeth gritted in pain against the rag. After the third contact I lost control of myself and blue flashes moved through the blackness of my mind until, at last, the clouds took me and all went quiet."

Despite all the things that pissed me off about this book, I'll probably read the next Charlie Parker in the series.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Charlie Parker, known as Bird, is literally haunted by the ghosts of murder victims, including his own wife and daughter. A serial murderer who was active more than 30 years earlier while Charlie's grandfather was still an active policeman, haunts the his search for Billy Purdue, a violent young man, the husband of his client, who has money the mob wants and is being searched for by the police for the murder of that young woman and her son. The characters and the mood of winter Maine are the main positives of Dark Hollow, and the brisk pace of the book. More than one nasty serial killers shows up, including Bird's friend Louis, the hitman of bad dudes. The elements of this story are well integrated in comparison to Every Dead Thing.

[arkrayder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book in the Charlie Parker series and it is just as good as the first. The range of opponents are fairly wide in this, the mafia, two weird dudes Abel and Stritch, a murder and a thief. Louis and Angel appear again and we begin to learn a bit more about their backgrounds including Parker’s himself. The paranormal element of the story is still there and I like how it contrasts to the events going on. Again the detail is great in this novel. Next The Killing Kind!

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unable to set aside the murders of his wife and daughter, a haunted Parker returns to his hometown of Scarborough, Maine. Rather than finding solace in the northeast woods Parker is faced with a series of seemingly unrelated mysteries and a terrifying sociopathic mobster. And with this book, Connolly creates an amazing villain, one of mythical proportions. And the way all the different people involved in the story (the mob, cops, assassins) and the way Bird's personal life is portrayed on the page makes this book one of the best suspense novel I've read in a long time.

[thecrow2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the second book of the series Charlie Parker starts to investigate the case of some missing persons and missing money but when he finds it to be connected to an old unsolved case what he founds shakes even him. Plus we can meet again the great Angel - Louis duo as well. :)

[branimal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Connolly should be ranked at the top of his field. His work with his American crime-fiction franchise and his iconic anti-hero at the center is even more impressive due to the fact that Connolly himself, is an Irishman.

His ability to create a chilling atmosphere is only second to his top notch character development. Parker returns alongside friends, Louis and Angel in Connolly's sequel to 2001's Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow. In Dark Hollow, PI Charlie "Bird" Parker returns to his old stomping grounds of Portland, Maine, alone, to heal his wounds following the events of the last year as well as the brutal murder of his wife and child. As Parker begins to restore a home he had inherited from his grandfather, he takes a small job on the side - collect child support from a deadbeat dad for a longtime friend. However, what started as a simple job soon throws Charlie in the middle of a prominent mob boss' business, the disappearance of said deadbeat dad and the re-appearance of a man long thought to have vanished or never to exist at all. While dealing with all this, Charlie comes to grip with the sudden loss of communication with friend, Rachel Wolfe, the reappearance of former disgruntled partner Walter Cole AND meeting up with an old flame, who happened to be married, and still is, at the time of their initial affair.

You'd think that having this much going on at once would be overwhelming but Connolly maintains control throughout. I never felt lost at any point throughout the novels 500 pages and never felt that anything was unnecessary. Connolly often rewrites his books, sometimes in excess of 20 times so he makes sure his novels are tight. Further development is given to Parker's accomplices Louis and Angel. The nature of Louis' employment puts a strain on his relationship with Parker for the first time. We also get a glimpse into how Angel became intertwined with Parker in the first place. This excites me as Louis is given a more central role in a Parker novel down the road and his character is already interesting by the 2nd novel - I can only guess what Connolly has in store for the next few outings.

Dark Hollow focuses a bit more on who these central characters are, their backgrounds and Charlie's reason for continuing down this road. Connolly should be praised for his ability to write thrillers this good but nothing is better than proper character development, it keeps the series interesting.

[jan0fleming · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“I dream dark dreams.

I dream of a figure moving through the forest, of children flying from his path, of young women crying at his coming. I dream of snow and ice, of bare branches and moon-cast shadows. I dream of dancers floating in the air, stepping lightly even in death, and my own pain is but a faint echo of their suffering as I run. My blood is black on the snow, and the edges of the world are silvered with moonlight. I run into the darkness, and he is waiting.

I dream in black and white, and I dream of him.

I dream of Caleb, who does not exist, and I am afraid.”

Charlie Parker, almost a year after the murder of his family, is trying to find peace. He has returned to Maine where he spent his youth and has moved into his Grandfathers old house in Scarborough with the intention of doing it up. Unfortunately he doesn’t get very much done as before long he is drawn into the hunt for the killer of another mother and child. The obvious suspect is the woman's violent estranged husband.

But there is another possibility – his grandfather (a policeman) was haunted by a shocking series of unsolved murders in the area, the perpetrator was meant to be the monster known as Caleb Kyle. As the decades past Kyle sank into the mythology of Dark Hollow only to be resurrected by tired mothers as the bogey man used to scare errant children. "Caleb Kyle, Caleb Kyle, when you see him run a mile"

Far to the north but now an elderly lady, from a nursing home, is found wandering in the snowy woods saying she has seen Caleb Kyle…

There is a whole different atmosphere to this book, from EDT, it feels sinister, forbidding and very gothic! The intensely visual descriptions of a freezing winter in Maine, drip with a dark, brooding menace. I felt cold the whole time I was reading it!

As the author says:

“I wanted to use the Maine landscape, the changing of the seasons, the cycles of nature, to illuminate the novel. The book is filled with images of predatory nature and, combined with the onset of winter; I hope gives the book some of its power.”

It is a genuinely haunting, dark and unsettling read but Connolly’s lyrical writing, almost mystical in parts, make it a breathtaking experience.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Charlie "Bird" Parker has come home to Maine. Away from as many of the memories as he can of his wife and child and their death but they're always with him and when a young wife and child are killed shortly after he helps them to get some money owed, he's drawn into their case. He is driven by this past to find the answers and what he finds is messy and complicated and there's a lot of bodies.Interesting and dark. Charlie is an interesting character with a lot of motivations and his friends are complicated and nothing is straighforward or transparent. I'm liking the series and the characters but there are moments when it's a bit gruesome.

[mikedraper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story begins with a double cross. Two mobsters who work for Tony Celli, meet with four Cambodians to collect the ransom on a Cambodian college student they had kidnapped. When the exchange of money is done, the mobsters kill the Cambodians. However, a third party shoots the mobsters and makes off with the money.Charlie 'Bird' Parker, a former NYPD officer who left the job when his wife and daughter was killed, now has his PI license. He does a favor for Rita Purdue. He finds her former husband, Billy, and gets him to pay some of the support and alimony that he owed Rita.Unfortunately, some of the money Billy gave to Charlie, was in new bills in the same denomination as was stolen a few days earlier.This sets forces against Billy. Tony Celli's gang, two independent killers and someone else enters the story to seek out Billy and retrieve the money.The killing and torture that accompanies the search for Billy doesn't bother the searchers.Charlie still regards Billy as a friend and thinks Billy is over his head so tries to find him and warn him.John Connolly seems influenced by the early work of Stephen King. His good characters are quite sympathetic and his evil characters are devilisly evil. It is easy to follow Charlie as he fights agains the evil forces to save an innocent person.There is suspense throughout the book culminating at the conclusion. There were a few surprises along the way to add to the entertainment of the novel and overall, this was a very enjoyable read.

[adithyajones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A thriller with lot of action which is able to grab the attention of reader throughout with enough twists and turns.

[crazybatcow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Much tighter plotting than the first book in this series; there was only one main story told, even though there were many threads (a.k.a. men with guns).Lots of bad guys, all with their own agenda, and all these agendas were contrary to Charlie's wishes, so lots of violence and killings and beatings and etc. It had a bit of, I dunno, psychobabble in the form of dreams which I didn't really like (I'm reading for the violence and justice, not to hear about the spirit world)... but there wasn't so much of this that it tainted the story too much. I suppose these damaged heroes have to have something that made them what they are - Charlie's burden is his wife and daughter's death.At least there was no moralizing in the book. And justice was served. And the returning characters are great. I'm starting the next in the series right now.

[amacmillen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Charlie Parker PI is involved an old murder case that involves a old man named Calab Kyle who has come back to continue his murdering. Money is stolen from the mob and they are looking for Calab's son for the theft. Lots of death and suspense and old memories haunt Charlie.

[mazda502001 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the 2nd in the Charlie Parker series. It is just as explicit as Every Dead Thing and makes an exceptionally good thriller read. Very atmospheric.Back Cover Blurb:Private detective Charlie Parker has come home. To the Maine landscape of his youth, the ghosts of his past and the brutal slaying of a young mother and her son. Forced to embark on a nerve-shredding manhunt, Parker soon closes in on his prime suspect. But someone else is tracking them both.And the body count is rising....To stop the killer, Parker will have to solve a thirty-year-old puzzle and map the nightmare wilderness of his own past and his own heart.And confront a legend that is evil incarnate.

[darrol_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A savage story involving a case Bird inherited from his grandfather. His gay side kicks provide a lot of the violence and some comic relief.

[piratejenny_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The second Charlie Parker mystery, as creepy and dark as the first. Charlie's moved back to Scarborough, Maine, where he was raised by his grandfather and his mother. He's renovating his grandfather's house, and he's got his P.I. license for the state. He's done a small job, trying to get child support out of a local ne'er-do-well so the guy's wife and child can have a somewhat decent life. What he didn't do was think about where the money came from. When his friends Louis and Angel arrive, it becomes all too evident that it wasn't exactly a wholesome (or legal) source. Add to that the name Caleb Kyle, the bogeyman who haunted his grandfather till the day of his death, and you've got one interesting story.Note: creepy is not the same as scary.

[bethmal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the Charlie Parker series. They tend to be a little dark and gory. I love the way they keep me thinking and I can't put them down till I am done.