A Time of Torment: A Charlie Parker Thriller (14) Paperback – May 23, 2017

Connolly keeps getting better. He has dropped some of his literary tics ("Yes, yes he did") and moves into the plot more deftly than when he began his Charlie Parker series. He has moved into the business of destroying municipalities. This is the third time Parker has disrupted or destroyed a community of evil weirdos. In this case, the villainous community is "the Cut," a stretch of a small West Virginia county that has been preying on outsiders for several centuries. When a person threatened by the Cut seeks Parker's help, he is promptly disappeared. Parker follows his trail to the West Virginia county, seeks the help of the local sheriff, and brings with him Louis and Angel, his criminal/moralistic sidekicks. The Cut has obtained a strange idol called the "Dead King," to whom it offers the bodies of people it captures. Connolly spends a fair amount of the book going back-and-forth between Parker, leaders of the Cut, the local sheriff, and the Cut's victims. If there is one thing of which Connolly is truly a master, it is at painting utterly disgusting villains, even though some of them are rather complex characters. Some may fid the supernatural elements in Connolly's writing, including in this book, somewhat superfluous -- subtract the Dead King, human sacrifice, other-worldly avatars and visions of the afterlife, and the plot would work just fine as a straight detective story. But I find this rather diverting, if only because it provides some relief from the hyper-violence that tends to fill Connolly's work. Recommended.

If you love dark and suspenseful mystery/thrillers with a dash of the supernatural and have not discovered John Connolly's signature character Charlie Parker, I urge you to jump into this series as soon as possible and, hopefully, in order of printing of the 15 or so novels. John Connolly is a master at his craft and is a true wordsmith with the ability to depict a gloomy atmosphere or a palpable sense of dread in just a few well turned words. I find his literary style to be similar to that of James Lee Burke, another of our living treasures. And Parker is a private detective who is unlike most others in that he died and was reborn with the ability to "see" and sense his murdered daughter who seems to watch over him. Along with Louis and Angel, his two closest allies, Parker seeks justice and retribution for those who have been touched by the absolute evil in some men and communities.In "A Time Of Torment", Parker is hired by Jerome Burnel, a former hero who may have been framed by a child porn charge which made him a pariah; furthermore, sensing his own impending death, he enlists Parker to find out who framed him and why. Parker and his pals soon discover a strong link to an isolated and forbidding mountain community known simply as "The Cut"; a community with an ancient evil past highlighted by crime and death and housing an entity known as the "Dead King". Soon Parker and team join with a local sheriff to investigate The Cut and its depraved leaders Oberon and Cassander. Knowing that kidnapped girls are secreted somewhere in The Cut, Parker's team goes on the offense to try saving the girls, find Burnel, and end the stranglehold that The Cut exerts on Plassey County."A Time Of Torment" is a fine addition to the lore of Charlie Parker but it is not a good starting point for someone unfamiliar with the series. My two quibbles revolve around the fact that Connolly occasionally rambles and stretches out the narrative a little too much and he has a tendency to reuse his villains more often than I would like. A comic book editor once said that good villains are hard to find which may explain why so few comic book villains ever truly die and, regretfully, Connolly seems to subscribe to the same notion.

What a great book! I absolutely love the Charlie Parker series, and this is one of the best. I never like to give away any details so that the reader has as blank a slate as possible, but I will say I very much enjoyed the West Virginia setting. Having been near the area, it was easy to picture and Connolly always does such a great job of making the setting such an important part of the story. I can't wait to read the next one!

This book contains all that best of the various genres it contains. Great detective,suspense, thrills, action,and humor. READ THIS SERIES FROM THE BEGINNING,! Worth the time.

I feel that the author made a tactical error in this novel when he put an insular, isolated community serving an isolated god in it...because that's exactly what he had in the previous book in the series. As the series goes along, more and more lesser gods are showing up. I would prefer seeing more of Charlie Parker's daughter, Sam, and her development, as she appears to be some kind of savior in the making. This is not a series with stand-alone entries. It's best to read it all in order; even then, it's hard to keep track of all the recurring characters and supernatural developments. The author has a habit of starting off in one direction, then switching topics and subplots or time frames. It can be confusing and even tedious. Individual scenes may stand out - I particularly liked the interludes with Paige and scenes featuring a young boy - but overall this book felt a little sluggish, despite the violence and body count. I will continue to follow the series, however, and hope that the next entry is an improvement.