Book Review - The Black Angel (Charlie Parker #5) - John Connolly
For the first 100 pages of ‘The black angel’ by John Connolly I wasn’t sure about this fifth instalment to the the Charlie Parker Series. The initial murder of a prostitute had been solved, and the paranormal aspect of the series seemed to be much more to the fore. As usual, it was John Connolly’s writing and characterisation that kept me interested.
I find it difficult to talk about crime thrillers without giving away the plot. What I would say about this particular book is that it is dark, dark, dark - though this won’t come as a surprise to anyone reading previous books. It feels like one of the wider ranging books of the series - we travel back to an Ossuary in Nazi occupied eastern europe in the 1940’s, and there are links to gangs in Mexico.
Charlie Parker
I’m not sure if this is a stand alone book - this far into the series, I don’t think I would have appreciated the backstory as much if I didn’t know some of the previous cases and the interplay between Charlie and Rachel, Louis and Angel. One of the things I did appreciate was the extra layer we seen to Louis in this book - we did know some of his history but for the first time he had a vulnerability, which for me was good to see. There were some wisecracks between the three, but much more muted this time.
John Connolly’s writing is strong throughout, though there seemed to be more descriptive passages in this book. Again, he’s added to his cast of grotesque’s - Brightwell is a worthy addition to the rogues gallery, to go along with Pudd and the travelling man. He really is superb at conjuring up some vile, nasty specimens and reminds me of Stephen King on occasions (The highest of praise).
As usual I’ll take a break from the series - I find having these dark stories and characters rattling about in my head is enough for a while, and ‘the black angel’ is no different. But it’ll be interesting to see the next book and the direction it will go in - I suspect the paranormal aspect to come much more to the fore.
Book review - The Black Angel - John Connolly
576 Pages
Pocket Star Publishing