Dark Hollow (Charlie Parker, Bk 2)
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
This is the second book in the Charlie Parker series and it's the third that I have read in the series after EVERY DEAD THING and THE UNQUIET. And I think I am hooked on this series and will be looking forward to reading more of it.
This is the follow-up to Every Dead Thing and it is just as grim, hard-edged and compelling as the first novel. Charlie Parker, who now has his PI license has moved back to his home town of Scarborough, Maine. As a favor to a young woman, Rita, he tries to get some overdue child support from her ex, Billy Purdue. This ends up pitting Parker and his friends Angel and Luis against mobster Tony Celli who is looking for $2 million that Purdue might have heisted during a botched ransom exchange. There's a trail of dead bodies, all of them linked to Purdue's search for his birth parents, a line that stretches from his family to an old woman who kills herself after running away from a nursing home. She claims to have seen Caleb Kyle, a vicious serial killer who hasn't been heard from since Parker's youth. It's this element of the plot that lends a supernatural air to the proceedings (Parker has visions of his dead wife and daughter). "The book opens like a Stephen King novel, with a violent prologue, visions of nameless evil darkening the stars, and the dead past coming alive. Since the novel is set in Maine, it feels like an homage to the master of Pine Tree State horror." The story proceeds to a very violent hunt for the serial killer in the cold North of Maine.
I enjoyed this very compelling novel just as much as I enjoyed the others I have read in the series. I especially like Parker's friends Angel and Luis who on more than one occasion come to Parker's rescue. Angel and Luis are some rather bad and violent characters who are gay; Angel is white and Luis is black. They remind me a lot of another of my favorite series, the Hap and Leonard books written by Joe Lansdale. Leonard is also a very violent gay black man. Anyway, I'll definitely be reading more of these!
This is the follow-up to Every Dead Thing and it is just as grim, hard-edged and compelling as the first novel. Charlie Parker, who now has his PI license has moved back to his home town of Scarborough, Maine. As a favor to a young woman, Rita, he tries to get some overdue child support from her ex, Billy Purdue. This ends up pitting Parker and his friends Angel and Luis against mobster Tony Celli who is looking for $2 million that Purdue might have heisted during a botched ransom exchange. There's a trail of dead bodies, all of them linked to Purdue's search for his birth parents, a line that stretches from his family to an old woman who kills herself after running away from a nursing home. She claims to have seen Caleb Kyle, a vicious serial killer who hasn't been heard from since Parker's youth. It's this element of the plot that lends a supernatural air to the proceedings (Parker has visions of his dead wife and daughter). "The book opens like a Stephen King novel, with a violent prologue, visions of nameless evil darkening the stars, and the dead past coming alive. Since the novel is set in Maine, it feels like an homage to the master of Pine Tree State horror." The story proceeds to a very violent hunt for the serial killer in the cold North of Maine.
I enjoyed this very compelling novel just as much as I enjoyed the others I have read in the series. I especially like Parker's friends Angel and Luis who on more than one occasion come to Parker's rescue. Angel and Luis are some rather bad and violent characters who are gay; Angel is white and Luis is black. They remind me a lot of another of my favorite series, the Hap and Leonard books written by Joe Lansdale. Leonard is also a very violent gay black man. Anyway, I'll definitely be reading more of these!
