Product Description

Did Grace Peltier commit suicide? When a mass grave in northern Maine reveals the final resting place of a religious community that disappeared almost forty years earlier, private detective Charlie Parker, hired to investigate the circumstances of her death, realises that their deaths and the violent passing of Grace Peltier are part of the same mystery, one that has its roots in her family history and in the origins of the shadowy organisation known as the Fellowship. Aided by the genial killers Angel and Louis, Parker must descend into the depths of a honeycomb world populated by dark angels and lost souls, a world where the ghosts of the dead wait for justice and the unwary are prey for the worst kind of creatures.

The killing kind. . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30722 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Spider-bites are a nasty way to die, and there is a man out there with an unusual taste for insect venom of all kinds and for the deaths of those who disagree with or affront him. John Connolly's sleuth Charlie Parker is free of the ghosts of his slaughtered wife and child, but sooner or later new ghosts come to him demanding silently that he avenge them. In The Killing Kind, it is not Grace, the ex-girlfriend whose faked suicide he is hired to investigate, so much as the dead fanatics she was killed for writing a thesis on. The Aroostook Baptists disappeared into the gloomy woods of North Maine in the sixties and nothing more is known until road workers find a mass burial. Connolly provides his usual excellent combination of snappy one-liners (many of them from Parker's gay assassin sidekicks Angel and Louis) together with scenes of the utmost terror. Parker soon realises that the spider killer, Elmer Pudd, is only the tool of someone far worse, a sanctimonious artist in intolerance and mayhem--and it is only by carefully measured doses that we come to realise just how bad that is going to be. --Roz Kaveney

What's On (Amazon Books)
'Connolly's characters have substance beyond vehicles for horror, and this is what puts him ahead in a crowded genre race'

Review
'The unrivalled master of Maine noir. Menace has never been so seductive.' (Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian )

'As John Connolly plunges ever deeper into the underworld of the damned, the reader, with eyes of slits, must cling on for this brilliantly terrifying ride.' (Irish Times )

What makes Parker intriguing is precisely that, though a crusader against evil, he has a dark side: he is haunted by the past, his capacity for violence and guilt.' (Telegraph Magazine )

'Connolly's achievement is a literary thriller, charged with menace from beginning to end, taut as it is terrifying.' (Live Wire )

'John Connolly knows how to get you to check the lock on your door before you put the lights out and again before you get into bed.' (rí-ra )

'Arachnophobes should give this novel a wide berth' (Evening Standard )

'Connolly has become the leading commentator on Maine’s morbidity' (Play )

'Connolly's characters have substance beyond vehicles for horror, and this is what puts him ahead in a crowded genre race' (What’s On (Amazon Books) )

'As the body count increases, Connolly introduces a chilling new villain and an age-old legend. Together they'll keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't read it alone! (Books )

'Elias Pudd makes Hannibal Lecter seem like Little Lord Fauntleroy. Gripping, intricately plotted, this is no ordinary thriller. . . Also becoming more apparent are the depths of this author's psychological acumen, literary skills and prodigious creativity.' (Publishers Weekly )

'Connolly’s reflections on evil, the past, and reparation are lyrical and affecting, and his grim fundamentalists send off frissons.' (Kirkus Reviews )

Customer Reviews

Gripping and terrifying, John Connolly has surpassed himself
Having read "Every Dead Thing" and "Dark Hollow", I eagerly awaited the third book featuring Charlie Parker. I was not disapointed! From the moment I began reading the Epilogue I was gripped. My skin was crawling and I knew I had to read on until the dramatic conclusion. This has been my favourite of the Charlie Parker novels but prepare yourself for the ending which literally sent shivers down my spine. NOT FOR THOSE SUFFERING FROM ARACHNAPHOBIA!

WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE!
OK, maybe I have a taste for the macabre but I love this book. For some reason John Connolly has escaped my notice before now, apparently there are two more like this already so John Connolly addicts might be getting blase, but this book hit me like a chair leg applied violently to the left temple.

You've probably read the plot summary already so I'll just say that this is on the borderline between detective fiction and horror, blending the two genres seamlessly with a thread of the supernatural.

The villains are really evil, especially Elmer Fudd... sorry, Elias Pudd, who is my favourite fictional villain ever. There's plenty of gore, a real atmosphere of menace and a number of genuine shocks.

My only real complaint about the book is that it gives spiders, those most mild-mannered and inoffensive of creatures, a bad press. But to deduct a whole star for that would just be unreasonable.

"THE KILLING KIND" IS ANOTHER HOME RUN FOR JOHN CONNOLLY!!
Since last January, when I read John Connolly's first novel, EVERY DEAD THING, I've quickly become an avid fan of his. His second book, DARK HOLLOW, confirmed my belief that here was an extremely talented writer who deserves a much larger "fan" base. Now, having read his third novel in the "Charlie 'Bird' Parker" series (since this hasn't been published in the United States yet, I had to purchase a British edition), I know that this is an author who's destined for the "bestseller" lists. He's simply that good! In THE KILLING KIND, Charlie Parker returns to investigate the death of a young college student, Grace Peltier, and her connection to a religious organization known as the Fellowship. It seems that she was writing a thesis on small group of religious zealots, the Aroostook Baptists, and their mysterious disappearance during the year of 1963. Her search for information led her to the Fellowship and its founder, Carter Paragon. Shortly there after, she was found in her car alongside a dirt road with a revolver in her hand, a bullet in her head, and a Bible at her side. Neither Grace's father, Curtis, or Jack Mercier, a friend of the family, believe that she committed suicide, and they want our New England P.I. to find the killer. As Charlie begins his investigation, however, a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of the Aroostook Baptists is accidentally discovered along a riverbank in northern Maine, and this also seems to be tied in somehow with the Fellowship. When Charlie starts to probe a little too deeply into the workings of this supposedly religious organization, Mr. Pudd (a man who's evil in every sense of the word and loves to kill his victims with deadly spiders) and his mute, female assistant are sent to warn him off the case. Since Charlie has never been one to heed the warnings of other people, he continues to plow ahead and soon people start dropping dead like flies around him. Even when Louis and Angel arrive to offer their help, they prove to be barely a match for our illusive Mr. Pudd and his mute partner in death. THE KILLING KIND delivers in much the same manner as Mr. Connolly's first two novels did. It has several plot lines coming from different directions that joined together into a very smoothly written, utterly satisfying ending. Both the familiar and new characters in the book ring true to the ear, especially the evil Mr. Pudd and the Jewish assassin known only as the Golem. Mr. Connolly has a remarkable skill in being able to create killers that stand out in ways other authors can only dream about. That's one the things that make this series so much fun to read. Another aspect is the main character of Charlie Parker. This is a unique individual trying to make amends for the life he's lived by righting the wrongs done to other people. It also helps that he has friends like Louis and Angel who aren't afraid of a little killing, if the situation calls for it. As the series continues to develop, Charlie and the love of his life, Rachel, are drawn closer and closer to each other, and there's a wonderful surprise on the last page of this novel that makes me eager to read THE WHITE ROAD when it's finally published. All in all, the three novels in the "Charlie Parker" series are fabulous reads that leave you wanting more. I suspect that like THE KILLING KIND, I will purchase his next book in a British edition, rather than wait one-to-two years for it to be published in the United States. The superb quality of his writing makes it well worth the trouble.