Product Description

Daniel Clay, a once-respected psychiatist, has been missing for years following revelations about harm done to the children in his care. Believing him dead, his daughter Rebecca has tried to come to terms with her father's legacy, but her fragile peace is about to be shattered. Someone is asking questions about Daniel Clay, someone who does not believe that he is dead: the revenger Merrick, a father and a killer obsessed with discovering the truth about his own daughter's disappearance. Private detective Charlie Parker is hired to make Merrick go away, but Merrick will not be stopped. Soon Parker finds himself trapped between those who want the truth about Daniel Clay to be revealed, and those who want it to remain hidden at all costs. But there are other forces at work here. Someone is funding Merrick's hunt, a ghost from Parker's past. And Merrick's actions have drawn others from the shadows, half-glimpsed figures intent upon their own form of revenge, pale wraiths drifting through the ranks of the unquiet dead. The Hollow Men have come . . .

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #262675 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Publishers Weekly
`Scary, cerebral thriller from bestseller Connolly . . . Connolly
is a master of suggestion, creating mood and suspense with ease, and
unflinchingly presents a hard-eyed look at the horrors that can lurk in
quiet, rustic settings.'

Review

‘Connolly handles the unspeakable with consummate ease’

(Daily Mirror )

'Connolly writes convincingly of thugs, criminals and the supernatural, and Parker is a classic character who walks straight and tall like someone from the old west, and the reader knows all will be well once he arrives in town. THE UNQUIET just won’t let you put it down as the plot careers across the pages like a runaway train. Excellent!’ (Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday )

'This man’s so good, it’s terrifying . . . a quieter, subtler, more reflective way of scaring us into shivering wrecks . . . His gift for instilling terror in undimmed . . . Connolly operates in the terrain between unease and horror and does so without resorting to hysteria.  He writes about evil lyrically, with biblical fervour. At times he approaches the spiritual and the supernatural without falling into the abyss of total impossibility.’ (Marcel Berlins, Saturday Times )

(Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph )

'John Connolly draws their shady presence into his rich, southern Gothic style which assumes evil to be an omnipresent, corrosive force of nature.   Parker seeks truth and discovers pain His sleuthing is fast-packed, which makes THE UNQUIET a thrilling read’ (FT Magazine )

'Connolly is a master of suggestion, creating mood and suspense with ease, and unflinchingly presents a hard-eyed look at the horrors that can lurk in quiet, rustic settings.'

(Publishers Weekly )

'Connolly’s books are shot through with bitter poetry, and couched in prose as elegant as most literary fiction . . . But it’s not just the US voice of his books that has made waves on both sides of the Atlantic;there’s the sweeping canvas, more ambitious than most British-set crime thrillers.  However, all of this is not the overriding reason why Connolly has risen above most of his peers.  It’s because Connolly’s work has raised the stakes, beyond the quotidian concerns of most crime novels, into a grandiose conflict between the forces of good and evil, with religion and the paranormal stirred into the heady brew.’ (Independent )

'Originality in story and style is what makes Connolly stand out from the thriller pack.  THE UNQUIET is plotted and paced not to break your neck, like those of his rivals in the business, but to efficiently crush every bone in your body.’ (Daily Sport )

'In two fascinating confrontational scenes between Parker and He/It-who-will-not-be-named here, (Connolly) writes superbly mesmerising dialogue.  You'll be running shards of it through your mind after the book is finished . . . THE UNQUIET ends with the tantalising suggestion that the detective, after years of relentless, self-righteous violence, has literally lost his soul - and that the ultimate enemy has yet to come.  I can't wait.' (Irish Times )

'It is not every day that one gets to read a detective novel that penetrates deep into the world of abuse.  Credit should go to Connolly for his willingness to tackle this difficult topic and for the depth of his research. THE UNQUIET reveals both pace, full description and a compelling central character. It’s a rich achievement – and strange that a master of the macabre like Connolly should seem such a nice guy.’ (Daily Express )

'Connolly’s greatest skill lies in his descriptions of the bad guys . . . The description of their crimes are where Connolly is at his chilling best, and it is his attention to detail that makes them so terrifying and so believable.' (Sunday Business Post Dublin )

Daily Mirror
'Connolly handles the unspeakable with consummate ease'

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Customer Reviews

Probably the best Charlie Parker to date !
Charlie Parker the haunted private detective fron John Connolly's previous tales is back in what can only be described as the darkest novel in the series to date.
This is a big read and I polished this book of in two sittings such was force of the storyline. Bringing back charecters from the previous books, villans and hero's alike it does help to have read the earlier Parker novels first.
This book book covers the issues of child abuse and the horror and darkness that surrounds it with a fine touch that does not go into to much detail but at same time will have you thinking for days after, there are people like that out there, we know they are, but there are not enough Charlie Parkers to make things right.
John Connolly has created in Charlie Parker a dark and troubled person, say unlike ( Robert Crais's Elvis Cole), that you can always feel for him and understand why and what he does to solve cases.
A very violent book, crammed with awfull villans that you want them all dead by the last page, but so well written that when you have finished it you are wanting more. Long may Charlie Parker, Angel and Lewis stay with us.

Has Bird lost his mojo?
I can't convince myself that I enjoyed THE UNQUIET as much as one or two of Connolly's earlier works, my personal favourite remaining THE WHITE ROAD. I have to admit though that he seems to have addressed one of my most consistent complaints over the past few years, that being the excessive and often gratuitous levels of violence displayed by all characters past, be they on the right or wrong side of the law. In this latest episode in the life of Charlie `Bird' Parker, you will find yourself deep into the second half before so much as a bullet is fired, and I certainly welcomed this. This relatively mellow tone doesn't last forever of course, because normal service is eventually resumed even if the triggers of Parker and his associates Louis and Angel remain in place from start to finish. This might suggest that there are many lighter moments that give Louis an opportunity to display his super-cool wit, but this isn't the case, as there is little in the way of humour at any time and certainly less than in many of the preceding Parker tales.

The underlying theme of this tale is the sexual abuse of children, and somewhat inevitably Connolly, in his own style, makes it clear that in the pecking order of evil, paedophiles rank below (i.e. worse than) the likes of violent criminals, contract killers and characters who might represent the Devil himself. Few would disagree, I guess, but apart from that classification the reader gains little in the way of insight into what makes such monsters do what they do, indeed in the closing pages Parker raises numerous questions but neither he nor the writer offers much in the way of answers. Furthermore, as all the despicable acts have taken place in years past, the reader is not really caught up in what might otherwise have been the emotional trauma that, in reality, parents and children suffer while it is taking place. Although there were many emotionally troubling moments throughout this tale, they sometimes related more to the supernatural experiences that Parker continues to endure and to the introspective nature of his life and character that the reader gets a closer look at here than in novels past. The bottom line is that while it is at all times interesting it never really raises the heartbeat in quite the same way as Connolly's earlier works succeeded in doing. I couldn't really call it a thriller, at least not my own interpretation of what a real thriller is supposed to do. All I can say about the end was that it was `quiet' and mostly devoid of violence; an anti-climax in a sense. That's not to say that it was an unsatisfying end, but for anyone familiar with the other five Parker escapades, it's safe to say that it's really rather different from any of them. Just faintly disappointing, then, but expectations were sky-high and it's possible that the author's recent excursions into non-Parker territory have taken the edge of his writing a little, even if the finished product is his most authentic and well-rounded to date. I liked it a lot, it's an intelligent piece of writing throughout but it didn't thrill me in the way I know Connolly can.

Another brilliant addition to the Parker Series.
This latest in the Parker series is of a much different tone and pace to the other books. He takes the time to stop and take toll of where all the characters are in their lives, and he confronts some issues that have been going unresolved for Parker in the previous books. I cant say that he exactly gets "closure" or any "answers", as this doesnt really follow on from the storyline of The Black Angel, in terms of whether or not they really were angels or whether he is one himself. But it stops to make you realise that Parker isnt really over the death of his wife and child, that maybe (even though they bring a comic element to the books) you shouldnt really *like* louis, and it delves more into the reason why he let Rachel leave him and how he copes with that. Parker also see's himself empathising with Merrick who is obsessed with finding out what happened to his daughter who disappeared, remembering back to his reaction to his daughters death and the consequent hunt for the Travelling Man.

It is beautifully written, in parts very emotionally touching and in content it tackles a very complicated and sensitive issue. That being of child abuse. As the blurb says, there is the return of a character from one of the previous Parker stories, and as always, Parkers "villians" can make your skin crawl and your stomach ache.

This isnt a book where you will find a dead body every chapter, it is much more personal and I think that it is a refreshing change for Parker and the series. Great work Connolly! Keep it coming!

ohh... and PS. His next novel will be called "The Reaping" and will have Angel and Louis as its main characters.