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: #82704 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• 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 )

'As usual, there is an element of the supernatural, taking the reader into a place where the real, contemporary world is touched by something from our worst nightmares, and he does it in lyrical, almost poetic language which grips and chillls.' (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

John Connolly keep em' coming !
I have to say this was not my favourite JC book, this still being The Killing Kind. However i have been waiting to read this one since travelling the globe and as usual it does not disappoint. Always impacting, always gripping, his characters really come to life from the pages. I do enjoy the humorous banter between the three main characters Parker, Louis and Angel. I always found myself pausing after two or three chapters to take account of what had happened previously and to savour what was to come. Thrillingly dark and indeed shocking in places tackling a difficult subject. It continues to border just the right side of the 'honeycomb world' in my opinion anyway. I am just wondering when one of the books will be made into a film adaption although as always I am sure any film will never quite reach the impact of any of his books. Actually I just read that he hasn't optioned any of his Parker books to be made as yet...

Please keep em' coming, I look forward to the Reapers in May.

PS. I also enjoyed the Book of Lost Things ! As a further note, check out Dennis Lehane as he is another favourite.

Weak entry in dark and disturbing series
I am a big fan of John Connolly and have acquired all his books as soon as I became aware of them. I am disappointed to say that I think success has negatively impacted his writing. This, and his previous, non-Charlie Parker publication, The Book Of Lost Things, have represented a significant falling off of quality from his previous books. In addition to a storyline hampered by diversions and slow pace, the writing has deteriorated as well. There is insufficient attention to detail, sections that drag and lack tension, and in parts too much detail about matters of no consequence while other sections seem under-written and sketchy.
Fortunately, Connolly's imagination has not deserted him along with his discipline. The atmosphere is creepy and full of dread (though occasionally even that flags) and there are three significantly unsettling characters. Louis and Angel are present but under-used. I finished the book, but with considerable impatience, which I never experienced with the early novels. I think Connolly could do with slowing down and taking his time. This book was both too long and under-developed, suggesting a weak editorial hand.
Still, in today's overcrowded market, Connolly's books are still better than most, and deserve a read.

Pure evil, beautifully written
I have read all of JC's books but never have I found one as disturbing as this one. In a way there are no surprses here. Charlie is still haunted by ghosts from the past, Louis and Angel strut their stuff and there is the usual cast of nasties, killers and ghouls. Yet something is different. And it is not JC. His style is still excellent, his views come across clearly, his descriptions are beautiful and his prose almost poetic.

What has changed, is me. Since his last novel I have started a family and I have a child not yet 16 months old. And the subject of this latest novel is so dark, so evil that no parent could read it without feeling extremely uncomfortable. But yet, you can not stop reading either. And that is due to JC's writing quality. Somehow, no matter how evil and dark the tale gets, you get sucked in to the black world of Charlie Parker. And at the end, you know that there is a fictional place where the actions he and his friends take are acceptable, and almost justifyable.

Charlie Parker and his friends are fiction. However, the main subject of this novel is something you read about in real life newspapers. And is that not the scariest thing about this novel?