The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly
Hodder & Stoughton (hardback), 2014
352 Pages
BLURB FROM THE COVER
The community of Prosperous, Maine has always thrived when others have suffered. Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children’s future secure. It shuns outsiders. It guards its own. And at the heart of the Prosperous lie the ruins of an ancient church, transported stone by stone from England centuries earlier by the founders of the town . . .
But the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to Prosperous. Parker is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, by rage, and by the desire for vengeance. In him the town and its protectors sense a threat graver than any they have faced in their long history, and in the comfortable, sheltered inhabitants of a small Maine town, Parker will encounter his most vicious opponents yet.
Charlie Parker has been marked to die so that Prosperous may survive.
EXTRACT
The house was studiedly anonymous: not too large or too small, and neither particularly well kept nor in any sense dilapidated. Situated on a small patch of land not far from the outskirts of the city of Newark, Delaware, in the densely populated county of New Castle, the town had taken a hit when the Chrysler Newark assembly plant closed in 2008, along with the nearby Mopar distribution center. However, it was still the home of the University of Delaware, and 20,000 students can spend a lot of money if they put their minds to it.
REVIEW
Connolly is one of my favorite writers. His Charlie Parker novels are among my favourites. I loved The Wolf in Winter. Connolly offers something a bit different than other Charlie Parker novels. Park has matured a bit and this is a good thing. I really loved the town of Prosperous. Connolly makes the town sinister from the start and I just knew bad shit was going to go down inside the town’s borders. I found Prosperous and the people who lived there very creepy and unsettling. I loved the way Connolly gradually revealed the dark heart of the town and the reason behind their wealth and success and even the name of the town. I was disappointed Angel and Louis didn’t appear in The Wolf in Winter until much later. They are my favorite characters from the Charlie Parker novels. However, Connolly makes them worth the wait and more than half of The Wolf in Winter is shown through their eyes as they avenge an attempt on Parker’s life by those lovely people in that nice little town Prosperous. I was hooked from page one of The Wolf in Winter and Connolly held my breathless attention until the very end. The ending of The Wolf in Winter makes me wonder if there will be another Charlie Parker novel. I hope there is and can’t wait to see where Connolly takes Parker next. Overall, The Wolf in Winter is a great read. I loved every word.
RATING