Rating: 
Summary: Bad Men/Good Book
Review: Since a sufficient number of previous reviewers have outlined the plot of this thriller, I see no need to repeat that information, but I would like to add a couple of comments. Since the supernatural elements in Bad Men are so crucial to the plot, I am happy that Mr. Connolly chose not to make this overtly part of the Charlie Parker series (although Parker does have a couple of cameo appearances); the supernatural elements in the Parker books are not necessary for plot resolution. Also, while this is a quite violent novel, Connolly often substitutes good writing for graphic displays. (In describing photos of a murder, we are told that they "came out pretty good, considering the amount of red in them"), and there are also a number of rather poetic passages, such as "(she) appeared to live her life as if she were being paid by the tear". While not advertised as a horror novel, this book will be a strong candidate for any awards in that field, if only the necessary people take notice.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Men Rocks!
Review: This is a very good book. The whole zombie thing is very popular lately, but this one has a supernatural type twist to it. It's like '28 Days Later', with just as much gore and violence, but with an actual plot and ending. Well, as much an ending as these books ever have. The romance angle is necessary for this type of book, but he doesn't overplay it. It has enough twists for you to stay involved, without it being really technical and confusing with all the science and virus stuff that's in other books. I'd highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: A Chilling Stand-Alone
Review: This stand-alone thriller combines a chilling thriller with a haunting supernatural tale as modern day evil parallels a 300-year-old massacre on an island off the Maine coastline. It's a break from the Charlie Parker series, although he does make a blink and you'll miss it cameo early on.The island known as Dutch Island to some and Sanctuary to others is home to around 1000 inhabitants. The locals are used to strange events on the island, with unexplainable deaths throughout its history not being particularly rare. Just lately there have been a growing number of these strange events casting a rather uneasy feeling over the island. A couple of the main characters on the island are the memorable policeman and giant Joe Dupree, the rock-steady Dutch Island local who oozes common sense and capability, and the quiet newcomer, Marianne Elliott who is plagued with dark secrets from her past. Both play integral parts in the story and both draw feelings of sympathy from the reader. I thought in their own ways, they were very tragic characters. On the other hand, we follow the progress of a group of cold-blooded killers making their way north. Moloch, their leader has broken out of prison and is tracking down his wife in order to serve his own form of justice for handing him to the police and stealing his money. On their way they leave a shocking trail of bodies, illustrating just how dangerous they are. The tension builds as they near their destination, until it peaks in a devastating confrontation on Dutch Island. I thought this was a well-crafted story that was able to slowly build up the pressure until the final rip-roaring few chapters. Although the ending is rather inevitable, the pleasure lies in it's telling and Connolly has done an excellent job in this department.
Rating:
Summary: And I rarely give five stars.
Review: This will blow you away. A must read book, run, don't walk to get this book in your eager little hands if you haven't read it yet. Tell your likeminded, sensible friends who perhaps might not have discovered this author to do the same.
Rating:
Summary: Trouble is Coming, but Something is Ready and Waiting
Review: Trouble is Coming, but Something is Ready and Waiting Three hundred years ago, white settlers found themselves forced by hostile Indians to flee the mainland and make their home on the inhospitable but unpopulated island they called Sanctuary. They forced one of their own to leave, a vengeful, violent man, who returned to massacre most of the colony. The violence left a mark on the land, if there wasn't something there already. The descendents of those left behind still live on Sanctuary. Today Sanctuary is a calm, peaceful place called Dutch Island, policed by a solitary local cop, a melancholy giant named Joe Dupree, who is over seven feet tall, and one police officer borrowed from the mainland (or Maineland), a probationary rookie, Sharon Macy. Macy doesn't know very much of the island's violent past, Dupree knows all its secrets and its entire haunted history. The story really centers on Marianne Elliot and her young son Danny, who have settled into life on the island. As Marianne becomes drawn to Dupree, secrets from her past start to come out. She'd been married to a monster of a man named Edward Moloch, who treated her cruelly, so before he had a chance to kill her, she dropped a dime on him, took his money and disappeared to Dutch Island. Needless to say, Moloch is going to want revenge and when his hand picked team of rapist, murderers, deviants and child abusers breaks him out of jail, he sees his chance. And about this time many of the islanders start seeing visions, paintings showing figures from the past, strange moths appearing in the evenings and people start to dream of ghosts. There is something bad brewing on the island and Melancholy Joe knows it. Working their way through Marianne's friends, relatives and contacts, they leave a chilling trail of depravity, death and mutilation. The emotionless assassin Shepherd is bad enough, but hot-tempered Tell has a hair-trigger and kills unnecessarily, while the awesomely gorgeous, young Willard does it slowly. Even Moloch, who coldly dominates this awful crew, is unnerved by him. When they reach Sanctuary, a freak snowstorm rages, power and communications fail, and the locals who stand between the hitmen and Marianne are easy prey. And one would think the gentle giant Joe Dupree and his female rookie would be easy to kill, but something else, as we know from Moloch's own dreams, is waiting. This book wasn't a bit like I thought it was going to be, not like the John Connolly I was used to. But I must say, I was captivated, enthralled, enraptured, scared, frightened and terrified all at the same time. And I loved it. What a surprise. What a masterpiece. The second I finished it, I started over. I hardly ever do that.
Rating:
Summary: Good Connolly Read!
Review: Unlike the previous reviewer I found this book tight and exciting. I had no problem with the supernatural element. I also liked the way he held the location consistent with his previous novels without duplicating the Parker novels. The cameo by Parker was also good. Hey, it ain't shakespeare! This is a fast paced, typical book from this awesome writer. Frankly I recommend all 5 of his books and anxiously await his next.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I've Read This Year So Far
Review: Until BAD MEN I had not read a John Connelly book since EVERY DEAD THING, his debut novel. I have no excuse; I liked EVERY DEAD THING and was apparently in good company, since it won the prestigious Shamus Award. But I somehow missed the others, all featuring driven and disturbed private investigator Charlie Parker: DARK HOLLOW, THE KILLING KIND and THE WHITE ROAD. I accordingly was sandbagged when I picked up BAD MEN. Somewhere along the way, Connelly went from a writer with an impressive debut to one of our best in the space of just a few novels. BAD MEN is not a Parker novel. No matter; if you're a fan of Parker you won't be disappointed at his absence, for BAD MEN reads like a collaboration between Dennis Lehane and Stephen King, with Garth Ennis throwing in an occasional farthing. Parker does make two brief appearances that very tangentially tie in to the haunting incidents of BAD MEN, but the protagonist of this brilliant work is Sanctuary, also known as Dutch Island, a dot on the map off the coast of Maine. Sanctuary has a unique history, one that Connelly introduces early on here. The original settlers of Sanctuary were betrayed and slaughtered by enemies led by one of their own. The island took its own revenge, and in the intervening 300 years, things have been quiet, with its inhabitants being a somewhat quirky and, for the most part, harmless assortment of characters. The island, however, is awakening. Joe Dupree is Dutch Island's policeman; nicknamed Melancholy Joe, he stands over seven feet tall and bears his status as a freak with a quiet grace that has earned him the respect of the island people. But Dupree knows the secrets of the island and can sense its awakening in response to the coming of evil. The evil is coming in the form of Ed Moloch, an escaped convict who has assembled a disparate and degenerate crew of personalities for the purpose of bringing down a long simmering and terrifying revenge upon the person responsible for his incarceration. Moloch does not know it, at least not initially, but he is on a collision course with Dutch Island, a place that has been calling to him in his dreams and that he knows intimately, though he has never been there. BAD MEN is written in the omnipresent third person, a literary device that permits Connelly to reveal the thoughts of each of his characters. As a result, the reader is made aware of the nightmarish workings of Moloch's mind, which are not only driven but also infused with pure evil. Willard, one of Moloch's crew, is even more terrifying than Moloch himself. A quiet, almost angelic looking youth, Willard possesses a cruelty and yearning for mayhem made all the more frightening by the casual manner in which he wields it. The element of Willard's persona that is the most terrifying, however, is his relatively ordinary appearance. He's the type of person you might encounter without giving a second glance, believing him, at worst, to be a little odd, perhaps a bit mentally slow, without noting the feral intelligence underneath. Connelly exhibits one of his many literary strengths here, drawing the reader into Willard and Moloch's circle of terror by showing rather than telling the reader where things are going with these two. All that stands in their way is Dupree, a rookie cop and, of course, Sanctuary. Connelly's narrative here is seamless. BAD MEN is not a stream of consciousness tale, yet it reads as if he sat down and wrote it in the midst of a 72-hour fever dream. You will never forget Connelly, BAD MEN or Moloch. And watch out for Willard. God help us all, he's out there too. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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