Rating: 
Summary: Chiller!
Review: Connolly's books are a kind of hybrid: the mystery/horror novel. Every Dead Thing's hero, Charlie Parker, returns in Dark Hollow in pursuit once again of a singular force of death and destruction (with a few peripherhal malevalent forces to be dealt with, as well). Charlie "Bird" Parker, who has nothing whatever to do with his musician namesake, is the adult equivalent of the child in The Sixth Sense (he sees dead people.) It is to the author's credit that the reader is able to take this seriously, primarily because of the oddly lyrical descriptions of the horrors that face the hero at almost every turn. Connolly's continuing theme is of lives and loves lost to horrific violence, and in Dark Hollow he takes us on a wretchedly cold trip through the upper reaches of Maine, in pursuit of Caleb Kyle who may or may not be the mythical, local equivalent of the bogeyman.With the help of his two wonderfully well-conceived sidekicks, Louis and Angel, Bird sets out to accomplish several tasks: to find the missing daughter of a former police officer friend, to locate the missing Billy Purdue (and the millions in payoff money he may have intercepted with the result that quite a number of villains are on his trail), and to find the killer of Billy's estranged wife and son. There are many killings, all linked in some way or another to Caleb Kyle. This is compulsive reading, highly recommended for those not faint of heart.
Rating:
Summary: Are they Really out there???
Review: Connolly's dark imagination takes us on another daring adventure with even more chilling and terrifying characters than he introduced us to in his first book, Every Dead Thing. In this outing he creates fear and tension in the form of Caleb Kyle, a man known as a myth not unlike Kaiser Souse. In a kind of weird Cirle of life this was the same man that Charlie *Bird* Parkers grandfather was obsessed with catching, though he disappeared. Now after all these years New Crimes and New Clues bring bird into the Case and Reawakens something that should have been left asleep. Charlie Parker is back with his friends, Gay Assassin Louis and his Lover Angel.
When an ex-partners daughter goes missing his wife comes to Bird for help, and so begins the hunt for one of the most dangerous individuals ever to grace the pages of a book. With many other stories unfolding throughout like Bird running into an Old Flame of his and Her Husband who just happens to be Dark Hollows Town Sherrif, and is not overly happy to see Bird back in town ( though his wife is ).
Bird's gift (if one could call it that) of seeing dead people also seems to be developing. And we are introduced to two more assassins who just happen to be the sickest, unlikeable people I have ever seen in any book. Needless to say they are also after Bird. From beginning to End, this is a real Nail-Biter and with deaths and twists galore it will have you turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning.
All in all, this is a deserving sequel to " Every Dead thing " and many will say an even better book, and confirms to me that my suspisions were correct, John Connolly is by far the best Irish Author around.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome Book
Review: Dark Hollow is the second best book I have read this year! The Best Book being it's predecessor "Every Dead Thing"! Can't wait until his next book comes out!
Rating:
Summary: Slightly less bloody than his previous effort
Review: Dark Hollow is the second book in a series of detective novels following a particularly interesting character, Charlie "Bird" Parker. Parker's an ex-cop whose wife and daughter were horribly killed. He left the department as a result, and after flirting with alcoholism gave up the bottle. In the aftermath of that, he became a private detective, and these first two books describe what came of that, so far. In this particular story, Parker has moved to his ancestral Maine to live, trying to get away from the city. He's asked by a friend to find her ex-husband, and see if he will cough up some child support, but the money that the ex gives Parker turns out to be connected to a bizarre three-way shootout on a nearby beach that happened a few days before. Someone wound up with two million dollars that the mob thinks is theirs, and they're not going to stop looking for it. Meanwhile, the ex-wife and her toddler son are killed in a bizarre fashion, a pair of crazed hit men show up bent on some strange sort of revenge against Parker, and in the background somewhere there's a ghost from the past, a killer half-spoken of, half unseen for more than thirty years. Add to this mix Parker's two friends, ex-burglar Angel and his gay lover semi-retired hitman Louis, and an old girlfriend of Bird's, and that's just the beginning of the book. Connolly apparently has this as a pattern or style now. These books have murky, dark plots, laden with atmosphere. I think he could make Hawaii look dark and forbidding if he wrote something set there. There's connections to crimes past, interesting characters intermingled in a bewilderingly complex plot, snappy dialog, and a body count that makes the Battle of Stalingrad look like a tea party. I enjoy this sort of thing, and enjoyed this book a great deal. Be warned though: enter at your own risk.
Rating:
Summary: A STUNNING THRILLER
Review: Ex New York City detective, Charlie 'Bird' Parker, has decided to try to put aside the memories of his murdered wife and child that haunt him, and leave the bloodshed of the New York streets. Returning to his childhood hometown of Scarborough, Maine, Charlie believes this will be his chance of making a fresh start...he is wrong. Taking a job of helping a woman get child support payments from her abusive ex-husband, Charlie sees this as an easy assigment, but several days after he confronts the woman's husband, she and her son are found murdered, her with her lips sewn shut. With the murder of his own wife and child on his mind, Charlie takes this case personally, and is determined to find Rita's killer. The obvious suspect is Rita's ex, a violent dead beat, Billy Purdue. As Charlie questions everything surrounding the murders, he finds everyone has something to hide, including the dead woman. Still not convinced Billy is the killer, Charlie delves deeper into the investigation, only to find there is another killer, one whose crimes have gone unsolved, crimes that reach back many years, and may involve his own family. 'Dark Hollow' is a stunning piece of suspense fiction. It manages to dazzle the reader with it's razor sharp plot twists, and at the same time give us a glimpse into the heart of a man facing the demons of his own past. Starting off fast on the first page, readers are given a non-stop read that is dark and gritty - similar to that of Dennis Lehane -. John Connolly has written a tense novel that should land on the bestseller lists, and place him along side other top authors of this genre. A MUST read! Nick Gonnella
Rating:
Summary: Terror in the backwoods of Maine
Review: Ex-NYPD decetive Charlie "Bird" Parker is attempting to recuperate from the brutal slayings of his wife and daugther by escaping to his boyhood home of Scarborough, Maine. As a favor, he agrees to collect some overdue child support money for a friend Rita Ferris. Her estranged husband, the down and out local troublemaker, Billy Purdue, after a physical confrontation with Parker, reluctantly hands over five new 100 dollar bills. After handing over the sorely needed cash, Parker soon learns that Rita Ferris and her young son Donald have both been murdered. Billy Purdue is implicated in the crime. In short order we learn that the remote northern aspect of Maine including the towns of Scarborough and Dark Hollow have become a magnet for murder and mayhem. A delivery of a kidnapping ransom has gone sour resulting in the deaths of one federal agent, four Cambodian nationals, and two wise guys connected to Boston mob boss Tony Celli. An old lady has escaped from a nursing home, assaulted a security guard, stolen his weapon and after a chase into the snowy woods, kills herself. The crimes seem to revolve around Parker and Purdue. When the daughter of a former partner of Parker disappears with her boyfriend when passing through the area, Parker recruits help to investigate. Parker's compadres, the lethal yet introspective assassin Louis and his small time burglar lover Angel travel north to join the inquiry. They discover that Purdue is thought to have absconded with two million dollars of Tony Celli's money. That cache of loot has attracted not only a large crew of Celli's button men but a dangeous two man assassination team. Further investigation points to involvement by a northern Maine bogeyman Caleb Kyle, a serial killer responsible for the kidnapping, dismemberment and killing of five young girls about thirty years ago. Parker's grandfather, also a lawman, pursued Kyle without success at the time of the murders. Connolly creates so many plots and subplots in Dark Hollow yet avoids confusion by neatly tying them into a dark, foreboding expertly written story. He accurately paints a terrifying word picture of the desolate obscure setting where danger lurks behind every turn.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Poetry
Review: Former cop Charlie "Bird" Parker has moved to his childhood home of Scarborough, Maine, when he is hired by Rita Purdue to attempt to get some child support money from her ex-husband, Billy. Billy grudgingly hands over some cash, but very soon thereafer Rita and her small son are found murdered. The police immediately suspect Billy, but Bird just doesn't believe Billy has it in him to have done such a thing and goes after him to find him before the police do. At the same time, some very strange events have occurred in Dark Hollow, Maine, which appear to have some bizarre connection to Billy Purdue. Dark Hollow has a legendary boogeyman named Caleb Kyle, but is he fact or fiction? His gruesome crimes were a case worked on but unsolved by Bird's grandfather. And what possible connection could he have to Billy Purdue? Bird figures he'd better find out pretty quickly when people close to Billy start dying. The chase is complicated by the intervention of thugs also looking for Billy because he stole a case full of ransom money before disappearing. With help from his pals Angel and Lewis, a scary pair in their own right, Bird descends upon Dark Hollow only to find that the chief of police is the husband of a former lover and that he can expect little assistance from local law enforcement. As the hunt for Billy and the elusive and perhaps nonexistent Caleb Kyle intensifies, events converge to forge an unlikely alliance with the reluctant police chief and all hell breaks loose when the gangsters arrive in Dark Hollow. This is an exciting, fast paced novel packed tightly with sheer intensity. Though the subject matter is gritty and graphic, John Connolly's words flow off the pages in a rushing stream of poetry as beguilingly beautiful as it is dangerous.
Rating: 
Summary: Enough is enough
Review: How much gore, blood, sadism, mutilation, sexual perversion, etc, does it take? This is the first book I have read by this author, and it will be the last. I fail to see how this author can be compared with the great mystery writers of the past (and present). He'd be better off developing his character than giving me a history of Maine. If I wanted that, I'd go to a history book. No more for me from this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing
Review: I am probably the only reviewer who rates this novel with 3-stars. I found it very confusing, as I did his previous book, with too many superficial characters and too much "bloody" action. Now, if "goor" is "your thing" then this is a book for you. The author never really develops his main characters which to me is a major flaw. I found it hard to concentrate on who was killing who.. Enough said!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing follow-up to a great beginning
Review: I found myself wondering if I truly wanted to read DARK HOLLOW, the second book by John Connolly featuring Charlie "bird" Parker. After all, how could he possibly write another book as well-crafted and entertaining as EVERY DEAD THING. I thought that maybe I was only going to be disappointed by a "not-so-great follow-up novel". Boy am I glad I was wrong! With DARK HOLLOW, Connoly is once again able to present his nightmare world of flawed heroes, lost souls, and killers reaching mythical status. Parker, still haunted by visions of his wife and child along with a host of other lost souls seeking a reckoning, tries to piece his life back together having barely survived, both physically and mentally, his battle with the Traveling Man, only to be swept into yet another dark maze of madness and murder. This time, the killer is a locally fabled "bogeyman" monster that goes by the name Caleb Kyle. Once again, his faithful sidekicks Angel and Louis are by his side. Mobsters also join in on the fun, as well as a pair of sadistic killers-for-hire, all of whom are hunting a treasure of money. Now that's one heck of a side-plot! As with the first book, the writing is crisp and poignant,at times humorous, and always poetic. The action is fast and plentiful, and the body count again reaches the stratosphere. And if that wasn't enough, Connolly also found time to elaborate more on the nature of Angel and Louis' relationship and loyalty to Parker. Nice touch. But what I found most refreshing about this installment was the sense of peace given to Parker at the end of the novel. After having experienced the guilt and pain of continually being tormented by memories of his lost family in both the first book and this novel, it was touching to finally have Parker possibly at peace with his past. Once again, this book left me truly satiated and very much exhausted, but I can't wait to hear again from this wonderful writer. If nothing at all, DARK HOLLOW has proven that irishman John Connolly is a genuine talent and a pleasure to read. SUPERB!!! CRIME NOVELS DON'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS !!!
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