Rating: 
Summary: A highly suspenseful hard edged thriller
Review: Private Detective Charlie Parker, once again, is faced with a life-threatening situation. Aaron Faulkner, a fanatical preacher, is in prison under suspicion for the murders committed by his son and daughter (well documented in THE KILLING KIND). He is very likely to get out of prison on bail. Faulkner makes it well known to Parker that he will come after Parker's pregnant lover as soon as he is out. There appears to be little that could be done to legally keep Faulkner in prison. Meanwhile, Parker receives a call from a friend in South Carolina who is defending a young black man accused of raping and killing a young and wealthy white girl. He will almost certainly be convicted and killed unless his innocence is proven. Parker decides to help his friend out with the case. Unfortunately, Parker is now faced with an angry community-- especially the white supremists. Yet in the swamps appears the spectral figure of a woman who might very well be enacting a revenge all her own. Parker must get to the bottom of it. Once again, John Connolly has written a highly suspenseful hard-edged thriller examining the depths of pure evil. Major characters are haunted by the past and are quite unforgettable. The American South tends to play a major part of the work of this Irish writer. It is a mysterious and quite dangerous place as it is depicted in the books of John Connolly. He fills the swamps of South Carolina and Louisiana with a dark beauty that is almost reminiscent of James Lee Burke. However, the writing style is all his own. This is easily one of my favorite series and one that can be read not only for the compelling plot but also for the beauty of the writing.
Rating: 
Summary: The White Road
Review: See book summary above. This is John Connolly's fourth novel. It's also his best.
He brings some memorable characters back from his previous novel and makes them even more memorable. You become engulfed in the story all the way to its exciting conclusion. Top notch entertainment. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: exhilarating Parker tale
Review: South Carolina lawyer Elliot Norton calls his pal Charlie Parker to help him with a case in which his client a black man has been accused of murdering his white girlfriend, the daughter of wealthy powerful parents. Charlie would like to help his friend, but is concerned about leaving his pregnant girlfriend Rachel alone. He fears that their enemy Reverend Aaron Faulkner will retaliate for the deaths of his murderous son and daughter though he is standing trial for killing his congregation members and other people. Charlie reluctantly travels to South Carolina, but arranges for Rachel's protection while he is away. In the South, Charlie becomes involved in a world where hatred is the norm and the pretrial may prove deadly for the defense team. Though perilous, Charlie investigates the case that leads him to several other murders and a trip to hell down THE WHITE ROAD coaxed by a malevolence beyond anything he ever faced before even while evil stalks Rachel back in Maine. John Connolly provides an exhilarating Parker tale as the audience receives more than an investigative novel. Readers obtain a taste of the historical South cleverly interwoven into the drama as well as a powerful crime story occurring in two states. Parker is at his best as he tries to solve a mystery, stay alive, keep his friend and client safe, and struggle with being in two places at the same time in order to insure no harm comes to his beloved. Readers will want to travel THE WHITE ROAD and when attaining the final destination will look for previous Parker treks (see THE KILLING KIND). Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Terrific tale of Deep South tragedy
Review: The enormously talented John Connolly once again strikes gold in his latest revival of his sensitve but flawed protagonist, private investigator, Charlie Parker. Parker is currently cohabiting with his pregnant girlfriend Rachel in his home town of Scarborough, Maine. He receives an impassioned phone call from a previous acquaintance Elliot Norton. Norton was a lawyer and assistant DA when Parker was on the NYPD. Norton begs Parker to come down to South Carolina where he is defending a young black man accused of murder. Unfortunately the victim Marianne Larousse was the young daughter of Earl Larousse head of a wealthy old blue blooded Southern aristocratic former slave owning family. In short the young black man Atys Jones was already convicted prior to the trial. Against his better judgement Parker departs for South Carolina. Parker who is very compassionate to victims of crime, has the gift of the ability to sense the dead and departed. His investigation leads him to uncover ancient crimes thought to be buried deep in the Congaree swamps of South Carolina. He also crosses paths with crazed Neo Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan who try to free the deranged Reverend Aaron Faulkner, villain of Connolly's The Killing Kind. Parker is again ably aided by his friends, the gay criminal team of Louis and Angel. Connolly is without question one of the top young mystery and suspense writers on the scene today. His next offering is eagerly awaited.
Rating:
Summary: White road, black destination
Review: The racial double entendre couldn't have been lost on John Connolly, surely one of the most talented new voices to come out in the last four years since fellow British scribe Boris Starling. And it is racial relations that the always-savvy and canny Connolly explores in this book that is reminiscent of Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and Grisham's A TIME TO KILL.
No one is perfect and writing great books takes craft as well as skill. However, I believe that John Connolly's almost invisible hubris will never allow him to write a bad novel and THE WHITE ROAD never gave me the impression that he had written it to keep the series going. We're treated to some welcome backstory regarding Angel and Louis, including how they met, and a story told by Louis to Charlie Parker in THE KILLING KIND becomes the basis for the beginning of the book.
However, that's where Connolly's narrative falters. The burning alive of a black man in the 60's does not seem to have any bearing on the main story, which is about a young African-American man charged with the murder of a wealthy white girl. Another thing that does not fit is the paranormal child prostitute who appears a few times and disappears into a car.
But these seeming anomalies notwithstanding, Connolly gives us another Parker mystery that for once doesn't give us a fascinating and ingeniously flawed serial killer like Mr. Pudd, the Traveling Man or Caleb Kyle. Hunchbacked Cyrus Nairn could've proved to be a much more fascinating character than Connolly actually made him but he's creepy enough and the Rev. Faulkner makes an all-too sparing but welcome return.
Reminiscent of THE CHAMBER and Troy Soos's HANGING CURVE, Connolly embroils his detective in a battle of wits with the KKK and the usual assortment of physically deformed henchmen. His humor is as biting as ever (his brief but bullseye take on Fred Durst is priceless and is alone worth the cost of the hard cover).
The plot anomalies are easily overcome by the usual vivid characterization, dialogue and attention to detail in all things that sets Connolly head and shoulders above all but two or three of his peers in the mystery genre.
Rating:
Summary: John Connolly at his best
Review: The White Road is a novel about private detective Charlie Parker.
This time around Charlie is on a case in the deep south, with all the racial overtones included.
Charlie agree's to help an old friend defending a black man accused of raping and killing the daughter of the richest and most powereful man in South Carolina.
This book starts off dark and brooding and Mr. Connolly makes you care about his character's in their search to find the truth.
Rating:
Summary: A Creepy Thriller
Review: This book is the first work I have read of John Connolly. It has a certain southern gothic feel to it. Charlie Parker is called by a friend to assist him in a case involving the murder of a daughter of a rich South Carolinian. As he investigates, he finds a connection between the current case and a group of men that have been friends for life. Add in a plot that ties into Connolly's previous work and some ghostly occurences and you have the making of an entertaining but creepy novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Creepy Thriller
Review: This book is the first work I have read of John Connolly. It has a certain southern gothic feel to it. Charlie Parker is called by a friend to assist him in a case involving the murder of a daughter of a rich South Carolinian. As he investigates, he finds a connection between the current case and a group of men that have been friends for life. Add in a plot that ties into Connolly's previous work and some ghostly occurences and you have the making of an entertaining but creepy novel.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: This fourth in the Charlie Parker series has all the evil characters we've come to expect from a Parker outing, as well as an enormous amount of historical (both real and fictional) background on racial abuses in the south. While the writing is lyrical and the characters are fully fleshed, The White Road doesn't have quite the power of the previous books. The plot hinges on a motive (which I will not give away) that didn't ring true or believable to me for bringing Parker into the case of Atys Jones's forthcoming murder trial. There's plenty of activity in swampy settings; Louis and Angel come to the forefront this time out. And there's enough torture, gore, murder and mayhem to satisfy readers who've come to expect a thoroughly disturbing adventure from Connolly. The glue that is intended to hold the plot together is a little thin, leaving cracks and gaps in the whole. Entertaining but not quite up to the very high standard the author has set with his previous books.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing. Beautiful. Scary. Dark. Excellent.
Review: This is a six or seven star book. It is beautifully written with descriptions heretofore the province of James Lee Burke or James Dickey. John Connolly, a new read for me, has a style that's almost musical. His writing occasionally transcends the dimension of the word. The above mentioned Burke (through his character Dave Robiceaux)writes of his prayers for the dead, 'that God is not limited by time or space' so he hopes that God will alleviate some of their suffering. And Connolly visits the killing field of a young girl and prays over the site of her 'murder most foul,' telling her that he may not know her and had he, he quite possibly wouldn't have liked her. But he promises her justice and retribution. If you recollect some of the scary novels of Steven King when he was in his prime like "The Shining" or "The Stand," and you combine that with some of the intricacy of Dennis Lehane along with the prose of Burke, you're getting close to what John Connolly is all about. My personal feelings are that there might be too much time spent on the near mystical qualities of certain characters or events. If an author wants to give us some historical data about the characters or plot but of course he or she's writing a novel so they can't use a footnote, an occasional italicized paragraph is not distracting. Mr. Connolly sometimes goes on and on for pages. Too much for me but that's personal taste and doesn't distract one from an excellent read. Charlie Parker, the emotionally beaten ex-NYPD cop, leaves his home in Maine to help a friend in the South. He runs into one twist after another involving Klan racism and murder, unresolved issues of class struggle and the nazi-like right wing movement. This may all be the same bugaboo but Connolly delineates it well. Parker is helped by his girlfriend whom readers will discover is neither squeamish nor shy but a woman of action. You'll forget Susan in the Spenser series or virtually all of the other femme de guerre. And likewise he's helped by the odd couple, kind of a "the right thing at any price" with a touch of psychosis, Louis and Angel. They're not Felix and Oscar. Which leads me to my second criticism. This really is a book for which the reader should have some background. So don't be like me and ignore other reviews. At least read "The Killing Kind" first, the previous book (but Connolly has only written three earlier books so read them all!) "The Killing Kind" will introduce you to some of the characters and you will better comprehend certain references that my first time through left me in the dark. It's always enjoyable to find a new author. Excellent read.
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