Rating: 
Summary: Not enough to hold my attention..
Review: I would definately have to agree with one of the reviews already written. The opening of this thriller is superb, but after that the plot jumps around too much and there are too many characters introduced. I really couldn't get into this 'thriller' at all. By 1/4 into the book, I really didn't care who the Travelling Man was or what else he had done.If you are after brilliant thrillers, try Dennis Lehane or James Patterson ( I read 2 of their books in one sitting) while still trying to read Every Dead Thing, hoping it would get better..it didn't.
Rating: 
Summary: A Formula Plot - Patterned after Silence of the Lambs
Review: Ultimately, disappointing. Connolly has an adequate storyline (in fact, two separate stories), but his numerous characters are not well developed and are usually transformed into "works of art" rather quickly. Less gore and a more in-depth exploration of his characters and their psychology, particularly "Travellin Man", might have made this book a winner. By the end I really didn't care "who dunnit."
Rating: 
Summary: This guy is sick!
Review: This guy should be locked up! Anyone who can write such horrid, sickening, perverted gore, is a scarey dude. I'm so tired of folks writing about such extreme bloody violence anyhow, but thisguy really takes it too far. There should be some limits as to what you describe being done to children, and women.
Rating: 
Summary: Over the top!
Review: Every action/serial killer cliche you can think of finds a place in Connolly's book. At times, I even laughed aloud. However, I couldn't put the thing down! Connolly creates a visual atmosphere that is both sickening and engrossing. I will definitely buy and read his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Most Promising Start
Review: John Connelly may have what it takes to bring a fresh, new writing style to a genre that desperately needs it. The bottom line is that Connolly is good -- damned good -- when it comes to the pure beauty of writing style. Most suspense novelists hack at their prose as if they were wielding a machete and trying to clear a jungle. Connolly, however, has a great ear for the rhythm of the sentence and the even greater rhythm of paragraphs set alight in a dark ocean to frighten, shock and confound us. So, why not five stars? Because Connelly needs to follow through on his inclination to experiment with the suspense genre, particularly in terms of characterization, plot and theme. Ultimately, the body count in this novel is way too high and undercuts whatever fear and outrage we may feel at the killings committed by the Travelling Man. Instead of a single, demonic force striking here and there in an otherwise normal world, we get mayhem wholesale at every turn and it becomes difficult to draw much distinction between the Travelling Man's work and the background noise of other murderers at play in an indifferently murderous world. I was most disappointed with the Travelling Man. Connolly telegraphs his true identity and saddles him with a perfectly ludicrous psychological motive for committing his brutal crimes ("The metaphysical poets made me do it!"). The killer has no depth, no malice, no sense of thrill when the game's afoot. Hannibal Lector made an indelible imprint on the popular mind because he played his murderous rage as a game with his captors. We knew how devious and dangerous he was and part of the horror was watching how his machinations unfolded in plain view. He's the kind of guy we'd like to see take on Richard in the television series, "Survivor." We get none of this with the Travelling Man, who ultimately comes off with the psychological depth of a college freshman drunk on his first exposure to "Ulysses." Bitter roots bear strange fruit. Since the Travelling Man has no context, no scary history (unlike the good Dr. Lector), he's pretty much reduced to standing in the wings and chewing the scenery the few times he is allowed on-stage. Thomas Harris seems ill-suited to continue working in the suspense genre, so John Connolly has come along at a very fortuitous time. A writer of his caliber should do very well, both in popular and artistic terms, in this genre. But first, he'll have to cast off the crutches of convention and re-cast his fictional world and the people who inhabit it in a new moral light. "Every Dead Thing" is one hell of a step in the right direction. Let's hope Connolly takes a few more.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent first book
Review: An impressive, page-turning debut book. Well-researched by a journalist from foreign shores who one would imagine would be more at home writing about Ireland, the IRA and the "troubles." I was slightly disappointed that I guessed 'whodunit' but there were enough twists and turns to make me want to keep reading through the night.
Rating:
Summary: Smashing!
Review: If you're looking for a roller-coaster ride of a page-turning thriller, read this book! I picked it up and could not put it down! The story line of two different serial killers is intriguing and leaves the reader in suspense. I am on pins and needles waiting for John Connolly's next book.
Rating:
Summary: Every Dead Thing
Review: Wonderful characters, exciting twists, and kept me on the edge of my seat to the end.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful writing, too many dead bodies
Review: Connolly writes wonderfully and he has a great sense of place, particularly for someone who wasn't born in this country. But it all gets too gruesome. He starts with one serial killer, switches to another, and more or less telegraphs the perp (I had a pretty good sense of whodunit in the second half of the book.) Still, a very good read and worth your time if you can take the blood and gore.
Rating:
Summary: Gruesome but captivating
Review: Like some other reader-reviewers, I found EVERY DEAD THING gruesome in the extreme, but the writing is gorgeous, the characters are vividly real, and I never once wanted to stop reading. Connolly gives depth and resonance to Charlie "Bird" Parker's torment and his search for the killer of his wife and child. Not for the faint of heart (or stomach), and the body count is excessive even for a serial killer novel. But whatever Connolly writes in the future, I will buy in hardcover. This is a spectacularly gifted writer.
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