Bad Men [Paperback]

John Connolly writes dark, streetwise thrillers that pull no punches when showing human cruelty. Bad Men blends noir crime with supernatural horror as murderous gangsters invade an island whose ghosts have a special way with bad men.

Dutch Island, once known as Sanctuary, lies off the coast of Connolly's regular stamping-ground, the US state of Maine. A gory prologue relates dreadful doings there in 1693. Now it's a sleepy, only slightly spooky haven, easily policed by a single cop--the literally giant-sized "Melancholy Joe" Dupree--plus a mainland deputy.

Joe knows something of Sanctuary's history and the forces that seem to cleanse it of toxic human elements. Following two deaths in a tragic car crash, the old ghosts seem restless, as though waiting for something. They're waiting for a man called Moloch.

Moloch, amoral and appalling, is doing time as a major criminal organiser. His beautiful, cruelly treated wife Marian took her chance to cut loose before Moloch killed her, betraying him to the police and escaping to Dutch Island with their son, a brand-new identity and a small fortune in cash.

When Moloch's team of picked killers seizes a long-awaited opportunity to free him, reunion with his wife is the next priority. Working their way through her friends, relatives and contacts, they leave a chilling trail of death and mutilation. The emotionless assassin Shepherd is bad enough, but irascible Tell has a hair-trigger temper and kills unnecessarily (eg: a bystander talking too loudly on his mobile phone), while the eerily beautiful young man Willard does it lingeringly and for fun. Even Moloch, who coldly and effortlessly dominates this awful crew, is unnerved by Willard.

When all these (and more) reach Sanctuary, a freak snowstorm rages, power and communications fail, and unknowing locals standing between the hitmen and Marian are easy meat. Two quick bullets should deal with Joe Dupree and his current deputy, a female rookie cop from Portland. But something else, as we know from many portents and Moloch's own dreams, is waiting.

Bad Men is a standalone novel despite the brief, superfluous appearance of Connolly's regular PI character Charles Parker. It's a suspenseful, compelling read, hypnotic in its orchestration of brutality and mayhem; readers are likely to wince frequently and even involuntarily shut their eyes. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Bad Men is thoughtful, dark and absolutely addictive' (Irish Times )

'John Connolly writes like an angel, but about evil men and their diabolical deeds. . . Written with some style and by a man completely at ease with his work, Bad Men is probably John Connolly's best novel yet. It is five-star chill with enough menace to keep the pages turning well into the wee small hours.' (Irish Times )

'Will the film version be directed by John Carpenter or Quentin Tarantino? . . . Connolly spins his gruesome yarn with relish' (Mail on Sunday )

'a unique blend of crime and horror' (Crime Time )

'In the crowded killing fields of crime fiction, John Connolly has quickly and decisively established himself as a unique voice. With BAD MEN he does it again, giving us a powerful story that is dark, daring and original. This one is his best.' (Michael Connelly )

'Think Thomas Harris by way of Stephen King: haunting, compelling, but not for the faint of heart.' (Publishers Weekly )

'Connolly writes like a poet . . . A stylish darkness sucks you under.' (Kirkus Reviews )

'Bad Men is thoughtful, dark and absolutely addictive'

'Will the film version be directed by John Carpenter or Quentin Tarantino? . . . Connolly spins his gruesome yarn with relish'

'Connolly creates those rarest of books – literate and beautifully written page-turners.'

'Think Thomas Harris by way of Stephen King: haunting, compelling, but not for the faint of heart.'

'a unique blend of crime and horror'

'Connolly creates those rarest of books – literate and beautifully written page-turners.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Three hundred years ago, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed by one of their own, and slaughtered. Now a band of killers has returned to Sanctuary to seek revenge on a young woman and her son, and the only people who stand in their way are a young rookie officer and the island's resident policeman, the troubled giant known as Melancholy Joe Dupree. But Joe Dupree is no ordinary policeman. He is the guardian of the island's secrets, the repository of its memories. He knows that Sanctuary has been steeped in violence, and that its ghosts will tolerate the shedding of innocent blood no longer. On Sanctuary, the hunters are about to become the hunted.

John Connolly was born in Dublin in 1968. His debut -EVERY DEAD THING - swiftly launched him right into the front rank of thriller writers, and all his subsequent novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers. He is the first non-American writer to win the US Shamus award.