The Black Angel [Paperback]

With The Black Angel, John Connolly takes his Charlie Parker series a step further away from the conventional serial killer thriller and over the border into supernatural horror--which, in fairness, is where these extraordinary books have been heading from the beginning. The question of why and how so many bad people find their way into Parker's orbit has always been lurking in the background of his novels; why so many ghosts of victims point him the way to vengeful justice and why so good a man is so fond of his killer for hire friends Louis and Angel. Many writers would just leave these as givens, but Connolly has too much integrity for that.

The search for Louis' junkie whore cousin, and her abductors, leads the trio ever further into darkness. They have fought evil obsessives before, but none as bad as the Believers, a group obsessed with fallen angels and with the strange sculpted objects men have made from human bones. This time at least there is a possibility that what the Believers believe is true, both what they believe about the world and what they believe about Parker--this is a book which ought to be insane and ludicrous and is in fact chilling. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Connolly has virtually no match when it comes to chilling his readers.' (Daily Express )

'Colourful but visceral grand guignol, and definitely not to be read at night.' (Guardian )

'A Gothic horror story and a well-paced thriller. John Connolly writes beautifully ... and his violent set pieces are satisfyingly exciting and vibrantly realised.' (Myles McWeeney, Irish Independent )

'Stylishly literate gore and terror' (Kirkus Reviews )

'There is a precision to the horrors that make them one of the few sequences to have found anything interesting to say about serial killers since Thomas Harris.' (Independent )

'Dark and powerful yet beautifully written' (Big Issue )

'Great narrative talent packed with vivid scenes and sequences. An impressive feat of storytelling' (Irish Times Weekend Review )

'Satisfying and literate thrill ride' (Evening Herald (Dublin) )

'John Connolly has taken his serial hero and changed him from an ex-cop turned private eye to a supernatural detective whose own ancestry is as murky as it is fascinating. It's another bestseller of course.' (Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday )

'One to keep you up at night' (Tangled Web )

'Private detective Charlie Parker chases strung out prostitutes and ossuary-building killers in a page-turner that harks back to the fall of the rebel angels.. The action stays both speedy and gruesome' (Time Out )

'This is not just a powerful thriller, it's also a titanic battle between the forces of good and evil, with religion and the supernatural stirred into the brew. . . his most operatically large scale book yet.'

(Crime Time )

'If all the Old Testament mumbo-jumbo recalls The Da Vinci Code, The Black Angel is still five times as suspenseful and at least ten times as compelling.'

(Kevin Sweeney, Irish Times )

'The master of supernatural sleuthery'

(The Times )

'Connolly has virtually no match when it comes to chilling his readers.' -- Daily Express 'Colourful but visceral grand guignol, and definitely not to be read at night.' -- Guardian 'A Gothic horror story and a well-paced thriller. John Connolly writes beautifully ... and his violent set pieces are satisfyingly exciting and vibrantly realised.' -- Myles McWeeney, Irish Independent 'Stylishly literate gore and terror' -- Kirkus Reviews 'There is a precision to the horrors that make them one of the few sequences to have found anything interesting to say about serial killers since Thomas Harris.' -- Independent 'Dark and powerful yet beautifully written' -- Big Issue 'Great narrative talent packed with vivid scenes and sequences. An impressive feat of storytelling' -- Irish Times Weekend Review 'Satisfying and literate thrill ride' -- Evening Herald (Dublin) 'John Connolly has taken his serial hero and changed him from an ex-cop turned private eye to a supernatural detective whose own ancestry is as murky as it is fascinating. It's another bestseller of course.' -- Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday 'One to keep you up at night' -- Tangled Web 'Private detective Charlie Parker chases strung out prostitutes and ossuary-building killers in a page-turner that harks back to the fall of the rebel angels. The action stays both speedy and gruesome' -- Time Out 'This is not just a powerful thriller, it's also a titanic battle between the forces of good and evil, with religion and the supernatural stirred into the brew... his most operatically large scale book yet.' -- Crime Time 'If all the Old Testament mumbo-jumbo recalls The Da Vinci Code, The Black Angel is still five times as suspenseful and at least ten times as compelling.' -- Kevin Sweeney, Irish Times 'The master of supernatural sleuthery' -- The Times --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'Dark and powerful yet beautifully written' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Black Angel is not an object. The Black Angel is not a myth. The Black Angel lives.

A young woman goes missing from the streets of New York. Those who have taken her believe that nobody cares about her, and that no one will come looking for her. They are wrong. She is 'blood' to the killer Louis, the man who stands at the right hand of private detective Charlie Parker, and Louis will tear apart anyone who stands in the way of his attempts to find her.

But as Louis's violent search progresses, Parker comes to realize that the disappearance is part of an older mystery, one that is linked to an ornate church of bones in Eastern Europe, to the slaughter at a French monastery in 1944, and to the quest for a mythical prize that has been sought for centuries by evil men: the Black Angel.

Yet the Black Angel is more than a myth. It is conscious. It dreams. It is alive.

And men are not the only creatures that seek it . . .

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.