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The White Road
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
John Connolly's harrowing Charlie Parker adventures continue in The White Road, a bleak modern gothic tale detailing the tortured detective's metaphorical journey into the unthought of depths of the underworld as he follows a trail of horrors in America's deep South. Doggedly loyal to old friends and stubbornly supportive of lost causes, Parker encounters his own ghosts in a place where atmosphere alone would murder hope. The chilling preacher Faulkner is again a dark presence in the background while Parker's friends, Angel and Louis, damaged and deadly, follow their own avenging trail. There can be no greater compliment to Connolly's powers of description than to say that no US writer could improve on the Irish journalist's masterly summoning of the roots of American regional evil and sense of place. Superb storytelling that binds diverse and hypnotic strands of plot with Biblical overtones and fury. The villains are larger than life and diabolically unforgettable: from the strange and menacing Mr Kittim to deformed killer Cyrus Nairn, both of whom lead Parker down one shadowy road after another. Compelling adventures from start to finish, if the very stuff of waking nightmares. The dark side has never proven so damn seductive. --Maxim Jakubowski
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'One of the most distinguished practitioners of US crime-writing. The book synthesises literate, poetic writing with scarifying grue.' (Independent )
'Connolly has honed the private eye's instincts into a sensibility of palpable evil that makes a strong core to this intelligent thriller. An assured, sophisticated tale . . . exciting but bittersweet.' (The Times )
'What makes Parker intriguing is precisely that, though a crusader against evil, he has a dark side: he is haunted by the past, his capacity for violence and guilt.' (Telegraph Magazine )
. . . his imagination is undeniably fertile . . . a powerful piece of American gothic with an arresting double ending.' (The Sunday Times )
'One of the fastest-paced and most complex thrillers . . . A cracking read from an excellent and highly original writer. . . pacy, blackly humorous and with a nasty edge.' (Sunday Independent, Dublin )
'Dark, menacing, yet at times almost poetic, The White Road enthrals . . . literate, yet fast-paced' (Cambridgeshire Journal )
'A wonderfully written literary work . . . A must read for Parker fans, and fans of well written prose. (Deadly Pleasures )
'Consummate crime writing and chilling suspense' (Crime File )
'Another masterpiece' (Belfast Telegraph )
'Connolly has honed the private eye's instincts into a sensibility of palpable evil that makes a strong core to this intelligent thriller. An assured, sophisticated tale . . . exciting but bittersweet.' (The Times )
'What makes Parker intriguing is precisely that, though a crusader against evil, he has a dark side: he is haunted by the past, his capacity for violence and guilt.' (Telegraph Magazine )
. . . his imagination is undeniably fertile . . . a powerful piece of American gothic with an arresting double ending.' (The Sunday Times )
'One of the fastest-paced and most complex thrillers . . . A cracking read from an excellent and highly original writer. . . pacy, blackly humorous and with a nasty edge.' (Sunday Independent, Dublin )
'Dark, menacing, yet at times almost poetic, The White Road enthrals . . . literate, yet fast-paced' (Cambridgeshire Journal )
'A wonderfully written literary work . . . A must read for Parker fans, and fans of well written prose. (Deadly Pleasures )
'Consummate crime writing and chilling suspense' (Crime File )
'Another masterpiece' (Belfast Telegraph )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I love this series!! And after devouring last year's The Killing Kind, I couldn't wait to read more Charlie Parker. I was not disapointed.
Charlie is asked to come to South Carolina to help an old friend with a case. The old friend being a lawyer, defending a young black man charged with murder.
The book brings the past into the present, tying threads of various lives together through a common thread revolving around the racism of the old south. As usual, things seem to escalate quickly around Charlie. To add to the tornado of events is a figure from the past looming in the background.
Angel,Louis,and Rachel are all along for this ride. And What a ride it is! I finished it in one sitting. Fast pacing and wonderful characters and an uncanny insight into human nature help make this a terrific book.
Jon Jordan
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read three of the other Charlie "Bird" Parker series, I pretty much knew what to expect from "The White Road". John Connolly obviously has the ability to write good narrative stories, but i feel he always makes the same mistakes. "The White road" is roughly a hundred pages too long and he introduces so many redundant characters and subplots that the story feels over-padded with material. In this novel he takes great pains to describe to the reader events that entwine the characters which ultimately are totally unnecessary as they have no bearing on the denouement at all.
It seems as if Connolly cant make up his mind whether he wants to write ghost stories or crime thrillers. When I finally arrived at the wrap up of this story where all is explained, I couldnt believe that it had taken five hundred pages to get to what is essentially a pretty straightforward resolution. Most of what is laid out in the lead up is irrelevant and the flipping back and forth between characters and delving into their pasts, just wasnt needed.
There is clearly some talent in this writer and if perhaps he studied his namesake "Michael Connelly" to learn about the proper pacing and character development of a story, he might turn out something really good. It would also be quite a novelty to read one of his stories where a few characters other than Bird, Louis and Angel dont get killed !
It seems as if Connolly cant make up his mind whether he wants to write ghost stories or crime thrillers. When I finally arrived at the wrap up of this story where all is explained, I couldnt believe that it had taken five hundred pages to get to what is essentially a pretty straightforward resolution. Most of what is laid out in the lead up is irrelevant and the flipping back and forth between characters and delving into their pasts, just wasnt needed.
There is clearly some talent in this writer and if perhaps he studied his namesake "Michael Connelly" to learn about the proper pacing and character development of a story, he might turn out something really good. It would also be quite a novelty to read one of his stories where a few characters other than Bird, Louis and Angel dont get killed !
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the best of the four. Every Dead Thing was a good read, but overcomplicated with too many characters and plots. Dark Hollow was much better. ANd even that warranted five stars. Then came The Killing Kind which was stupendously excellent. The best thriller of 2001. Even better than Dark Hollow. But now comes The White Road. And it's even better.
John Connolly's prose is simply wonderful. It is superbly lyrical, and his descriptions are superbs. I was in awe when he described a world as being "painted on glass". He has many sentences like that, which stop you in your tracks and make you realise how truly [darkly] beautiful his writing is.
Charlie Parker is back, and fighting for his life, and taht of his wife. the demonic preacher Faulkner is out for revenge, at the same as Parker is investigating the rape of the young daughter of the wealthy Earl Larousse. Accused is her black boyfriend, Atys Jones. But deep in the swamps something lurks...something connected to a long ago crime, and it wants vengeance...
This is a stunning novel. The darkness of it is haunting, and its complexity astounding, but JOhn COnnolly manages to tell you the tale in an easy to undderstand way.
It is truly chilling. The way Connolly blends subtle elements of horror in with a crime novel is awe-inspiring. And with this book he has created his most dark plot yet, yet it seems to contain a tiny snub of light shining through at points. At times the darkness becomes too much, and the light disappears as if gone forever, but at others, it reappears, burning brightly anew, and you can hold out some hope for Charlie Parker and his quest.
I cannot praise this novel highly enough. The resolution, and the way in which it is all brough together is brilliant, and the final solution shocking.
Connolly, with this book and the last created possibly the most chilling villain in the religious fanatic Reverend Aaron Faulkner, and in this book he is even more chilling than before. He simply oozes evil. This time, he is out to get Parker, and he is going to use killer Cyrus Nairn, recently released from the wing of his prison, to execute that revenge. It is a truly chilling book, with a wonderful plot, and a colourful cast of characters, including Angel and Louis, who are back in full force. This time we learn a little about why they are who they are.
From the excellent prologue to the epilogue this book is a sucess on every level. Connolly just gets better and better. If you haven't read him yet, you're missing out.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
excellent early work
The White Road is one of Connolly's earlier works which are all excellent. I re-read his entire backlist just before Christmas and, although not my favourite Charlie Parker novel,... Read more
Published 4 months ago by K. Floyd
Mediocrity
With so many fine crime writers now at work - as well as some poor ones - this is lower division stuff. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bluecashmere.
Charlie Parker goes to South Carolina USA......
Dublin-based John Connolly gives his private detective Charlie Parker a little peace after his last adventure in the woods of northern Maine in THE KILLING KIND. Read more
Published 5 months ago by janebbooks
Charlie Parker rides again!
Characters overlap from The Killing Kind and Charlie Parker has unfinished business. Loose ends are tied up and the reader gains some satisfaction from the fact that old... Read more
Published 18 months ago by DMA45
Another bloody corpse? Throw it in here
My one reservation in assessing how many stars to award was a sense of having joined a sequence at half-way, inadequately equipped for the 500 pages ahead. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2010 by G. M. Sinstadt
Good book
Great book if you are a fan of Connolly's other books, or of thrillers in general.
Published on 4 Feb 2009 by Axel Holthe Barco Baron
Parker is back.
Another sinister tale that follows PI Charlie Parker who goes to help an old friend working on the case of a young black man accused of murdering a wealthy white female in... Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2008 by R. Ward
Charlie Gets the Bird
John Connolly was born in Dublin in 1968, and saw his first book - "Every Dead Thing" - published in 1999. Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2008 by Craobh Rua
...a bit disappointing
I have read all of the Charlie Parker series, and even though I finished the book in a couple of days, it left me feeling a bit disappointed. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2007 by J. Andersen
Poetic prose and relentless murder
It has taken four attempts, but now I am convinced that John Connolly is the real thing, a writer of extraordinary talent and one who will have you humming the tunes to his... Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2006 by OEJ
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