missing children | Seattle Book Mama

If Stephen King and James Lee Burke had a baby—an unnatural one, of course—it would probably look a lot like John Connolly. Connolly has a genius for creating tales that take place on Earth, and are in most regards realistic, while adding elements of the supernatural that go well beyond magical realism. There’s the mystery, and there’s the horror, and if we’re reading a Charlie Parker mystery, we cannot have one without the other, nor should we.

My tremendous thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the review copy of The Children of Eve, the 22^nd Charlie Parker mystery. This book is for sale now.

The story commences when Charlie is contracted to find and protect a man named Wyatt Riggins, who has disappeared. Riggins has thrown in his lot with some baddies, and may have bitten off more than he can chew. As Charlie—and we—pursue Riggins, we learn of some seriously nasty skullduggery that’s afoot involving international art thieves. Added to the mix are four missing children, believed to have been kidnapped. There’s not a single slow moment as Charlie tracks Riggins, and we see, through the third person omnipotent, the manner in which these thieves have fallen out, and the trail of bodies that are left in their wake. This is grisly business, and not for the squeamish, although I will say that some horror and hardcore detective novels do go places that I can’t, but Parker novels always manage to stay just inside my own boundaries.

Recurring characters Angel and Louis, perennial favorites, return briefly. At one point, Parker has been roughed up and is in the hospital. Angel and Louis have been listed as his next of kin, and they seem unlikely nurturers. While guarding Parker’s room, for instance, Louis amuses himself by making those that pass by him nervous. And when he is discharged on the condition that he not be alone for the next 24 hours, Angel and Louis make the doctor uneasy as well. She asks Parker whether he has “any other friends? Any at all?” I would have loved to see more of these two, but perhaps Connolly is keeping them in the shadows, lest they grow stale. That’s hard to imagine, but no other reason makes sense. I also enjoyed the brief glimpse of the Fulci Brothers, hired (but not brilliant) muscle men that resemble “bears in green leisure suits.”

Perhaps the most disquieting aspect of this novel—scratch that, not “perhaps”—is the development of Connolly’s dead daughter, Jennifer, who has come to him periodically and watches over him. I won’t say anymore about that, but I finished this book 2 days ago, have been reading several other books, and yet I can’t get Jennifer out of my head. For those that love gritty detective novels, and for those that are drawn to things that go bump in the night, this book, and this series is strongly recommended.

Blind Fear is the third book in the red hot series by former Navy Seal Brandon Webb and concert cellist turned author, John David Mann. When the two of them collaborate, the pages jump. My thanks go to Net Galley and Random House for the invitation to read and review; this thriller is for sale now.

In Cold Fear, the second in the series, our protagonist, Finn, is on the run. He’s a SEAL for the U.S. Navy, an elite combat diver, but corrupt elements have framed him for the slaying of his closest team members, and until he can prove his innocence, Finn needs to be invisible.

He’s good at it.

Now he’s moved on from Iceland to Puerto Rico, and he’s been renting a room from Zacharias, an elderly man that supports himself and his two grandchildren by running a café. He works in the café in exchange for room and board. But now there’s trouble; his two grandchildren haven’t come home. Zacharias would go and look for them, but Zacharias is blind.

There’s nobody better at ferreting out secrets than our man Finn, but doing so puts him at risk. He’s deliberately stayed clear of the city because there are so many military people stationed there. The hinterlands have been safe, and until he can come forward with the proof he needs to save himself, the hinterlands are where he belongs.

But then…what about the children?

Like those before it, this is a taut, tense thriller with multiple massive emergencies weaving in and out of one another. We have Finn’s need to avoid discovery yet, find the missing children; now add a serial killer known as El Rucco who’s left grizzly human remains all over the island and a major hurricane, and friend, this is not your bedtime reading material. Read this one sitting up and with the lights on. Just trust me.

Through all of this, Finn also deals with personal baggage that he tries to ignore, but which comes to him in dreams. He has blocked out a large portion of his early life due to trauma, and he has “questions that had hung over him for thirty years like a kettle of vultures.” This is no soap opera and so we see and hear very little of it, but the snippets that intrude during Finn’s unguarded moments heighten the suspense and the reader’s sense of dread.

There are other praiseworthy attributes I could discuss; as we are introduced to the setting, we have brief but meaty passages that serve to inform us about the injustices that are meted out to this lovely but impoverished nation, and the way that the U.S. government has kept its boot on the necks of the people that live there. But all of this remains secondary to the story itself, and the focus is tightly maintained. The research is meticulous, and the organization is stellar. The development of the protagonist is outstanding; the secondary characters, particularly Zacharias and the older grandchild, Pedro, are visceral and memorable, and I would be delighted to see them again.

Highly recommended to all that enjoy a true thriller.