Ritual of the Stones

John Connolly - The Woman in the Woods

Well I could hardly do a review of all my favourite authors and not include John Connolly could I? John Connolly writes almost the perfect type of novel for me: a gruesome, thriller with an element of the supernatural. The Woman in the woods marks his 16th book in the Charlie Parker series; a series that has not seen a drop off in quality at any point. 

The Blurb:

It is spring, and the semi-preserved body of a young Jewish woman is discovered buried in the Maine woods. It is clear that she gave birth shortly before her death.

But there is no sign of a baby.

Private detective Charlie Parker is engaged by the lawyer Moxie Castin to shadow the police investigation and find the infant, but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in more than a missing child, someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake.

And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring.

For a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman…

Opening Sentence:  The bar was one of the more recent additions to Portland's waterfront, although the term 'recent' was relative given the rapid pace of development in the city.

Days to Read: 27 (😞)

What I like most about this series is Charlie Parker is a feared man but not because of how excellent he is as a detective or how strong, brave and impervious to pain he is (because he is certainly not all of those things). He gains that reputation purely for surviving numerous attempts on his life. It gives him a legendary respect from his enemies, one that he's not even aware of half the time.

In the Woman in the woods Parker is a damaged man he is recovering from his injuries and he is also trying to repair the relationship he has with the police force who no longer trust him and see him as a hindrance rather than a help.

The book introduces Quayle and his mysterious and quite frankly weird female sidekick. Both are in search of the dead woman and missing child as they believe before she died, she had I'm her possession a book of great importance. In terms of plot details it really is that simply, apart from when Louis picks a fight with a local racist Bobby Ocean. Of course with a Connolly novel there are several twists and turns along the way, one of which is Parker trying to tread carefully with the police and thus hindering his usual bullish approach to investigating.

Quayle and his female sidekick are terrific characters they are strange yet at the same time menacingly dangerous; both have the hint of the supernatural about them although it is never explicitly demonstrated. With Quayle you get the sense that he is not just another throw away villain and so it proves. It is inevitable that their paths will cross with Charlie Parker although this does not happen for a long time in the novel and so the tension towards them finally meeting is a terrific undertone running throughout. Quayle is also the only villain I can recall to actually step up and try and make Parker’s life hell. It makes for great reading I can tell you!

Of course it would not be a Charlie Parker novel without his two best friends Angel and Louis. Angel features only fleetingly in this story as he too is seriously ill in hospital. This leads a more fragile and quite frankly lost Louis. He is missed as are the Fulci’s but it does allow Louis to fill more of the stage. We’ve seen glimpses into Louis’ psyche before, but never has he been laid so bare and vulnerable before us. His scenes with Parker are touching and it is refreshing to see this side of the cold blooded killer.

With each novel in the series you get the sense that more and more of the supernatural mystery is being unveiled – most notably who and what is the damn Buried God.

Overall this is a fantastic addition to the series. The ending is a little abrupt and it is clear that this novel more than any other is part of a largely story arc, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that as a standalone this is up there with Connolly’s best.

My rating: 9.3