The Dirty South: A Thriller

John Connolly

Nov 2020 · Charlie Parker Book 18 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

“Mr. Connolly’s slam-bang thriller is studded with memorable characters and boasts cliffhangers within cliffhangers.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Brilliant...Connolly is writing at the top of his game.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

The New York Times bestselling author of A Book of Bones and “one of the best thriller writers we have” (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) goes back to the very beginning of Private Investigator Charlie Parker’s astonishing career with his first terrifying case.

It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young women in Burdon County, Arkansas.

But no one in the Dirty South wants to admit it.

In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. Obsessed with avenging his lost family, his life is about to take a shocking turn.

Witness the dawning of a conscience.

Witness the birth of a hunter.

Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker.

Ratings and reviews

At first, I thought The Dirty South was going to be one of those books I needed to slow down and sip like fine brandy while the ghosts of Shakespeare, Raymond Chandler, and yes, even Agatha Christie, chilled my back. I was wrong. Yes, one can make a case that those authors' influence can be felt in these pages, but only because excellent writing is timeless, a solid plot will out, and a great mystery always follows the rules. The Dirty South is all John Connolly. It is a fast-paced ride through a violent small southern town in 1997 where three women have been found dead in what appears to be identical ritualistic murders. The revelation of so many deaths is not in the best interests at the current time, financially, for most of the pockets in Burdon county, including the wealthy Cade family. Certain wealthy investors are about to decide whether to put their money into Burdon County or to take it somewhere else. The County Sheriff is of those Cades, and the local Chief of Police is not. Meanwhile, Charlie Parker was drifting like a ghost from rumor to rumor, looking for the man who had murdered his wife and daughter. The symbolic nature of the three women’s murders brought Parker into town. A stranger, unwilling to answer questions, he ended up in the local jail. Suddenly, wow, there came a place where it seemed as if the pages were greased, and I was on the slide. Make sure you've cleared your decks first; if you're like me, you won't be able to stop reading when you reach that point. John Connolly knows how to lead you down a gentle garden path only to throw you on a twisty rollercoaster to an exciting end. There was at least one tease that rippled through the book, an unanswered question like a short tantalizing refrain. Since it didn’t pertain specifically to the mystery in this book, I didn’t mind it being left open, but I'll go to the rest of John Connolly's books in a search to find the answer. And I understand, even then, my quest may be in vain. And that will be okay with me. Recommended! The publisher provided my ARC via #NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

Great read

About the author

John Connolly is the author of the #1 internationally bestselling Charlie Parker thrillers series, The Book of Lost Things and its sequel The Land of Lost Things, the Samuel Johnson Trilogy for younger readers, and (with Jennifer Ridyard) the Chronicles of the Invaders series. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at JohnConnollyBooks.com, or follow him on Twitter @JConnollyBooks.