Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Mystery

Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Mystery: "'Oh, little one,' he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in 15 years. What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?" In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times best-selling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods - drugs, cash, weapons, even people - are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil. The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can't know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts. As the smugglers begin to die, one after another, in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other - the killer known as the Collector.

"Connolly displays a real knack for fusing the detective and horror genres, providing a rational chain of evidence and deduction for the plot while simultaneously creating a real atmosphere of numinous dread that reminds us that mystery can refer to more than a mundane tale of crime and human justice." (Publishers Weekly)

• Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Mystery (Unabridged) - Digital Download

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  Publish Date

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  Narrator

  Holter Graham

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  Product Description / Editorial Review

  "'Oh, little one,' he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in 15 years. What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?" In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times best-selling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods - drugs, cash, weapons, even people - are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil.The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can't know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts. As the smugglers begin to die, one after another, in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other - the killer known as the Collector. — Source: Audible

  

• Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Mystery (Unabridged) - iTunes Audiobook

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  Publish Date

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  Product Description / Editorial Review

  "'Oh, little one,' he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in 15 years. What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?" In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times best-selling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods - drugs, cash, weapons, even people - are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil. The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can't know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts. As the smugglers begin to die, one after another, in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other - the killer known as the Collector.
  
  "Connolly displays a real knack for fusing the detective and horror genres, providing a rational chain of evidence and deduction for the plot while simultaneously creating a real atmosphere of numinous dread that reminds us that mystery can refer to more than a mundane tale of crime and human justice." (Publishers Weekly) — Source: Apple iTunes Store

  Customer Reviews

  The Whispers: A Charlie Parker Thriller

  When I purchased this book I did not know that the main character, Charlie Parker, was a returning character in many of John Connolly's books. This is my first John Connolly book. I loved it! Makes me want to read more about Charlie Parker's adventures. Since I have never given a book review, I won't attempt to go into depth here. I just want to say that if you're at all interested in a fun, fast paced crime/drama, you can't help but love this complicated yet brilliant story. I love the religious aspect mingled in with a healthy smattering of murder and intrigue. I fell in love with Charlie.

  Rating: 5
  Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Mystery (Unabridged) review by Shirrelie goober, 2010-08-17

  

• The Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Thriller - Hardcover

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  $26.00 $17.13 (34% Off) Buy from Amazon.com
  (as of 2010-09-04 7:00 PDT)

  Rating

  4.0 (22 reviews)

  Publisher

  Atria

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  Format

  Hardcover

  Publish Date

  Jul 13, 2010

  Sales Rank

  10983

  ISBN

  143916519X

  ISBN-13

  9781439165195

  Edition

  1

  Pages

  416

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  Product Description / Editorial Review

  “‘Oh, little one,’ he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in fifteen years. ‘What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?’ ” In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods—drugs, cash, weapons, even people—are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil.The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can’t know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men’s hearts. As the smugglers begin to die one after another in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers’ actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector. . . . — Source: Amazon

  Customer Reviews

  A good horror book

  John Connolly's "The Whisperers" is the 8th book in the Charlie Parker series. This book is set after the events of "The Lovers". Charlie Parker is content with his life and has regained his private eye license. He is a bit disillusioned by his encounters with his past and the Lovers who were hunting him in last year's book.
  
  He takes a case which has been offered to him by Bennett Patchett who wants him to investigate a trucker, Joel Tobias who is also dating Karen Emory, an employee of Patchett. Joel seems to have lots of cash in spite of his modest working conditions. Charlie's investigations seem to reveal a man who has suspicious origins and even more suspicious job details. Also fueling his investigations is the fact that Bennett Patchett's son Damien committed suicide, and even more curious was his association with Joel Tobias as they shared the same unit in Iraq.
  
  Similarly on this lead is another person who goes by the name of Herod and who is also searching for something which has been stolen from him. Their paths are meant to collide however before that is to happen. There's also the enigmatic re-appearance of the Collector whose intent is still unknown. However he continues on his own purposes to "collect" items from his selected targets. Charlie tries to follow Joel and is partially successful. Before he can make any new moves he is targeted by people who mistake his intent, leading to one of the most harrowing scenes written by Connolly. This begins a brutal chase of an item which also had caught Herod's eye and who seems to want it more than anyone else.His search is also aided by a particular figure known to him as the Captain, who also shares an active interest in Parker. Amidst all these tangled threads lies the plot of the Whisperers.
  
  John Connolly has chosen to weave two elements: The trauma of war veterans with smuggling of various items. Connolly has done an excellent job with these elements in particular, the very vulnerable picture of these soldiers. The other element that of smuggling of items, is done through the introduction of a lost Sumerian artifact which the title of this story focuses upon. This new introduction of artifacts was done in an effort to give a more mystical/horror edge to the stories. While both elements worked from a writing standpoint and both worked as separate elements their fusion do not come across as smoothly as Connolly would have envisaged.
  
  As a fan of Connolly's books I was enthralled by the book up until the very end. However, enthralling this book was it did not reach the high standards that I have come to expect after reading some of his more spectacular stories such as "The Reapers", "The Black Angel" and "The Lovers".
  
  While I can recommend The Whispers to any newcomer to Connolly's works, as well as to fellow Connolly fans. I would have to say that hard core fans should be prepared that it might not be as pulchritudinous as we have come to expect.

  Rating: 4
  The Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Thriller review by M. Wanchoo, 2010-09-03

  In which Parker becomes a bit of a side character in his own book

  The biggest frustration with the new Charlie Parker novel is how ancillary a character Parker seems to be in his own novel. It takes nearly half the novel before Parker truly takes an active role, and even then he seems to be catching up to where everybody else is, less an active player and more a passive member of the story. And while I can live with simply enjoying Connolly's rich story, there's something lost without Parker's beautiful, moving, poetic narration and prose. All of that being said, the story here is a compelling one, and no one blends mystery and unsettling horror like Connolly, who here creates some of the most unsettling scenes of the series - and that's strong praise indeed. I can't deny that the book feels a little heavy-handed with its take on the Iraq war, which seems to clearly being the driving impetus for the novel, and while Connolly's points are admirable ones, they tend to drag the narrative to a halt sometimes. Still, as the story (which involves a group of Iraqi war veterans who seem to be killing themselves, one by one) begins to draw together and coalesce in surprising ways, the novel really comes to life, building to a spectacular conclusion that brings the whole work together. It may be my least favorite of the series, and I'm eager to see Parker return to the central focus, but it's still a great book, and even weaker Connolly blows most other works out of the water.

  Rating: 4
  The Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Thriller review by Joshua Mauthe, 2010-08-29

  Disappointing

  I have read each and every Charlie Parker book and can even remember where and when I picked up "Every Dead Thing", the first installment of the series - it was that memorable of a read. I cannot say that the newest installment is anywhere near that remarkable. While I enjoyed this novel more than "The Lovers" there seems to be something missing, Angel and Louis are there but only on the outer fringes of the story, the supernatural element is also present, but no interaction with his estranged wife and young daughter and just the essense of his dead wife and child, almost as an after thought. I just didn't feel totally engaged in the story, and while as always the writing is rich and thoughtful, I made myself read the entire book, I sadly didn't really want to.

  Rating: 3
  The Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Thriller review by Cdnreader, 2010-08-20

  The Whisperers

  Received the book in a timely manner. John Connolly books are always a good read.

  Rating: 4
  The Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Thriller review by Joyce Moore, 2010-08-17

  While THE WHISPERERS may not be quite the equal of some of Connolly's other works, it is still a book you will not want to miss

  I have never taken a trip via passenger train. I had been considering making such a journey until I read THE WHISPERERS, John Connolly's new Charlie Parker thriller. There is a passage in the book involving a short train ride, an elderly lady and an invisible passenger that will stay indelibly fixed in my memory, and not in a way that makes me think of unicorns and cotton candy. I just know I won't be able to get on a train without thinking of that scene. So that's one more for the list. What list, you might ask? Well, over the course of nine Parker novels, three stand-alone works and some short stories, Connolly has managed to provide enough image-laden, frightening vignettes that I stay out of woods, try to avoid taverns, never look at or through fogged-up windows... The list goes on.
  
  This passage is just one of the unforgettable scenes you will carry with you from THE WHISPERERS, a novel that is occasionally frustrating but ultimately rewarding. It begins at the commencement of the second Iraq War, with the pillaging of a museum of antiquities. Some items are irreparably vandalized, while others --- particularly an enigmatic box --- find their way to the United States courtesy of a group of veterans who are seeking to supplement their post-war compensation. Disparate members, however, begin committing suicide once they reach stateside. The father of one of these soldiers doesn't buy the official diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and hires Parker to investigate his late son's life and find out what may have caused him to end it so tragically. Parker is initially unaware of the smuggling operation, and thus is walking exposed to danger from a number of sources. The smugglers do not want him nosing around their business, given that his reputation precedes him, and figure that they can scare him off early with a bit of carefully applied force.
  
  There is another, though, who is pursuing the smugglers as well: Herod, whose bizarre appearance reveals the rot and decay that inflicts his body physically and spiritually. He is a man of strange and unusual tastes and methods, and he wants that aforementioned box, not so much for himself, but for a client of sorts --- an entity known by many names throughout many ages, and is known to Herod as the Captain. In and of itself, the box is desired by the Captain not so much for what it is as for what it contains. And you don't want to know the answer to that. Parker is not so blissfully unaware of this; he merely thinks that he is in mortal danger from a smuggling ring. Angel and Louis are there to help, of course, but it is the unannounced, unexpected and uninvited presence of the Collector that puts Parker on notice that what he is investigating goes far beyond the trivial affairs of Mankind. the Collector identifies himself as God's Killer; he wants that box as well, and will do anything he needs to do in order to get it.
  
  Connolly draws together elements of mystery, horror, suspense and, yes, humor to create THE WHISPERERS. If that's not enough, he populates the narrative with what are perhaps the most riveting and unforgettable protagonists and antagonists --- some of whom continue to be sorted out after more than a decade --- that you will find in fiction today. Even the names of the characters are unforgettable. Herod? Just those two syllables taken together are enough to creep you out. There is also a passage near the end where Connolly flirts with a boundary, doing so in such a way as to render it shocking and horrific. In the hands of a lesser scribe, what is done would have been totally objectionable. I won't describe it, other than to tell you that it involves the Captain --- who manifests himself in this scene as...something else --- and a man tied to a chair.
  
  Extremely dark humor is present in THE WHISPERERS as well. The repartee among Louis, Angel and Parker is unequalled --- I would be first in line to buy a collection of such conversations culled from all of the Parker novels --- and one of the final vignettes in the book, involving The Collector and Herod, is unforgettable. You'll never look at an ashtray again without thinking of it.
  
  At times, though, the book reads somewhat like a horror novel wrapped around a political sermon. Having read nearly every word Connolly has published, I know this was not necessarily his intention. Connolly has made his political positions known in prior volumes, but always in a subtle context within the heart of the novel. Here, the discussion of those positions almost hijacks the story, interrupting rather than easing the flow of it. And that's unfortunate, because some of Connolly's best and most imaginative prose can be found here. Nevertheless, it's worth wading through the political dissertation to get to it.
  
  While THE WHISPERERS may not be quite the equal of some of Connolly's other works, it is still a book you will not want to miss.

  Rating: 4
  The Whisperers: A Charlie Parker Thriller review by Bookreporter.com, 2010-08-16

  

• The Whisperers (Charlie Parker Series #9) - Hardcover

  Price

  $26.00 $25.91 Buy from Barnes & Noble
  (as of 2010-09-02 7:10 PDT)

  Rating

  3.5 (14 reviews)

  Publisher

  Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

  Shop

  Barnes & Noble

  Format

  Hardcover

  Publish Date

  Jul 2010

  Sales Rank

  2333

  ISBN

  143916519X

  ISBN-13

  9781439165195

  Pages

  409

  Series

  Charlie Parker Series, #9

  Alternate Versions

  • eBook - $12.9

  Biography

  Fans of John Connolly's unique, atmospheric novels have come to know that the cases former NYPD detective Charlie Parker sets out to solve are haunting -- literally haunting.

  Publishers Weekly

  Ancient artifacts and the second Iraqi War provide the backdrop for Connolly's outstanding ninth novel featuring PI Charlie Parker (after The Lovers). When the former NYPD homicide detective looks into the suicide of an Iraq war veteran, he discovers that several members of the soldier's unit have also killed themselves and that they may have been involved in smuggling looted treasures into the U.S. Parker begins to fear that the returning soldiers have brought back more than their own personal demons. As he races to find an antique golden box before it falls into the wrong hands, Parker discovers that he's being shadowed by the enigmatic Collector, a repulsive killer whose nature is as problematic as that of Parker himself. Connolly displays a real knack for fusing the detective and horror genres, providing a rational chain of evidence and deduction for the plot while simultaneously creating a real atmosphere of numinous dread that reminds us that mystery can refer to more than a mundane tale of crime and human justice. (July)

  Synopsis

  “‘Oh, little one,’ he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in fifteen years. ‘What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?’ ” In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods—drugs, cash, weapons, even people—are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil.The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can’t know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men’s hearts. As the smugglers begin to die one after another in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers’ actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector. . . .

  
  — Source: Barnes & Noble

  Customer Reviews

  A Unique Mix

  Only a handful of authors truly make it look effortless to spin captivating words; expressing an astonishing range of emotions, constructing believable-if that is their intent-situations and intricate characters on paper. John Connolly is one of the small few to thrive in this arena. His intelligent and believable characters are painted in such a thought-provoking way that you never second-guess their reality, even while they are all but a whisper of your nightmares.

  Rating: 4
  The Whisperers (Charlie Parker Series #9) review by SuspenseMagazine, 2010-07-23

  So disappointing for a Connolly/Charlie Parker book

  I have been an avid Connolly fan since I first stumbled upon his books in a used bookstore. I have recommended this series to countless I know yet I am loathe to do so in this case.

  Rating: 3
  The Whisperers (Charlie Parker Series #9) review by Anonymous, 2010-07-17

  

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