Jeff Harding clearly shows the passion he has for narration with this production, which includes two novels. In Portland, Maine, private investigator Charlie Parker is surrounded by criminals and supernatural forces. The plots are separate, though several of the characters are in both storylines. The first work centers around stolen coins, while the second revolves around a pair of criminals who are extorting a woman whose young daughter has died. The characters invite intriguing personalities, and Harding delivers with unique voices. It seems like most of the folks in both stories are evil, and Harding shapes them with the demonic, harsh, or impatient voices they deserve. This is for those who like their thrillers with a dose of noir and/or the supernatural. M.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

★ 07/18/2022

In The Sisters Strange, the first of two novels in Connolly’s exceptional 20th book featuring Portland, Maine, PI Charlie Parker (after 2021’s The Nameless Ones), a lumber company owner fears that his girlfriend is at risk from her ex-lover, ex-con Raum Buker. Parker’s probing leads him to believe that Buker may be connected with the theft of some valuable coins and drawn the ire of a murderous collector, who has already left bodies in his wake, including a man choked to death by coins forced down the victim’s throat. In the title novel, set at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Parker’s approached for help by mobster Nate Sawyer’s widow. After Sawyer was poisoned in jail, her husband’s former criminal associates harass and assault her, believing she knows where he hid some stolen money. Vivid word pictures (“she caught an inkling of something in his eyes beyond mere annoyance, like the brief flash of a sharp blade before its owner thinks better of using it and sheaths it once again”) and humor enhance suspenseful plotlines. This is an easy entry point for newcomers. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary. (Sept.)

"A must-read for the author’s fans and a good introduction to the series for newbies."

Required Reading.

Jeff Harding clearly shows the passion he has for narration with this production, which includes two novels. In Portland, Maine, private investigator Charlie Parker is surrounded by criminals and supernatural forces. The plots are separate, though several of the characters are in both storylines. The first work centers around stolen coins, while the second revolves around a pair of criminals who are extorting a woman whose young daughter has died. The characters invite intriguing personalities, and Harding delivers with unique voices. It seems like most of the folks in both stories are evil, and Harding shapes them with the demonic, harsh, or impatient voices they deserve. This is for those who like their thrillers with a dose of noir and/or the supernatural. M.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

2022-07-27
PI Charlie Parker is back in a pair of short novels with a ghostly twist.

Parker, as his fans know, is an ex-cop and a PI whose wife, Susan, and daughter Jennifer were murdered, and Jennifer’s ghost still haunts him. The characters in both these tales range from the offbeat to the literally Strange: The sisters Dolors and Ambar Strange run Strange Brews, a coffee shop in Portland, Maine, in the first novel, The Sisters Strange. Each yields her bed to a lowlife named Raum Buker, of whom Parker notes, “Gradually, like fecal matter falling down a drain, gravity brought Raum to Portland.” Buker once had a mouth that “resembled the ruins of Dresden” but now has “installment-plan teeth” with what Parker calls a puppy-killing grin. Back in Pennsylvania, a “poisonous” old man named Edwin Ellerkamp is found choked to death, his mouth and throat engorged with coins dating as far back as the seventh and eighth centuries. The killer is a man of indeterminate age (Generations? Centuries?) named Kepler, who desperately seeks one particular coin—“with the right coin,” he believes, “even gods could be bought.” Kepler sees and feels himself rotting away as he reads decades-old newspapers, so maybe finding that precious coin will cure what ails him. In the second novel, The Furies, Parker reluctantly takes on the case of Sarah Abelli, the socially shunned widow of a femicidal killer. Meanwhile, Lyle Pantuff and Gilman Veale stay at Braycott Arms, a “shithole” hotel suitable for their ilk. The woman-hating Pantuff has “one of those faces that couldn't have drawn more cops if it were shaped like a donut and covered with sprinkles.” At one point, he’s “crouched like a gargoyle at the end of his bed.” Veale keeps hearing a child, although none are allowed at Braycott Arms, and it creeps him out. No one can find any child, not even in the basement, so readers will be creeped out too. Maybe it’s a ghost, because someone gets the shock of a lifetime. Connolly skillfully hints at the occult while keeping Parker grounded and sane. The author imbues both stories with melancholy and deft touches of dark humor.

As with all the Charlie Parker books, this is fine fodder for crime fans.