BOOK REVIEW: THE FURIES BY JOHN CONNOLLY

10/9/2022

This story was a great read with Parker at his menacing best, with the threat of violence never more than a moment away.

The Furies by John Connolly

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton (4 Aug. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529391741
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529391749

A Book Review by Tony Jones

Charlie Parker returns to action in two Covid-era supernatural novellas

Charlie Parker is one of the great recurring literary characters of modern-day fiction (forget limiting him to genres) and his reappearance is matched only by a very select few, an illustrious list which features Harry Bosch, John Rebus, Matthew Shardlake and Kurt Wallander (sadly, no longer with us) amongst my all-time favourites. The longevity of the private detective who operates out of Portland (Maine, USA) who first appeared in 1999 with Every Dead Thing shows no sign of abating, as the series takes a break from its major story-arcs and takes the reader down entertaining and eventful sideroads. Ninety-five percent of those who read book twenty, The Furies, will undoubtedly have read its nineteen predecessors and will have the patience to let John Connolly get back to the big picture stuff whenever he is good and ready (but soon please John).

The Furies is a highly entertaining comfort read for those familiar with Charlie Parker, but there are better starting points for the newbie reader. If you want help with this, then check out my 2021 article Surviving the Lockdowns with Charlie Parker, Rating and Ranking the John Connolly Series which goes all the way up to book eighteen The Dirty South.

https://gingernutsofhorror.com/features/surviving-the-lockdowns-with-charlie-parker-rating-and-ranking-the-john-connolly-series

Ginger Nuts of Horror also reviewed book nineteen, The Nameless Ones, which was another change of pace which starred the two pivotal support characters Angel and Lewis, whilst Parker took a backseat. The review can be read here:

https://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/fiction-reviews/the-nameless-ones-by-john-connolly-book-review

Considering book eighteen The Dirty South was a prequel of sorts we have to jump back to seventeen A Book of Bones to get to the nitty-gritty of the long story arcs and if you do not find this long wait too frustrating then The Furies keeps the series ticking over in a steady holding pattern without doing anything new. It contains two novellas The Sisters Strange and The Furies which were written in the Covid-19 era, with the virus playing a larger part in the second of the two stories.

The Sisters Strange was originally released online in small sections during the early stages of Covid-19 and has since been rewritten and greatly expanded upon for this book. The stories nicely complement each other but given the choice I much preferred The Furies mainly because Charlie Parker has a much more proactive role in this story and does what he does best with menace and melancholy. In The Sisters Strange he is absent from a fair bit of the story before circumstances coincidentally pull him into the inner circle of the plot. The stories are also interconnected by the dodgy hotel the Braycott Arms and its manager Bobby Wadlin who rarely seems to leave the premise and is aware that a sizeable number of his clientele are criminals. Although neither of the stories develop the long story arcs they both have very heavy supernatural overtones which are crucial to their plots, a factor which regular readers will realise has become more pronounced as the series has developed.

Structurally both stories are relatively similar with two major plotlines which eventually connect, with Parker investigating a case which later links to the parallel story strand. As I said earlier, Parker had more to do in The Furies, which probably made it the stronger piece, however, The Sisters Strange had the best villain in the otherworldly coin collector Kepler, who oozed menace. Charlie Parker is presented in the first person in both stories (everybody else is in the third person) which was an interesting switch, as the main character has not been written in the “I” tense for a decent number of books.

Coming in at 469 pages, with The Sisters Strange the slightly longer of the two novellas you could argue that they edge towards being short novels rather than novellas. The story (which does not initially involve Parker) revolves around a murdered coin collector, who was killed by being forced to swallow his own coin collection. This had an almost-supernatural vibe (but it can be tricky to tell sometimes) which develops into a search for a particular coin, which some extremely dangerous individuals might also be searching for. Meanwhile, Parker is alerted to the fact that Raum Buker, a criminal who he has rumbled with in the past, has returned to Portland and has reconnected with two sisters (surname Strange) whom he had been previously involved with. It was very obvious the stories were connected and I found the coin part significantly more intriguing than the soap opera around the Strange Sisters and Raum Buker. In hindsight I do not think Parker had enough to do in this story, but it remained an enjoyable read and considering it was converted from an internet piece was skilfully converted into something meatier.

In the second novella The Furies Parker engages in protecting two women who are under threat, as Portland begins to shutdown under the grip of Covid-19. One of the female case threads seemed slightly unnecessary (woman in an abusive relationship) and had nothing to do with the bigger picture of the novella. The other which featured the vindictive local Mafia who have exceptionally long memories and significant more threat as Parker takes on a case which they might have their fingers in. The widow of an ex-mobster (who turned snake and was also a killer) is being extorted for the return of mementos connected to her dead child. The story is also seen from the point of view of the extortioners who realise that by stealing the baby teeth and locks of hair of a dead child, something else might have awakened. This story was a great read with Parker at his menacing best, with the threat of violence never more than a moment away.

Long term fans of the series will be pleased to hear that popular characters the Fulci Brothers feature in both stories and that Angel and Louis have a part in The Furies also. However, if you are looking for clues about Parker’s ghost daughter or any of the other supernatural revelations from A Book of Bones or earlier you will be disappointed. As Connolly had been working on a sequel to The Book of Lost Things, which might be his next publication, there might not be another Charlie Parker book until 2024 and if so I hope it returns to some of the story-arcs which left the tongues of the long-term readers hanging out.

Tony Jones

The Furies by John Connolly

EVIL TAKES MANY FORMS.

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR CHARLIE PARKER HUNTS THEM ALL.

'John Connolly is the creator of a unique blend of thriller and horror who receives rave reviews every time' Sunday Telegraph

The Furies: mythological snake-haired goddesses of vengeance, pursuers of those who have committed unavenged crimes. Now, private investigator Charlie Parker is drawn into a world of modern furies in two linked stories.

In The Sisters Strange, the return of the criminal Raum Buker to Portland, Maine brings with it chaos and murder, as an act of theft threatens not only to tear apart his own existence but also that of Raum's former lovers, the enigmatic sisters Dolors and Ambar Strange.

And in The Furies Parker finds himself fighting to protect two more women as the city of Portland shuts down in the face of a global pandemic, but it may be that his clients are more capable of taking care of themselves than anyone could have imagined . . .

From the number one Sunday Times and multi-million-copy bestselling author John Connolly comes two linked stories in one novel and the most compelling and unsettling Charlie Parker case yet.

The Charlie Parker novels can be read and enjoyed in any order. The Furies is the landmark twentieth book in this globally bestselling series.