Reviewed By: Jennifer Jordan
Bad Men
Amazon US PB Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB
John Connolly
Class/Genre: Mystery Horror Supernatural Thriller
2003, Hodder and Stoughton, 407 pages
Moloch dreams. Horrible dreams. A seed of evil dwells within his soul and when he opens his eyes, it begins to grow. The feeling instilled in me within the first few lines was a need to read until the end because I didn’t want his dreams to become my own. And that’s the effect Connolly’s books always have on me. The tremendous descriptive quality of his work, the approachability of his protagonists and the spiritual/psychological morass that are his antagonists firmly establish his ability as a master storyteller. Joseph Campbell would have had a field day with Connolly’s work.
History has extracted a fierce and bloody price upon the island of Sanctuary. Its first settlers were massacred by one of their own and this has left a malevolent imprint in the very earth. Repopulated after hundreds of years, its guardian, Officer Melancholy Joe Dupree knows the guts of the island, past and present. He senses that something has changed; something has re-awakened. The big heart, in the giant body, is deeply troubled. And flushed with the first glimmer of hope. A newcomer, Marianne, has sought Sanctuary as her new home. But the shadow behind her eyes gives Joe pause. As do the strange events that begin to occur. Something has re- awoken and it’s on its way. And Joe may be all that stands in its way.
This tome takes Connolly well beyond the constraints of mere genre. It stands alone from the Parker series and stands alone from the crass commercialism of many books being published. I am willing to take his literary hand and follow him into Hell because I know I will also find redemption and justice.
Jennifer Jordan
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan
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