Review: Every Dead Thing

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John Connolly
Class/Genre: Mystery Thriller Private Investigator
Series: Charlie Parker # 1

A pleasant surprise was Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. Very dark. I've mentioned this one before in a separate posting, so I'll skip details other than to say that his writing is, at times, very poignant, which is unusual for a hard-boiled, vividly disturbing serial killer story. In that earlier posting, I said:

I'm in the process of reading this right now and there is no getting around it, this is a dark novel, extremely graphic and gruesome. But I am constantly stumbling across whole passages that are exceptionally well written (yeah, I know, what does that mean?) Well, it depends. These passages have many qualities, but usually one stands out. One is vivid, another insightful, and a third is poignant, but all three will have the other elements. As an example (I'll avoid a spoiler by saying that one guy is relating a story about a gruesome loss of a family member to someone else who had a similar loss). The man talking was saying that he used to see her, in his dreams, but she, "... don't come as often now...." The following paragraph is then inserted and after it the man continues his story:

Perhaps he saw something in my face, even in the slow darkening evening, that led him to understand. I do not know, for certain, and he gave me no sign that he knew or that there was anything more between us than a need to know and a desire to tell, but he stopped for a moment in the telling and in that pause we all but touched, like two travelers who pass on a long, hard road and offer comfort to each other in the journey.

What struck me is that this paragraph does nothing for the story. If it were removed you would not notice the void. We already know the man talking is still grieving; we already know the man listening is fighting off his own demons. There is nothing in there necessary to connect the previous paragraph with the next. In fact, the monolog the first man relates, holds up fine and, if taken by itself, one might think that interrupting it with anything would spoil the moment. But not only does Connolly interrupt it, the scene is even more powerful for it and we have a bit richer insight into both of these people.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jeff Kreider - RAM

Book Review: Every Dead Thing