A Book of Bones

A Thriller

By: John Connolly

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

“Irresistible.” —Stephen King

Private Investigator Charlie Parker returns in this heart-pounding thriller as he seeks revenge against the darkest forces in the world, from “one of the best thriller writers we have” (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) and the internationally bestselling author of the acclaimed The Woman in the Woods.

He is our best hope.

He is our last hope.

He is our only hope.

On a lonely moor in northern England, the body of a young woman is discovered. In the south, a girl lies buried beneath a Saxon mound. To the southeast, the ruins of a priory hide a human skull.

Each is a sacrifice, a summons. And something in the darkness has heard the call.

Charlie Parker has also heard it and from the forests of Maine to the deserts of the Mexican border, from the canals of Amsterdam to the streets of London, he will track those who would cast the world into darkness.

Parker fears no evil—but evil fears him.

“A seamless, expansive, and chilling blend of police procedural and gothic horror tale” (Kirkus Reviews), A Book of Bones will keep you guessing until the very last page.

Wrong reader and 20% too long

I love John Connolly’s books and have read or have the audible file for every single one. This one was over 22hrs long on Audible but I went for it. The story suffered from the same affliction that affects Stephen King: no editor to insist it be trimmed. This was easily 20% unnecessary, complicated fluff. The reader emphasized every last word in every sentence which is horribly annoying. He mispronounced common words and his attempt a a Yorkshire or English accent was farcical and distracting.

An excellent Charlie Parker book!!

I love all of the Charlie Parker books, but this one is one of my very favorites!

Overall, again, a good story ruined by meandering prose and an annoying reader.

I’m almost there. I’ve almost listened to nearly all of Charlie Parker series books by John Connelly. It’s been a long time! I’m a little sad, actually, that it’s all coming to an end (until the next book, of course).

I wish I could say I loved this story, but I can’t. I can’t get past the meandering prose that has always existed in these books, but seems to be prevalent as of late. Parts of the book just drone on and on and on and… you get the picture. This book could seriously lose a good 100-150 pages and still be overlong. Way too much exposition on characters that are entirely meaningless to the story, feelings and thoughts given voices that do not fit the character’s personality (there’s probably a literary term for this but I don’t know what it is.), and the aforementioned meandering prose - all lend themselves to what feels like a chore of a book.

Don’t get me started on Jeff Harding.

Ok… just a few points. The good: Jeff Harding is easily the best of all the readers in the Charlie Parker series, which really isn’t saying much. His constant mispronunciation of common words like “nomenclature”, “pasta”, and “minutiae” make me cringe every time he utters them. It begs the question: is there a director or does Jeff just phone this stuff in? His voice characterizations make everyone either sound like 5 year old girls (the women) or adults with speech issues - just… ugh!!!

The story… let’s see. It’s long. It takes over half of the book for something to actually happen, and the foreshadowing is terribly heavy-handed. The story is fine. All of the Charlie Parker stories are fine. They aren’t great, but they aren’t literary genius either.

Could be worse. It could be James Patterson!

Worth the Wait

I absolutely love this series!!! A year felt long. I think I listened too fast!
2021 Update: I am sure that I have listened to this book at least 3 times since my first comment. I can't wait for Nameless Ones!!!

Disjointed and jumped around a lot.

I listened to this continuously until finished. I had difficulty following the who and what, and how it fell into place within the body whole of the story.
The author kept jumping from character to character so often. There’s so many characters to follow!
This is one big jigsaw puzzle of tiny pieces and it takes patience to follow it through to completion.