#BookReview The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly @jconnollybooks @AtriaBooks @FreshFiction

The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From internationally bestselling author and “creative genius who has few equals in either horror fiction or the mystery genre” (New York Journal of Books) comes a gripping thriller starring Private Investigator Charlie Parker. When the body of a woman—who apparently died in childbirth—is discovered, Parker is hired to track down both her identity and her missing child.

In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby.

Private detective Charlie Parker is hired by a lawyer to shadow the police investigation and find the infant but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in much more than a missing child…someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake.

And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring and a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman.

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Someday must I take time off from my busy reading schedule to re- read the Charlie Parker series. It's such a fabulous series and I envy those that have yet read a single book and will discover just how great the books are and have 16 (as of now) books to read. Do you need to read the previous books in this series before you read THE WOMAN IN THE WOODS? No, the books can be read as stand- alone, however, there is a theme running through the books that all starts in the first book when Charlie Parker's wife and daughter are murdered. That event starts off everything and reading this book will give you a hint of past events. To get the full story you do need to start from the beginning, but it doesn't take away from reading this book on its own.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

#BookReview A Game of Ghosts by John Connolly (@jconnollybooks) @AtriaBooks #BookBloggers

A Game of Ghosts by John Connolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Internationally bestselling author John Connolly returns with another “superb fusion of noir and the supernatural” (My Bookish Ways) in this latest thriller in his gripping Charlie Parker series.

It is deep winter and the darkness is unending. A private detective named Jaycob Eklund has vanished and Charlie Parker is assigned to track him down. Parker’s employer, Edgar Ross, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has his own reasons for wanting Eklund found. Eklund is no ordinary investigator—he is obsessively tracking a series of homicides and disappearances, each linked to reports of hauntings. Now Parker is drawn into Eklund’s world: a realm in which the monstrous Mother rules a crumbling criminal empire, in which men strike bargains with angels, and in which the innocent and guilty alike are pawns in a game of ghosts...

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I read a lot of books, but if I had to pick just let's say five books to read during one year would the latest Charlie Parker book be among them. It strange to think back to the first time I read a Charlie Parker book (not from the beginning) and how I liked the book, but never thought that one day would come when it would be like Christmas every time a new book would be released.

So, how was A Game of Ghosts? Well, let me put it this way. This is a series that keep on being great, this is the fifteenth book and I loved it from the first page until the last and I both wanted to end the book and at the same time did I not want it to end.

In A Game of Ghosts is Charlie Parker contacted by FBI agent Edgar Ross to track down the missing private detective Jaycob Eklund. However, as usual, it's not an ordinary case, Eklund is obsessed with ghost and his investigation into a missing man have led him to the Brethren, a group of people both of this world and next and Parker, who has a track record of being something of a destroyer of evil people and groups is starting to get too close to them for their liking. And, the Brethren has reason to worry because The Collector is also interested in the case. And, he's not a man to cross. And as usual, has Parker his faithful friends Louis and Angel to help him out.

A Game of Ghosts is a fantastic book. I was deeply worried about the life of my favorite characters while reading the book, and the passing of one of them was both a surprise and something that saddened me. I loved the part Parker's daughters Sam and Jennifer played in the book and the ending made me crave more. Definitely one of the best books I have read this year!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

The Top 15 books of 2016

My Top 10 books of 2016 quickly turned into top 15 instead of 10 when I started to go through the books I've read. It could just as easily have been top 20, but I had to draw a line somewhere. The books are in no particular order because that would just mean hours of agony and indecision. So, on to the books: 

From New York Times bestselling author and famed former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein comes a chilling new Alexandra Cooper novel, Entombed, in which Alex matches wits with the master of detective fiction himself-Edgar Allan Poe...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Sometimes I wish that she’d just leave me in peace . . .

Psychologist Evi is worried about one of her patients – a woman who is convinced her little girl is still alive. Two years after the fire that burnt their house down.

Meanwhile, the new vicar in town is feeling strangely unwelcome. Disturbing events seem designed to scare him away.

And a young boy keeps seeing a strange, solitary girl playing in the churchyard. Who is she and what is she trying to tell him?

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Media calls him "The Birthday boy" because he kidnappers girls just before they turn thirteen and then he sends pictures of them home to their families showing how he slowly tortures them to death. Every year they get a new card. 5 years ago Detective Constable Ash Henderson's daughter Rebecca was kidnapped. One year later get a card, but he keeps that a secret for his colleagues and because if they would know would he not be able to stay on the investigation...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

From the bestselling author of Girl in Translation, a novel about a young woman torn between her family duties in Chinatown and her escape into the world of ballroom dancing...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Mary Russell is used to dark secrets—her own, and those of her famous partner and husband, Sherlock Holmes. Trust is a thing slowly given, but over the course of a decade together, the two have forged an indissoluble bond...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.

But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Lorena "Hick" Hickok is assigned to cover Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1932 political campaign. This is the start of a love story that would last for years, despite long periods of separations and the fact that Eleanor Roosevelt was to become The First Lady of United States. But, this love story could not last. Madame, that Hick so lovingly called Eleanor could never become someone anonymous again, even after FDR death.

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

In her storied career as a Texas Ranger, Caitlin has confronted all manner of villains, but nothing that’s prepared her for the terrorist group ISIS’s pursuit of a devastating weapon on Lone Star State soil. The land in question lies on an Indian reservation where a drilling operation steeped in mystery and controversy is about to commence under the auspices of shadowy billionaire Cray Rawls...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered, a mole in the FBI is uncovered and she herself is severely wounded. As soon as she recovers, she goes rogue and travels to England to assassinate the man responsible for the deaths of her teammates...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Held captive for eight years, Lily has grown from a teenager to an adult in a small basement prison. Her daughter Sky has been a captive her whole life. But one day their captor leaves the deadbolt unlocked...

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. As the last remaining descendant of the Brontë family, she's rumored to have inherited a vital, mysterious portion of the Brontë's literary estate; diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts; a hidden fortune that's never been shown outside of the family.,,

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

The dead don’t tell secrets… unless you listen.

The girl’s smashed-in face stared unseeing up to the blue sky, soil spilling out of her mouth. A hundred flies hovered above the bloodied mess.

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

A five-year-old boy from a remote farm on the plains of Skåne disappear late one summer evening in 1983. The only trail after him is a shoe in the tall corn fields. 

Although the whole neighborhood gets involved in the search do they not find him, and rumors and suspicions spread quickly. And, the clumsy criminal investigation is, in the end, closed down when they can't find the boy, and the grief and uncertainty get the boy's family to slowly fall apart.

READ MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK HERE

Thoughts and honorable mentions:

The hardest part was I found other really great books while making this list. But, I decided when I made this list that I would not change since it would only make everything messy. And, soon I would be up in Top 25 instead of top 15...;)

But, I would like to mention some really great books that I read during 2016 that I found to be brilliant: Dead Man Walking by Simon R. Green, Arrowood by Laura McHugh, Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, Melody Bittersweet and The Girls' Ghostbusting Agency by Kitty French and Redemption Road by John Hart...Honestly I could go on and list all my 5-star books, but instead just check out my Goodreads page! 😉

When you are done here can you check out my friend's lists/wrap ups:

Layered Pages

The Maiden's Court

2 Kids and Tired

#BookReview A Time of Torment by John Connolly @AtriaBooks @jconnollybooks

A Time of Torment by John Connolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.

But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.

Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.

Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.

All in the name of the being they serve.

All in the name of the Dead King.

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A Time of Torment is one book that I have been deliberately delayed writing a review for. Not that the book was in any way bad, it's an utterly fantastic book. And, that's the problem. I just didn't know what to write. All I wanted was to tell you all that John Connolly has done it again. He has written a book that is so excruciating good that it's almost painful to finish it. 

For those of you that have never read a Charlie Parker is it good to know that this is book 14 in the series and I would advise not to read this book without at least have read the previous book or at least some book before. The journey Charlie Parker is on; his personal crusade is much easier to understand if you have read the books before this one. He is a man haunted, by the death of his wife and child, killed several years ago by a serial killer. However, his dead daughter is still with him, and she also has a connection with his new daughter. His friends are dangerous but loyal and Parker is fighting a battle against the darkness. And in this book is it the Dead King he is going after. And doing so is he going against the Cut community. 

The book's story is slow but in a good way. Everything takes its time and it suits the story so well. There is no rush. Everything happens for a reason, there are some revelations that I never saw coming and then comes the final confrontation towards the end.

John Connolly writes in such a way that makes me slow down my reading, I don't want to hurry the story. This is not a book that I feel should be rushed. Connolly's command of the languages is utterly perfect! There are few authors in my experience that can write like Connolly do, to utterly capture the reader's attention and keep it until the end.