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    Lovers
    Lovers
    Lovers
    Audiobook11 hours

    Lovers

    Written by John Connolly

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author John Connolly writes an “unfailingly compelling” (New Orleans Times-Picayune) and lyrical tale that forces Private Investigator Charlie Parker to examine his haunting past and all that he has ever believed true about his beloved parents—and himself.

    Charlie Parker is a lost soul. Deprived of his private investigator's license and under scrutiny by the police, Parker takes a job in a Portland bar. But he uses his enforced retirement to begin a different kind of investigation: an examination of his own past and an inquiry into the death of his father, who took his own life after apparently shooting dead two unarmed teenagers. It's a search that will eventually lead Parker to question all that he believed about his beloved parents, and about himself.

    But there are other forces at work: a troubled young woman who is running from an unseen threat, one that has already taken the life of her boyfriend; and a journalist-turned-writer named Mickey Wallace, who is conducting an investigation of his own. And haunting the shadows, as they have done throughout Parker's life, are two figures: a man and a woman who seem driven to bring an end to Charlie Parker's existence.

    Haunting, lyrical, and impossible to put down, The Lovers is John Connolly at his best.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 8, 2011
    ISBN9781442342828
    Lovers
    Author

    John Connolly

    John Connolly is the author of the #1 internationally bestselling Charlie Parker thrillers series, the supernatural collection Nocturnes, the Samuel Johnson Trilogy for younger readers, and (with Jennifer Ridyard) the Chronicles of the Invaders series. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at JohnConnollyBooks.com, or follow him on Twitter @JConnollyBooks.

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    Reviews for Lovers

    4.5/5

    75 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Scary with lots of twists and turns. I love Charlie Parker!
    • 2/5
      Well, I expected more. Lack luster. Little to know action when compared to other Charles Parker books.
    • 5/5
      It is time...yes my friends, time to rise, time to stand up and say proudly...."I like horror". Yes there will be those who mock, those who will cast you out. They will attack you with their vampire romance but you must be strong. To test your faith, I have a task for you. Go to your nearest bookshop, enter the crime section (no-one said it would be easy) and find John Connolly's books. Then you must move them, one by one and carefully place them in the horror section (if you can find it) and if anyone moves them back you must persist and return them to the horror section once again. Should you be challenged in your task, by a well meaning staff member perhaps, say only these words.."it's a horror novel".You see, without wishing to cause civil unrest in your local Borders (although come to think of it, that might be fun) there is a serious point to be made here. John Connolly is one of my favourite authors and the reason I like him so much is that he injects his crime novels with a fair old dose of supernatural adrenalin. His writing has an edge, a darkness, it's on the borderlands but with The Lovers Connolly has crossed over to the darkside. The supernatural elements don't remain in the background here they are at the forefront, indeed without the spectre of the occult this book could not exist.Charlie Parker is John Connolly's hero, a troubled, even broken man, his history is one filled with blood, death and loss. The previous books have detailed some of this history but have left several large boulders unturned. The Lovers fills in a few of these blanks and in particular the mystery surrounding the death of Parker's father. Why a seemingly mild mannered family man and respected police officer shot two, apparently innocent young people and then took his own life. I can't go into any detail without spoiling the book for you, suffice to say the answer explains much of the supernatural elements that have lurked in the pages of the previous books.A word of caution though, if you are new to Charlie Parker then please start at the beginning and work your way to this book. Start at Every Dead Thing and read them chronologically, yes you could probably read them out of sequence but if you do you won't get the full sense of mystery, the subtle hints at something deeper. Without that history this book would be much weaker as it is though it is an immense achievement, tying up several loose ends in dramatic and unexpected fashion whilst at the same time unravelling a few other areas of mystery which will no doubt lead us deeper down the supernatural rabbit hole (I can't wait).So highly recommended this is the book which finally gets to the soul of Charlie Parker and does it with style, inventiveness, vivid characterisation and beautiful prose. In my mind Connolly keeps getting better with each book and seems to be getting the rewards he deserves in terms of sales (currently No4 in Tesco Book charts just ahead of Michael Jackson: Life Of A legend!). So, on second thoughts, maybe we shouldn't upset the applecart, leave the public to appreciate the nuances and skill of a great horror writer, even if they do think they are reading a crime novel.
    • 4/5
      I was introduced to John Connolly when I stumbled across The Book of Lost Things and became immersed in his fairy tale world set at the start of World War II, a coming of age story that I just can't stop recommending. I was surprised to learn that Connolly has been writing the Charlie Parker crime series for years (how did I miss this?). The Lovers is the first one I've read and the eighth in the series. Though the book refers to previous events it can be read on its own though I will definitely be going back to the first in the series and reading them in order.Charlie Parker has a lot of ghosts in his life, the loss of his first wife and child in a brutal murder, his unresolved relationship with his current girlfriend and their two year old child, and his antagonistic relationship with the local police. In this book it is Parker's past and the unresolved questions of his father's suicide, as well as the events that surround it, that force him to track down his demons and those of Hell itself. Like Neil Gaimen, the characters created by Connolly are so carefully crafted that the supernatural is plausible. Perfect for all these stormy summer nights to read into the wee hours.
    • 5/5
      You'd think John Connolly has nothing more to say about Charlie Parker and the twilight world of ghosts and violence he inhabits ... but The Lovers proves this wrong. Measured and taut, there are moments of sublime terror and horror in this. Superb.
    • 4/5
      This is a Charley Parker novel, wonderfully crafted, drew me right in. The premise got a little weak in the middle of the book, creating an "oh, come on" sort of feeling. Soon after, however, the story took over again, and I found myself drawn back into the book till the end.Recommended, this is part of series, but the book stands on its own as well.
    • 5/5
      I have come to expect high quality mystery/thrillers from John Connolly, heavy on police procedure and the inner workings of the newsroom from a man with vast experience with both. What I didn't expect was a paranormal thriller, and that's what Connolly deftly delivers in "The Lovers."Charlie Parker is a private investigator with a suspended license working as a bartender in Maine. He comes from a perfectly normal background and an ordinary family. His parents loved each other and Charlie's adolescence was uneventful. Except that it's all a lie. Charlie's mother barely seemed to tolerate him growing up, and one night, Charlie's father, a cop, shot and killed two unarmed teenagers for no discernible reason. Before the night was done, Charlie's dad had committed suicide in the family garage. And now, decades later, Charlie wants answers. Why did his father gun down a pair of teenagers? As he digs into the past, the answers he finds are a total surprise to Charlie and the reader.Connolly handles the paranormal genre as if he'd been writing it his entire life. And his writing just seems to get better with each book. I would recommend "The Lovers" to anyone - beautiful writing and an excellent read.
    • 4/5
      This was my first time reading John Connelly. I didn't realize I had checked out an abridged version until I got home, but I listened to it anyway. The short version worked well. It was not what I expected, and I was happily surprised.Charlie Parker was an officer in the NYPD, just like his father before him. He is under suspicion for crimes of revenge or vigilantism, so his private detective license is being withheld and licensed firearms are taken, and he's working at a friend's bar. He takes this "down time" to investigate the end of his father's life. Charlie's father shot and killed two teenagers and then committed suicide when Charlie was a young teen, and no one had an explanation. The plot includes elements of the supernatural.
    • 5/5
      With 'The Lovers', both John Connolly and Charlie Parker are right on top form and Parker is once again firmly centre stage,after being merely a minor character in the last book,'The Reapers'Even more than in some of the other books,we are given vital insights into Parker's early life and why he is a magnet for the strange and violent events that happen to him and those around him.He finally learns why his father killed two seemingly innocent and unarmed teenagers and shortly afterwards shot himself.Parker is hunted by a pair of killers who are extremely difficult to escape from,and there are several messy deaths along the way.Connolly being the superb writer that he is, makes this a book that you just have to keep reading. It is a great crime story but at the same time a first-class example of the supernatural genre.At the end (without giving anything away) the reader is left panting for more,as a new and much more powerful, evil entity comes on the scene. I for one just can't wait for the next book in this series.
    • 3/5
      This was a decent mystery book until it turned into a ghost story.
    • 4/5
      This is my first John Connolly mystery and I'd definitely read more. However, there's an element of 'spirits' in this book which sort of threw me and I'm not sure if this is an element of all his other books.Charlie Parker was an NYC Policeman as was his father, Will. His father shot two teenagers, seemingly without reason and ultimately killed himself to avoid an extended Internal Affairs investigation. Charlie is now looking into the entire affair because he has unanswered questions. Charlie himself has had trauma in his life. His wife and daughter were killed at their home in Brooklyn. He is estranged from his girlfriend and their daughter. Ever since the murder of his family, he has been investigating murders and capturing/killing murderers. Along with this, in various parts of the country, young people have been killed periodically. How these murders tie into Will Parker's murderous acts and his suicide and the murder of Charlie's family makes for an interesting read. The saving grace of The Lovers is Charlie Parker himself and Connelly's writing. Charlie is a likeable character. Connelly's writing is descriptive. The action is interesting. The plot is absorbing (except for the whole spiritual/supernatural thing which is hard to grasp onto). I have another Connolly book in my bookcase, so I'll give it a second try. But, in conclusion, I did like The Lovers.
    • 2/5
      This series fully jumped the shark with this installment. There had been a touch of the supernatural in previous installments, but it came unmistakably to the fore in this. I do not read detective novels for supernatural thrills. There is a tendency in crime fiction to too easily divide the world into the good and the evil. And when the supernatural enters crime fiction, this tendency is cemented. Good and evil exist, of course. But they are aspects of the wide variability of fully human behavior. To reify these poles of variability is to take a step away from recognizing that the line between good and evil, referring to the words of Solzhenitsyn, runs through every human's heart. I look to crime fiction to illustrate the real evil variable and the real human effort to control the worst extremes. However, in its favor, this book did teach something about the use of the Enochan Watcher myth in the work of John Dee, an Elizabethan occultist , and other books in this series have taught some interesting things in the lore of supernatural evil. I will probably continue the series.
    • 5/5
      I did something last night that I haven't done in a long time on a work night - stayed up until I finished my book even though I knew I would hate life in the morning on the way to work. In fact, I pretty much read this book all day once I took care of the unimportant stuff like pancakes, groceries, & procrastinating doing the laundry. This isn't a surprise, though. John Connolly's books are just that good.This is the latest in his Charlie Parker series wherein Charlie learns some truths about his father's suicide & his own parentage. As always, Charlie is violence haunted & cursed, fumbling in the darkness for something that remains as unknown to himself as it is to his readers. This was a wonderful book with the tight plotting, great characterization, & beautiful writing that you expect from a Connolly book.I especially appreciate how well he fleshes out even minor characters, like the Fulci brothers. Angel & Louis, his two closest friends, make a brief appearance here - I find I miss them terribly & hope they'll be back in the next book.People frequently comment on the paranormal happenings in these books & I always have to pause & think about that ("Are there paranormal things in this book?"). The pause is because Connolly makes these happenings a normal part of life - the only person other than Neil Gaiman who manages that as well as he does. These are also among the only books that have given me nightmares as an adult (in company with Alan Moore's Watchmen - good company, indeed).Connolly also happens to put words together beautifully. There are parts of Dark Hollow that are so achingly beautiful you want to cry from reading them.If you haven't read these books, what are you waiting for? Get going!
    • 5/5
      Latest in the Charlie Parker series is a good but not great entry. The two page prologue was captivating and figured I was in for a major treat but was little bit disappointed by the ending. Would probably help if I had read all the previous books more recently than I had as found myself struggling to recall some of characters / incidents referred to in the text. Will I read the next one of course I will but maybe this one over emphasised the supernatural elements which have always been an integral part of the storylines.