T. Jefferson Parker in another setting altogether.
585919
I am so fortunate to have had a son deployed to Iraq but in a supply capacity. Not in the frontline battles. I feel this story is a more real representation of how a returning soldier might feel than the others I have read. It is a very deep story.  Not only about how Patrick returns from a terrible war but about the mental illness that can lie in dormancy until given the trigger to ignite. I am going to think more whenever I want to applaud and thank a soldier. It might be better to just give them a warm smile and let them go about their life than to call attention to them by congratulating them for something that is probably a very bad and confusing memory. I did like the book but was not prepared for this turn from the usual T. Jefferson Parker effort.  I really give it more than 4 but less than 5.
4554480
In his second outing John Connolly has shown that he has what it takes. Parker returns and this time we find ourselves in a mystery in Maine. We find out more of Charlie "Bird" Parker's past, and get a deeper look into his head. And as if Parker isn't enough reason to read it, Angel and Louis are back as well. ( I would love to see a book with them in the lead!)
Connolly's books are dark, and have a bit of supernatural feel to them, but they are engrossing, well written and well researched.
Turn on the lights, and be ready to stay up all night!
1409940
Alan Crawford's "Twilight at Monticello" fills in the often overlooked portion of Thomas Jefferson's life -- the period after he left the national stage.  Conventional biographies of Jefferson focus on his role and years in the Revolutionary War, as ambassador to France, and as president and treat his final years as a footnote.  Crawford makes this period of Jefferson's life the focus of the book.

Crawford focuses on how Jefferson lived his life at Monticello in his post-presidential years, on his relationship with his family members, his mounting debt problems, and his drive to create the University of Virginia, which Jefferson himself considered to be one of his greatest contributions. It paints a picture of a land-rich, money-poor member of Virginia's aristocracy with liberal, for the time, views on democracy and republican values.  Crawford's narrative on Jefferson's relationship with his extended family, and the relationship the family members had with each other, is a reminder that there's good and bad in any family.  And it shows how his philosophy on church, state, and religion was a key factor in his drive to create the University of Virginia as a secular institution based on enlightenment principles.

About the only complaint I have about the book, and it's minor in the grand scheme, is that some chapters come across more as footnotes as opposed to integrated parts of the greater narrative -- it comes across as disjointed at times.  However, these vignettes do serve the purpose of filling in the picture of Thomas Jefferson.
3962109
Great early T J Parker.
This is the real noir of Parker's early writing before he burned out and turned to popular fiction mysteries. It belongs in your library with "Where Serpents Lie", "Pacific Beat", "Storm Runners" and "Silent Joe".
LA Noir seems to have faded from the mystery scene so enjoy this classic.
2135818
I like the authenticity of the story.  The way it layed out you almost feel you are there. I like Mr Parkers work.
1874674
With all the other reviewers available, I don't think I have to describe Parker's writing or his hero. However, the lead review suggests that this book relates to Parker's projected work on Wyatt Earp. Correct era; wrong story.

This book is a close parody of The Magnificent Seven. I think that is very droll; others might disagree.

And for those who may have trouble verifying the connection, he even includes a line from that movie: "We deal in lead, friend."
4685945
This was not my style because of The Twilight Zone aspect of the world. Everything seems set in the real world (cell phone use, references to pop culture) except for the one Bermuda Triangle of a forest in Colorado.
I'm used to either a completely alternate universe (as done in urban fantasies) or everything being set in the real world.

Joe was a very hard character to empathize with, and I get that was the point.  I have a difficult time with "hate him/love him" journeys because the first impression always lingers in my mind, and the author does a very good job of making him hateable.

The storyline is quite different with adventure, time jumps, and mythology thrown in.
2754993
Really different book. Set near where I live in coastal NC & deals with historical as well as fictional characters. I liked the premise he has tieing in the long past & the recent past. Really makes you think about history, race relations, love, all sorts of things. If you are interested in pirates & mysterious disapearances, you'll enjoy this.
2870931
I thought Ace Atkins did an admirable job of capturing the spirit of Parker's characters from Spenser and Hawk to Susan and Rita Fiore. The other aspect I love about these novels is the description of all the familiar landmarks and restaurants of the Boston area which gives a local flavor to the novel.
698401
Really brought the Robert B. Parker novel to life -- a focus on the characters, dialog and plot, not on extraneous action sequences.
3833071
I've read all of Parker's novels, and this one, as advertised, was a departure from his usual crime-oriented writing. That said, it was interesting and the characters fairly well developed,if a bit predictable. It held my interest enough to recommend it, but if you're expecting something akin to the Charlie Hood series,this isn't it.
701697
Minty alley is one of the first books C.L.R. James wrote, before he found his niche as a historian and cricket writer. But This isn't because of any lack of talent in fiction writing. The characters of Minty Alley are real and rounded and tell us something about ourselves as well as the people of Trinidad. The vast class differences in colonial societies even among the colonised peoples is thrown into stark relief by James's caricatures. You might be shocked at the poverty or amused by the dialogue,
4164115
Since the book is based in part on Thomas Jefferson's letters, it has more gravitas. The mood is everchanging, from hopeful to dark to thoughtful, then back to hopeful.  The writing style was very good to give an intimate portrait of famous people and a unique perspective of the times.
1137910
It is interesting to note that the people here seem to be in other works of F. Paul Wilson. Makes for interesting plot changes because just when you think you get ahead, because you know these characters from other works, BAM, YOU AIN'T IN KANSAS NO MORE!
652057
Excellent read.  This book was recommended to me by a friend who was a friend of "Uncle Larry" to whom the book is co-dedicated.  I was not disappointed.  Being from Salem it was fascinating to see the other side of  what I always thought of as the benevolent Parker Brothers Company.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
2016883
T. Jefferson Parker's breakout novel is both touching and enthralling. It is a first-rate mystery that is very well crafted. His word choice and syntax are excellent.
1729570
Deep in the Maine woods, a tree falls and unearths the remains of a woman, the only mark of her grave a Star of David carved into a nearby tree. Soon, a wave of violence will disrupt the lives of a handful of people as the search for the woman's child ensues, and the book the woman once possessed in the days leading to her demise. Drawn into this is Charlie Parker, a private investigator touched by darkness, and for whom violence surrounds him.

The Woman in the Woods is the 16th entry in John Connolly's Charlie Parker series, and its opening chapters carry with it an unmistakable dread. The threat and promise of death looms large over this series, naturally, but it feels more prominent here, more like a warning. Or, perhaps, more like a preparation. Parker and his associates are growing older, as is the author himself, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, and who has been writing about Parker for going on 20 years. I can't help but feel like Connolly is beginning to move his pieces closer toward an end game, tightening the narrative threads of particular concepts introduced in previous entries and forcing his characters to reflect on the nature of their demise as a close ally to Parker faces the threat of cancer. Of course, long-time readers will know that not even death can spell the end of a character's story, but it still feels like the noose is tightening around the series and that its finale is soon to be upon us.

As with prior novels, Connolly gives us heartless killers with odd afflictions, detours into the supernatural, and glimpses of an overarching narrative involving the war of good against evil. In The Woman in the Woods, we find evil particularly emboldened. I believe this is the first Parker novel written squarely amidst the turmoil of the Trump presidency, a presidency that has served only to empower white supremacists. Beyond the murderous Quayle and his companion Mors, there is the threat of white supremacy and the burgeoning increase in bigotry and racism as represented by the Stonehursts, the youngest of whom rides around in a truck decorated with Confederate flags. Naturally, Luis takes some issues with this northernmost Confederate idiot, allowing readers to live vicariously in the nitwit's comeuppance. It's interesting to see how the Trump regime has impacted some of my favorite authors and their responses to the creeping nature of this odious moron's hate into their work. In Stephen King's The Outsider, we saw graves desecrated by swastikas, and Nicholas Sansbury Smith's Trackers series has provided a good bit of Neo-Nazi-punching heroics. Sadly, the normalizing of these repugnant attitudes by the right-wing is now common place and hate crimes have been on the rise ever since Trump took office, so it's quite refreshing to see characters like Charlie Parker and Luis taking a stand against this all-too human evil. Their actions and reactions toward the Stonehursts had me smiling rather happily along the way, and I suspect this family of rich racists will be playing a larger role in the books to come.

There are few series that I look forward to with as much anticipation as a new Charlie Parker novel, and The Woman in the Woods delivers on a number of fronts. The characters and dialogue are as sharp as ever, and Connolly infuses the narrative with a sense of creeping dread, one that promises to deliver even more worry and upset in the near future. While I suspect we're finally getting close to the end of Parker's ultimate story, I certainly hope I'm wrong. There's nothing I'd like more than to keep on reading Connolly's series for many, many more years to come, but if the end of near, I believe Parker and company will be going out on a high note, and the end began here, with the discovery of a dead woman lost in the woods.