In the latest installment of Connolly's Charlie Parker series, four violently butchered bodies are discovered in an Amsterdam canal house, the remains of friends of the assassin known only as Louis. The men responsible for the murders are Serbian war criminals, who believe they can escape retribution by retreating to their homeland. But Louis has come to Europe to hunt them down.
Grim and grisly—the two best words that describe John Connolly’s newest thriller, The Nameless Ones. But don’t let that force you to set the book back on the shelf because it is a definite keeper ... One of Connolly’s writing assets is his ability to end each chapter with a short sentence that drives the reader to turn the page and not put the book down ... all of the loose ends, the multitude of characters, and the quickly changing scenes will start to come together and tie up nicely at the end. Connolly is good at rolling these balls of yarn around the story, introducing new characters and situations ... If there is any drawback to the story, it is the massive number of characters and the foreign names that Connolly develops through an extensive narrative history of each one. While most of the backstory is well-spent designing who each character is and how they fit into the grand scheme of things, it should be noted that there are places where some of this background could be eliminated. Having said that, it should also be noted that the pictures that evolve from this information go a long way to moving the story forward. Connolly fans will not be disappointed, and The Nameless Ones will only feed their desire for the next Connolly thriller.
John Connolly...continues to mix thrills with a touch of the supernatural, and the result is a unique series that never ceases to surprise ... The final showdown in the Cemetery of the Nameless and the anticipated confrontation with the mysterious Zorya are worth the price of admission ... The Nameless Ones is one of the best novels I have read in this series, perhaps due to the fact that Charlie is able to step aside to allow some of the tertiary characters to take center stage in a big way. The pacing is tense throughout, and the chess game between the two groups of assassins will keep your heart jumping from start to finish.
... a real treat for fans of the Charlie Parker series ... This fan's favorite character, Jennifer Parker, also returns and continues to develop into someone who will one day be a true force to reckon with. In brief, another magnificent story by John Connolly.
