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    Every Dead Thing
    Every Dead Thing
    Every Dead Thing
    Audiobook (abridged)4 hours

    Every Dead Thing

    Written by John Connolly

    Narrated by Titus Welliver

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Tortured and brilliant private detective Charlie Parker stars in this thriller by New York Times bestselling author John Connolly.

    Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the deaths in his family—a serial killer who uses the human body to create works of art and takes faces as his prize. But the search awakens buried instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love, and, ultimately, for killing.

    Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end, Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man.

    In the tradition of classic American detective fiction, Every Dead Thing is a tense, richly plotted thriller, filled with memorable characters and gripping action. It is also a profoundly moving novel, concerned with the nature of loyalty, love, and forgiveness. Lyrical and terrifying, it is an ambitious debut, triumphantly realized.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 1, 1999
    ISBN9780743546898
    Every Dead Thing
    Author

    John Connolly

    John Connolly is the author of the #1 internationally bestselling Charlie Parker thrillers series, The Book of Lost Things and its sequel The Land of Lost Things, 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 Every Dead Thing

    4/5

    61 ratings24 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A dark american crime story written in 'film noir' style with organised crime, alcoholic ex-cop and gruesome murders. Basically there's nothing original in it but still a very well written highly entertaining book. I'm looking forward to read the other Charlie Parker books.
    • 5/5
      Loved this series and was a little leery about listening to the audiobook but the narrator is perfect
    • 3/5
      This book is a long rambling mess. It would be better delivered as two separate books, however, even then I don't think it would make narrative sense. Despite these major failings, and the fact I am typically not a fan of serial killer Silence of the Lamb influenced books, there is a lurking charm. The is an Angel Heart darkness surrounding the main character that is intriguing. The writing is intelligent and assumes its audience is too. Less than 100 pages in, I took a leap of faith and bought 4 more from this guy, with less than 100 pages to go I was questioning that decision. There is enough here to merit continuation with suspicion.
    • 1/5
      Every Dead Thing is a very boring book to me. It might be that it could be above me.At the beginning of the book it was good at explaining, the murders and who the murdered are. Also how the first chapter started because of the the prologue. It started in that way like when your watching a a movie it says 10 hours earlier, that kind of way.Around page 25 it started to get really really boring. When it mentioned the part of the murder in the prologue it repeated it in the first chapter and it got boring.This book got so boring i wanted to put it down really bad so i did. I wouldn't recomend this book unless you like hard reads or this book won't be boring to you.
    • 4/5
      This book is a pretty great mix of a crime and horror saga. It is not a read for the faint of heart, but it is a real thrill ride for those with a strong constitution. As with any good who-done-it, the end is never quite what and where you expect it.It was only after finishing this book that I realized that this is also the author of "The Book of Lost Things" and "The Gates", both of which I read and enjoyed. This author's writing shows quite a scope of knowledge. He writes with a high degree of authority that comes across well in his novels.Although these genres are not usual choice, I do enjoy the excitement and fantasy that they deliver. I might have to pick up the rest of the Charlie Parker series when life starts to feel a bit stagnant.My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title.
    • 4/5
      i really enjoyed this book, it was definately a bright beginning as a first novel and i love series' so im excited that the charlie parker saga continues and so far its all just as good if not better.Alot of this reminds of the P.I. books on Kenzi and Gennaro (probably why i like it so much)
    • 2/5
      The writing was good (although I had trouble keeping track of the characters). However it was over-the-top gory for no good reason. The writing was good enough that I wanted to read through to the end, but then I was sorry I spent the time putting such yuk in my brain. I really liked his Book of Lost Things, which is why I tried this.
    • 4/5
      What a real page-turner of a novel. Disturbing, deep, gripping with a stunning climax - I was rooted to the book until I finished it.Back Cover Blurb:Former New York detective Charlie Parker is the father of a murdered daughter and husband to a murdered wife.The Travelling Man is an artist of death, making human bodies his canvas and taking faces as his prize.Now another girl is missing....Dogged by terror and driven by rage, through the swamps of America's darkest underbelly, Parker pursues his man and his revenge.And sometimes, nothing is more shocking than the truth.
    • 4/5
      a great read
    • 5/5
      Recommended by a coworker, who was damn right. Charlie Parker (no relation) is a former detective whose wife and daughter are brutally tortured and murdered by a deviant Parker comes to call the Traveling Man. After some time away, he's come back to NY (now as a PI) on a case and is drawn into a missing person case that leads him to horrible crimes of years ago in the south. But the Traveling Man has not stopped during this interlude. In fact, it seems as if he's escalating. So Parker heads down to New Orleans on a lead. And the Traveling Man knows.
    • 5/5
      The first in the excellent, and excellently creepy, Charlie Parker series, that blends hard-nosed modern violent crime with earie supernatural for a page turning read that will stay with you for a long while.
    • 4/5
      I tend to avoid crime series like the plague unless they are exceptional such as the Jo Nesbo 'Harry Hole' and Kate Atkinson's 'Jackson Brody' series, they have to be intelligent literary fiction for me to want to revisit a character again.

      So for this reason I sniffed at John Connolly's Charlie Parker series under the misapprehension that they were the usual police procedural/serial killer pulp fiction.

      Think it was cloud tags that changed my mind...'Gothic...Maine...Thriller...Occult...Louisiana...Crime Noir...Fallen Angels... what is there not to like!

      Anyway 'Every Dead Thing' is the first in the Charlie Parker series, alcoholic NYPD cop Charlie returns from a late night drinking session to find his wife and daughter murdered, in the most dreadful way imaginable (not for the squeamish) and the die is set for the rest of the series. They were by murdered by the elusive serial killer called 'The Travelling Man'.

      Shocked into sobriety this first book traces Parker's hunt for the his family's killer. The action moves from New York to New Orleans where the novel becomes southern Gothic with a delicious hint of the supernatural. The detail the author goes into may irritate some readers (such as nearly 2 pages on the difference between a male and female skeleton) but I lapped it up.

      This book introduces the supporting cast for the rest of the series such as Louis and Angel, the gay but lethal, assassin and'expert home enterer' respectively, continually bickering and bitching bringing a lighter tone to the overwhelming dark.

      'Fey' is how I would describe Parker ...the definition is 'marked by an otherworldly air or attitude' Connolly is Irish and raised as a Catholic and it is all there in Parker's character...guilt, redemption, atoning for your sins.

      Darkly beautiful and exceptionally well written, elegant and bitter prose.
    • 3/5
      A lot of themes. Almost 2 separate serial killer novels. Artistic dissection on drugged but conscious bodies.
    • 3/5
      I am a latecomer to the long-running series Charlie Parker and I confess I don?t care for them much. This is the third I've read, although chronologically it is the first. My main complaint is that these books are too long for this class of story; too many episodes throw off the pace. And I can't take in the need to bring the supernatural into what are basically detective thrillers. Why?I received a review copy of "Every Dead Thing: A Charlie Parker Thriller" by John Connolly (Atria) through NetGalley.com.
    • 4/5
      This story opens with Charlie Parker standing over the bodies of his wife and child, cruely murdered. Charlie has to watch as the police take over the investigation. But he cannot stand by idly, he can get involved, and he does. He chases down the psychopath who killed them, with a variety of twists and turns.I did find it facinating, it was almost two stories that intertwined and made sense in the end. I look forward to more in this series.
    • 4/5
      I can't believe I've never read John Connolly before! I will be devouring more as soon as possible!
    • 5/5
      I picked this book up because it mentioned New Orleans in the blurb on the back. I was disappointed that it seemed to take place primarily in New York. I understood why in the end and how all that tied in to the pursuit and extremely climactic ending! Believe me....this is a sleeper that ends with a bang! I'm glad I read it.
    • 4/5
      Charlie Parker lost his wife and daughter by the hand of a killer. He took away their skins and insides and he's not finish with toying with Parker. Not only is he tryinh to find the killer but also have to solve the dissapearance of a woman.

      Great suspense thriller. The author describs every little detail, some gory. I enjoyed it very much.
    • 2/5
      I was recommended this, but the inital crime was too gruesome for me, and I couldn't get past the horror of it. I started it 2 or 3 seperate times but just never got into the flow it.
    • 4/5
      I loved this story. Amazing characters and the plot twists just keep coming. The body count is high and that adds to the suspense as it often seems they every character is expendable. But in the end Bird wins the day though at a great price. The writing is poetic and the dialog spot on. Highly recommended. DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly, Samantha Cody, and Dub Walker thriller series
    • 2/5
      I had trouble keeping track of the characters in this book. Never finished reading it.
    • 4/5
      Every Dead Thing by John ConnollyCharlie Parker series Book #14 starsWhat's It About? Former NYPD detective Charlie "Bird" Parker is on the verge of madness. Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the deaths in his family?a serial killer who uses the human body to create works of art and takes faces as his prize. But the search awakens buried instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love, and, ultimately, for killing.Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end, Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man.What Did I Think?Go figure. I managed to read every other book in this series and somehow missed this one...the first . I really liked "Every Dead Thing" but it lacked that certain "zing" that the ones after it had...which is often true of first books.There is an extremely large cast of unusual and interesting characters that Connolly brings to life, Some will follow along through the next 12 books in the series. Two characters that frequent the stories and we meet for the first time in "Every Dead Thing" are Angel And Louis who have remained a personal favorite of mine. They are the bad guys that you just have to root for. There is a paranormal overtone throughout all the books as well as just enough of a dose of mystery to make the series well worth the reading time. Believe me when I tell you that these books just keep getting better and better.
    • 4/5
      This was one of the most atmospheric, detailed books I?ve read in a long time. The mood just drips off the page and at times it felt I was following Parker, just a step or two behind. The story builds slowly and sometimes feels as if maybe a touch more editing could have been done, but really the story and characters are to engrossing to let this be a hindrance. The touches of supernatural also add a layer of mystery to the novel. Love this book.
    • 5/5
      I finally read where it all started and it didn't disappoint.