Another week where I have only read one book! Well, actually this time it was a deliberate choice. Usually, I tend to read books very quickly. I love exciting stories with great characters and avoid anything with high-flown language. Perhaps I am immature in my reading, but I read to escape my current situation and pass through the pages into alternate realities where my health and other issues seem far away.

The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly

This week I read the latest book by my favourite author (at the moment), John Connolly: The Woman in the Woods. This is the sixteenth book in his wonderful Charlie Parker series. Here is the blurb:

It is spring, and the semi-preserved body of a young Jewish woman is discovered buried in the Maine woods. It is clear that she gave birth shortly before her death.

But there is no sign of a baby.

Private detective Charlie Parker is engaged by the lawyer Moxie Castin 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 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.

For a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman…

This book deserved the full five stars on Goodreads. This is my review:

Do you ever feel sad when you finish a book? I tried really hard to read this slowly, to savour each word, each tiny piece of character development, each step in the story. But, of course, I had to get to the end at some point. Then I sat still and tried to work my way back through every twist and turn, every forward movement of favourite characters, every link to previous books.

After sixteen books in this series, Connolly pulls off the amazing feat of improving as a writer and storyteller. The supernatural aspects become more interesting and feel “normal” in the Charlie Parker world, not bolted-on extras to the usual kind of thriller. The language becomes more lyrical and beautiful as the villains grow even more dark and evil.

One day, I am going to have to buy the whole series so that I can read it all again. Until then, I will continue to badger the Library to purchase each book as quickly as possible and make sure that I am at the head of the queue. Highly recommended, but please read them in order!

I now really need to visit the Library again as I have finished the book pile. Until then, I will have to seek out some good ebooks to keep me going.

Happy reading to you all.

Best wishes,

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