About The Book

“Mr. Connolly’s slam-bang thriller is studded with memorable characters and boasts cliffhangers within cliffhangers.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Brilliant...Connolly is writing at the top of his game.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

The New York Times bestselling author of A Book of Bones and “one of the best thriller writers we have” (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) goes back to the very beginning of Private Investigator Charlie Parker’s astonishing career with his first terrifying case.

It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young women in Burdon County, Arkansas.

But no one in the Dirty South wants to admit it.

In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. Obsessed with avenging his lost family, his life is about to take a shocking turn.

Witness the dawning of a conscience.

Witness the birth of a hunter.

Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker.

About The Author

Photograph by Mark Condren

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 X @JConnollyBooks.

About The Reader

Jeff Harding

Product Details

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (November 3, 2020)
Runtime: 15 hours and 21 minutes
ISBN13: 9781797108537

Raves and Reviews

"Mix an excellent story with great characters, and then add audiobook narrator Jeff Harding, who provides a pitch-perfect narration, and it is easy to see why the latest Charlie Parker mystery is so entertaining. . . . Connolly is a master of dialogue, as is Harding, who uses accents and tone to define each character. Harding's rough voice is an ideal complement to the gruff nature of the area's residents. The result is a wonderful, fast-paced audiobook."

– Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award, AudioFile Magazine