Dark Hollow: A Charlie Parker Thriller [Paperback]

“Connolly has crafted one of the most darkly intriguing books this reviewer has encountered in more than three decades of reading crime fiction.” —Publishers Weekly(starred review)

The second thriller in John Connolly's bestselling, chilling series featuring haunted private investigator Charlie Parker.

Charlier Parker, a former New York City detective with a haunted past, befriends a down-and-out mother with a small child. When she turns up dead, Charlie's first suspect is her estranged husband. Charlie follows the man's trail to Maine and there he becomes entangled in a series of strange occurances which all seem to harken back to a string of unsolved murders that took place generations before. The murders were never solved and now Charlie must hunt for a killer and the connection between two crimes that span a century.Dark Hollow

CHAPTER

I

Billy Purdue’s knife bit deeper into my cheek, sending a trickle of blood down my face. His body was pressed hard against mine, his elbows pinning my arms to the wall, his legs tensed against mine so I couldn’t go for his groin. His fingers tightened on my neck and I thought:

Billy Purdue. I should have known better . . .

BILLY PURDUE WAS POOR; poor and dangerous with some bitterness and frustration added to spice up the pot. The threat of violence was always imminent with him. It hung around him like a cloud, obscuring his judgment and influencing the actions of others, so that when he stepped into a bar and took a drink, or picked up a pool cue for a game, trouble would inevitably start. Billy Purdue didn’t have to pick fights. Fights picked him.

It acted like a contagion, so that even if Billy himself managed to avoid conflict—he generally didn’t seek it, but when he found it he rarely walked away—five wol#}