Search results for ""Author John Connolly""

An extraordinary recreation of one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history: Laurel & Hardy.Winner of the 2017 Ryan Tubridy Show Listener's Choice Award at the Irish Book Awards.John Connolly recreates the golden age of Hollywood for an intensely compassionate study of the tension between commercial demands and artistic integrity and the human frailties behind even the greatest of artists.An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation; who loved, and was loved in turn; who betrayed, and was betrayed; who never sought to cause pain to others, yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake . . . And whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with the man he knew as Babe.he is Stan Laurel.But he did not really exist. Stan Laurel was a fiction.With he, John Connolly recreates the golden age of Hollywood for an intensely compassionate study of the tension between commercial demands and artistic integrity, the human frailties behind even the greatest of artists, and one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history: Laurel & Hardy.

Read more less

'A brilliantly creepy coming of age novel' Daily Mirror'A moving fable, brilliantly imagined, about the agony of loss and the pain of young adulthood' The Times'This is no saccharine fairytale, but an eerie fable that's perfect for long winter nights' Daily Mail This illustrated edition includes two new short stories - Cinderella, A Version and The Rat King, the latter introducing the Crooked Man who is central to the world of The Book of Lost Things - and an afterword from the author.'Once upon a time, there was a boy who lost his mother . . .' As twelve-year-old David takes refuge from his grief in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds the real world and the fantasy world begin to blend. That is when bad things start to happen. That is when the Crooked Man comes. And David is violently propelled into a land populated by heroes, wolves and monsters in his quest to find the legendary Book of Lost Things.

Read more less

The new thrilling instalment of John Connolly's popular Charlie Parker series.He is our best hope.He is our last hope.On a lonely moor in the northeast of England, the body of a young woman is discovered near the site of a vanished church. In the south, a girl lies buried beneath a Saxon mound. To the southeast, the ruins of a priory hide a human skull.Each is a sacrifice, a summons. And something in the shadows has heard the call.But another is coming: Parker the hunter, the avenger. Parker's mission takes him from Maine to the deserts of the Mexican border; from the canals of Amsterdam to the streets of London - he will track those who would cast this world into darkness.Parker fears no evil.But evil fears him . . .

Read more less

The Number One bestseller.It is deep winter. The darkness is unending.The private detective named Jaycob Eklund has vanished, and Charlie Parker is dispatched to track him down. Parker's employer, Edgar Ross, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has his own reasons for wanting Eklund found. Eklund is no ordinary investigator. He is obsessively tracking a series of homicides and disappearances, each linked to reports of hauntings. Now Parker will be drawn into Eklund's world, a realm in which the monstrous Mother rules a crumbling criminal empire, in which men strike bargains with angels, and in which the innocent and guilty alike are pawns in a game of ghosts . . .

Read more less

A strange novel for strange young people.Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund Boswell are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Hallowe'en. Which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Avenue. The Abernathys don't mean any harm by their flirtation with Satanism. But it just happens to coincide with a malfunction in the Large Hadron Collider that creates a gap in the universe. A gap in which there is a pair of enormous gates. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out . . .Can Samuel persuade anyone to take this seriously? Can he harness the power of science to save the world as we know it?

Read more less

*** THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER ***Twice upon a time - for that is how some stories should continue . . .'Book lovers and fans of John Connolly will not be disappointed by this remarkable standalone novel' INDEPENDENT'Will wholly satisfy fans of The Book of Lost Things. The tale is fully immersed in the otherworld of fantasy and fairytale... the novel is also a quietly profound journey to the heart of the human condition' IRISH TIMES'This can be read as a standalone, and may well prove as popular as its predecessor' GUARDIAN Phoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident. She is a body without a spirit, a stolen child. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud to Phoebe the fairy stories she loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world. But it is hard to keep faith, so very hard. Now an old house on the hospital grounds, a property connected to a book written by a vanished author, is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to enter, and to journey - to a land coloured by the memories of Ceres's childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father, to a land of witches and dryads, giants and mandrakes; to a land where old enemies are watching, and waiting. To the Land of Lost Things.For anyone who loved THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS and for all readers who enjoy dark, beautifully written fables that explore the heart of the human condition: love, loyalty and sacrifice.'A unique and compelling journey' DAILY MAIL'Dark and beautiful' HEAT'Captivating... he's certainly spun more gold with The Land of Lost Things' SUNDAY BUSINESS POST'A rollicking adventure... Connolly is such a skilled storyteller that you can't help being swept along' IRISH INDEPENDENT'This dark fairy tale, sequel to The Book of Lost Things (2006), speaks volumes about a mother's devotion [...] A feat of imagination' KIRKUS'I've been waiting for this book for over 15 years and it is everything I hoped it would be and more. Simply breathtaking' MARK BILLINGHAM

Read more less

In 1693, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has known three hundred years of peace. Until now. For men are descending on Sanctuary, their purpose to hunt down and kill the wife of their leader and retrieve the money that she stole from him. All that stands in their way are a young rookie officer, Sharon Macy, and the island's strange, troubled policeman, the giant known as Melancholy Joe Dupree. But Joe Dupree is no ordinary policeman. He is the guardian of the island's secrets, the repository of its memories. He knows that Sanctuary has been steeped in blood once; it will tolerate the shedding of blood no longer. Now a band of killers is set to desecrate Sanctuary and unleash the fury of its ghosts upon themselves and all who stand by them. On Sanctuary, evil is about to meet its match.

Read more less

'On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier' won the CWA Dagger for best short story.'The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository' won the 2014 Anthony award for best short story.Fans of THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS and NOCTURNES will be delighted with this superbly crafted collection - with two award-winning stories - of the supernatural from John Connolly.A decade after NOCTURNES first terrified and delighted readers, John Connolly, bestselling author of thirteen acclaimed thrillers featuring private investigator Charlie Parker, gives us a second volume of tales of the supernatural. From stories of the monstrous for dark winter nights to fables of fantastic libraries and haunted books, from a tender narrative of love after death to a frank, personal and revealing account of the author's affection for myths of ghosts and demons, this is a collection that will surprise, delight - and terrify.NIGHT MUSIC also contains two novellas: the multi-award-winning THE CAXTON PRIVATE LENDING LIBRARY & BOOK DEPOSITORY, and THE FRACTURED ATLAS, featuring The Wanderer in Unknown Realms, previously published as an ebook, developed here into a five-part novella.NIGHT MUSIC: NOCTURNES 2 is a masterly collection to be read with the lights on - menace has never been so seductive.'An addictive and meticulously rendered collection of eerie, amusing and achingly beautiful short stories.' Sunday Business Post

Read more less

Samuel Johnson is not in a happy place. He is dating the wrong girl, demons are occupying his spare room, and the town in which he lives appears to be cursed.But there is some good news on the horizon. After years of neglect, the grand old building that once housed Wreckit & Sons is about to reopen as the greatest toyshop that Biddlecombe has ever seen, and Samuel and his faithful dachshund Boswell are to be guests of honour at the big event. A splendid time will be had by all, as long as they can ignore the sinister statue that keeps moving around the town, the Shadows that are slowly blocking out the stars, the murderous Christmas elves, and the fact that somewhere in Biddlecombe a rotten black heart is beating a rhythm of revenge.A trap has been set. The Earth is doomed. The last hope for humanity lies with one young boy and the girl who's secretly in love with him. Oh, and a dog, two demons, four dwarfs and a very polite monster.

Read more less

Grievously wounded private detective Charlie Parker investigates a case that has its origins in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War.Broken, but undeterred, private detective Charlie Parker faces the darkest of dark forces in a case with its roots in the second world war, and a concentration camp unlike any other . . .Recovering from a near-fatal shooting and tormented by memories of a world beyond this one, Parker has retreated to the small Maine town of Boreas to recover. There he befriends a widow named Ruth Winter and her young daughter, Amanda. But Ruth has her secrets. She is hiding from the past, and the forces that threaten her have their origins in the Second World War, in a town called Lubko and a concentration camp unlike any other. Old atrocities are about to be unearthed, and old sinners will kill to hide their sins. Now Parker is about to risk his life to defend a woman he barely knows, one who fears him almost as much as she fears those who are coming for her.His enemies believe him to be vulnerable. Fearful. Solitary.But they are wrong. Parker is far from afraid, and far from alone.For something is emerging from the shadows . . .

Read more less

In Amsterdam, three people are butchered in a canal house, their remains arranged around the crucified form of their patriarch, De Jaager: fixer, go-between, and confidante of the assassin named Louis. The men responsible for the murders are Serbian war criminals. They believe they can escape retribution by retreating to their homeland.They are wrong. For Louis has come to Europe to hunt them down: five killers to be found and punished before they can vanish into the east. There is only one problem.The sixth.

Read more less

Following the highly acclaimed Nocturnes and Night Music, Night & Day is filled with eerie surprises and dark delights.Night & Day takes us from the dusty shelves of an uncanny library filled with fictional characters to a bunker deep beneath the earth where scientists seek revenge on old Nazis, from an English marsh haunted by a mother and her son to a country house where a grieving widower finds comfort in a most unlikely source. Concluding with the author''s account of how an obscure horror film brought him closer to his lost father, and how nostalgia can help through our hardest times, this is a collection that will move, entertain, and keep you reading late into the night.

Read more less

Take his hand and follow him into the darkness . . .John Connolly, bestselling author of seven brilliantly scary mystery novels, now turns his pen to the short story to give us a volume of chilling tales of the supernatural. In this macabre collection, echoing masters of the genre from M R James to Stephen King, Connolly delves into our darkest fears - lost lovers, missing children, subterranean creatures and predatory demons.Framing the collection are two substantial novellas - THE CANCER COWBOY RIDES charts the fatal progress of a modern-day grim reaper, while THE REFLECTING EYE is a haunted house tale with a twist and marks the return of private detective Charlie Parker, the troubled hero of Connolly's crime novels. This edition contains two additional stories - THE CYCLE and MR GRAY'S FOLLY - not previously included. NOCTURNES is a masterly volume to be read with the lights on - menace has never been so seductive . . .

Read more less

All hardbacks in the first print run will be signed by the author.The story of genre fiction - horror, romantic fiction, science fiction, crime writing, and more - is also the story of Irish fiction. Irish writers have given the world Lemuel Gulliver, Dracula, and the world of Narnia. They have produced pioneering tales of detection, terrifying ghost stories and ground-breaking women's popular fiction. Now, for the first time, John Connolly's one volume presents the history of Irish genre writing and uses it to explore how we think about fiction itself.Deeply researched, and passionately argued, SHADOW VOICES takes the lives of more than sixty writers - by turns tragic, amusing, and adventurous, but always extraordinary - and sets them alongside the stories they have written, to create a new way of looking at genre and literature, both Irish and beyond. Here are vampires and monsters, murderers and cannibals. Here are female criminal masterminds and dogged detectives, star-crossed lovers and vengeful spouses. Here are the SHADOW VOICES.

Read more less

The Number One bestseller, now out in paperback.Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.All in the name of the being they serve.All in the name of the Dead King.'One of the writer's finest achievements . . . new readers - start here' Independent'A consistently excellent series . . .a dizzying ride to hell and back' Sunday Herald'Magical, horrific, poetic, gothic. Unique and rewarding' Maxim Jakubowski

Read more less

''John Connolly is the creator of a unique blend of thriller and horror who receives rave reviews every time'' Sunday Telegraph''A moving entry in a remarkable series'' Irish TimesA Child Missing. A Mother Accused. Charlie Parker Is Their Only Hope.In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone - ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk - has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty.But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife''s guilt, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old crooked house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built.A house, and what dwells be

Read more less

Winner of the 2013 Agatha, Anthony and the Macavity Awards for Best Crime Non-Fiction.With so many mystery novels to choose from and so many new titles appearing each year, where should the reader start? What are the classics of the genre? Which are the hidden gems?In the most ambitious anthology of its kind yet attempted, the world's leading mystery writers have come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about themselves and their work work as they do about the books that they love, more than 120 authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Christie to Child and Poe to PD James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Peter Wimsey, BOOKS TO DIE FOR brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover. This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought . . . I want more! www.bookstodiefor.net

Read more less

Responding to the growing number of psychologically-informed services for people experiencing social exclusion and, in particular, homelessness, this book gives professionals the information and understanding they need to be fully informed in their practice with this client group. It begins with theory, looking at the psychology of social exclusion and the processes that underlie it, and considers the relationship between trauma, complex needs, homelessness and social exclusion. Presenting practical interventions and case studies, the authors then reveal what makes an effective service in practice and a client perspective on social exclusion and recovery is provided.This is essential reading for all those involved in developing services that meet the needs of socially excluded people with histories of complex trauma or presentations of complex needs, including those who are homeless, refugees and asylum seekers, Traveller and Roma communities and people involved with the criminal justice system.

Read more less

DOMINION is the epic follow-up to CONQUEST and EMPIRE in the Chronicles of the Invaders series by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard. Fans of Pittacus Lore and Veronica Roth will be entranced.They have cheated death.Defied their people.Changed beyond recognition.Their love has survived the impossible.But now they must learn to trust again: the future of their worlds depends on it.

Read more less