How Charlie Parker got his start: In 1999, the former NYPD detective is sitting in a jail cell in Arkansas, where young women are being brutally dispatched and the news suppressed. He's mourning his wife and child and vengefully out to find their killer, but then his conscience takes an interesting swerve. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Supernatural noir fans will relish Connolly's excellent 18th thriller featuring PI Charlie Parker (after 2019's A Book of Bones), an origin story set in 1999. The murder of Parker's wife and daughter ended his career as an NYPD detective, but the ghosts of his loved ones still literally haunt him, and the tragedy may have turned him into a vigilante who beat a child predator to death. Parker's hunt for his family's killer takes him to impoverished Burdon County, Ark., where someone, possibly the same person he's seeking, has been murdering teenage girls. One possible victim, Patricia Hartley, was ruled to have died accidentally, despite the placement of branches in her vagina and throat. During a chance encounter in a Cargill, Ark., bar between Parker and Evander Griffin, the town's police chief, the conversation turns hostile after they get on the topic of Hartley's death. Parker later learns that Griffin wants the murders hushed up to avoid losing a lucrative business opportunity for the county. Brilliant descriptions of the setting (a lake "seemed to consume light") enhance this intelligent and subtle suspense novel. Connolly is writing at the top of his game. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.). (June)

The year is 1997. Charlie Parker's wife and daughter are dead, and their killer is still at large in Burdon County, Arkansas. Nearly insane from grief, Parker has only one thing on his mind: find the killer and get revenge. But fate has a bigger job in mind for the former NYPD detective. Although most of the county residents refuse to acknowledge it, a serial killer is at work, and it's up to Parker to stop the madness. Readers have waited a long time to hear Parker's origin story; Connolly has hinted at it over the years, but he's kept most of the details hidden away in the shadows. And, although readers always look for different things in an origin story, there's no denying this one is a hell of a tale: dark, haunting, and beautifully told. The Charlie of 20 years ago may be younger and slightly less jaded, but in most respects he's the same guy he is today, sharp of wit and unafraid of confronting evil head-on. For fans of the Parker series, the book is required reading.

The 18th novel in Connolly's Charlie Parker series takes readers back to the beginning of the ex--New York City detective's career as a private eye, finding him "deep in the Dirty South" helping local police investigate horrific murders. Parker is an unwelcome stranger in a Cargill, Arkansas, diner in 1997. Local cops find him suspicious when he mentions the name of a young black girl whose violent death has been officially deemed accidental. Parker himself has lost a wife and daughter to vicious murders. He's quit the NYPD, and he's on a quest to find the man who killed his family "and tear him apart." The story's mood is dark: The local lake named Karagol has water so black "it seemed to consume light,"and it gave its name to nearby Cargill, a dismal town that seems to consume spirit. The police chief decides to accept Parker's help investigating some obvious murders, to the chagrin of some important, malevolent people. A company named Kovas Industries makes missile components and is considering a major investment in Cargill, which would turn it into a company town and make certain people rich. The last thing they need is publicity about killings, so they just want the fates of two girls to be "obliterated." The coroner says they are "poor dead colored girls. That's not the same thing" as dead girls, suggesting they matter less. And much of the town is angry at the girls for getting themselves killed to begin with. (Yes, what were they thinking?) If they must be deemed murders, one character opines that "it would be best" if a "Negro" were the culprit. But Parker wants to know if it's the same person who killed his family. This is a story populated with richly described characters, be they honorable or slimy, as well as rich descriptions and dialogue. Fast-moving, witty dialogue helps speed this well-plotted yarn to a dramatic conclusion. A most satisfying read for crime buffs. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.