Chaos and murder arrive in Charlie Parker’s hometown of Portland, Maine, with two connected crimes in the latest novel in #1 nationally bestselling author John Connolly’s “flawless and highly suspenseful” ( PopSugar ) series. The Furies: mythological snake-haired goddesses of vengeance, pursuers of those who have committed unavenged crimes. Now, private investigator C harlie Parker is drawn into a world of modern furies. In The Sisters Strange, the return of the criminal Raum Buker to Portland, Maine brings with it chaos and murder, as an act of theft threatens not only to tear apart his own existence but also that of Raum’s former lovers, the enigmatic sisters Dolors and Ambar Strange. And in The Furies Parker finds himself fighting to protect two more women as the city of Portland shuts down in the face of a global pandemic, but it may be that his clients are more capable of taking care of themselves than anyone could have imagined . . . Two novels in one from the master of the modern supernatural thriller. The Furies (Charlie Parker, #20) by John Connolly – eBook Details It might have been the scudding of clouds, or the shifting of the branches in the night breeze, but for an instant there was movement on X’s skin – no, not on, but under, so that the shape of his face was transfigured. Beneath his own features I descried those of another, the lines sharp and animalistic, the teeth jagged and sharp, and I smelled, amid the man’s floral scent, a hint of burning.” Charlie gets involved in two separate issues here, ones he needs help with from his pals Louis, the big guy who's maybe done a lot bad stuff but is square and loyal to Charlie, and Angel, Louis' life partner, who was supposedly dying of cancer but now is in remission. The Fulci brothers are also present and anyone who reads this series KNOWS who they are. In Greek mythology, the Erinyes (or Furies), were three goddesses of vengeance who punished men for crimes against nature.

The Sisters Strange is a novella John posted online in 2021. He has expanded and freshened it up for us and the second chapter brings Louis and Angel into the mix with another Parker book. In The Sisters Strange, the return of the criminal Raum Buker to Portland, Maine brings with it chaos and murder, as an act of theft threatens not only to tear apart his own existence but also that of Raum's former lovers, the enigmatic sisters Dolors and Ambar Strange.

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Both stories are so good and I didn’t want to them to end. This book is old school Connolly I did like the Nameless Ones but this is straight forward Parker, Maine, and unsavory scary bad guys. I loved this book So fans have to wait another year for more of this series. I hope not! And in The Furies Parker finds himself fighting to protect two more women as the city of Portland shuts down in the face of a global pandemic, but it may be that his clients are more capable of taking care of themselves than anyone could have imagined . . . In “The Sisters Strange”, Parker learns a lot about the rare coins market. Career criminal Raum Buker stole a unique coin from the wrong man and this crime brings danger to Dolors and Ambar Strange. Raum has a tendency to dare his enemies “which bespoke a degree of confidence in himself to which he had no right”. In “The Furies”, a widow asks Parker to recover some mementos of her dead daughter. A pair of murderous thugs are holding them for ransom. Another mother asks Parker to help her daughter escape from an abusive boyfriend.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband. Why he couldn’t just sit when he peed, like a sensible human being, she’d never been able to establish. Lord knows, he took every other opportunity to sit when it was offered, so there seemed to be no comprehensible reason why he couldn’t have extended that policy to peeing, too.” John Connolly writes some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read, and it’s another trademark of his that this beautiful writing captures some of the worst horrors to be found in the human imagination – always setting them off with Charlie Parker, the investigator who’s seen it all and still tries anyway. His determination to help, as well as the bonds and banter he shares with the widening cast of side characters he’s come to call friends, keep the series from ever sinking too far into despair, lightening such heavy topics with a ray of hope amid the darkness.The Furies: mythological snake-haired goddesses of vengeance, pursuers of those who have committed unavenged crimes. Now, private investigator Charlie Parker is drawn into a world of modern furies in two linked stories. I preferred The Sisters Strange, but I enjoyed the entire book. The humor, combined with the excellent creation of atmosphere, is what keeps me reading these supernatural thrillers. The author also has a much broader vocabulary than most thriller writers. Parker’s colleagues Angel and Louis make only a few brief appearances in this book, but I was ok with that. Jeff Harding did an excellent job narrating the audiobook. 4.5 stars If you go seeking ways to bring down hurt upon yourself, life will oblige you, because it has hurt in store for you anyway, but will happily welcome any assistance you're in the mood to offer. Better, then, not to oblige it any more than necessary. I'd like to have said that this was a lesson hard-learned, but it would suggest my education was in the past, whereas it was still ongoing.

The Sisters Strange is the longer of the two, and begins with the seemingly simple murder of a coin collector. But this is John Connolly, and nothing stays simple for long – Charlie Parker is pulled into the increasingly twisty case by an outsider concerned for one of the two sisters the expanding mystery threatens to consume. This story is lighter on the supernatural elements that have come to be this author’s trademark, but not without them entirely. I always get excited when I see that John Connolly has a new book out in the Charlie Parker series! I love Connolly's beautiful writing. He has the heart of a poet who writes dark supernatural tales that put a smile on my face. I love how he combines genres: horror, mystery, supernatural, etc. In The Furies, Connolly takes a new slant and instead of writing a one story, he writes two novellas (The Sisters Strange and The Furies). Both were enjoyable, but I did enjoy the second one much more.John Connolly’s latest supernatural thriller, “The Furies”, is actually two novels for the price of one. Both feature Connolly’s private detective Charlie Parker, a man haunted by demons, both figurative and literal. Strangely enough, things are going well for Parker, who has found some semblance of a life in Maine. He has a favorite watering hole, friends, and even the occasional client, but he is extremely discriminating about the types of cases he signs on to anymore. The would-be extortionists are holed up in – you guessed it – The Braycott Arms where Veale is convinced a child is running loose. It would seem the daughter’s spirit has not yet departed this realm. Concurrently to all that is a domestic violence case which proves that Parker does get at least the odd bit of work in the real world. There was something almost admirable in the Braycott’s commitment to anarchy and disrepute, a commitment that seemed to have been passed down from owner to owner along with the deeds and keys. The hotel first opened its doors on July 25, 1888, just one month after Union Station itself. By then Maine’s embrace of Prohibition, which had commenced nearly seventy years before the passage of the Volstead Act, was tightening. The sale of alcohol was illegal in the state, which drove the business underground—literally, in the case of the Braycott Arms, whose principal developer, Normand Braycott, had the foresight to devise a bar in the basement, albeit one omitted from the official plans. Bribes rendered it largely immune from raids, except for cosmetic purposes, although a two-hundred-foot tunnel behind the keg storage bay was kept clear in case of real emergencies, with a point of egress in a Braycott-owned property on the other side of Park. Decades later, when the rest of the United States followed Maine’s lead in attempting to dry out its population by force, the Braycott’s tunnel and bar became a staging point for the rum runners bringing liquor into Portland Harbor, where the bottles would be concealed in boxes of Moxie soda, later to become the state’s official soft drink, possibly in part for services rendered to its populace during Prohibition.

Connolly does it again! While both of these stories are solid entries into the Parker mythos, I found The Sisters Strange to be the stronger of the two. Also, I feel slightly rewarded for holding out on reading the original publication as I knew it would eventually find its way into a future book or collection; I just didn’t expect it to be so soon and also to be expanded. Women figure predominantly in both novels, Charlie being caught up in issues/problems/dilemmas involving women. (Not romantically or sexually, though he does have a woman friend who I'd like to see him get it on with more than he does!) Charlie Parker, former police, now PI working mostly out of a bar, takes on some seriously weird and unusual problems in both novels. In the first:This is 5 stars and more. Absolutely recommend. And if you have never read this series and read this book, you are in for a Treat. From the First Charlie Parker book- Every Dead Thing - to this book, it’s a journey. These characters become real to the reader and Connolly is one of the best suspense novelist (maybe the best). Although I enjoyed this edition to the Charlie Parker series and thought it was very well done, I want a full fledged book and will be eagerly waiting for the next book in the series.