Nosy parker

Dublin-based author John Connolly is known for his genre-bending novels in which he skilfully merges horror, the supernatural and crime. If you're one for scary, cerebral thrillers, Mr Connolly is certainly your man. He is the master of suggestion and is able to create mood and suspense with incredible ease as he unflinchingly presents a hard-eyed look at the horrors that can lurk in the quiet and rustic settings of most of his stories.

The Unquiet is the latest addition to Mr Connolly's best-selling Charlie Parker series. For those unfamiliar with the books, Charlie Parker is a private detective with a dark past who is frequently involved in cases which have chilling edges to them. Here he greets the return of the mysterious Collector who readers of Nocturnes may remember from the short story, The Reflecting Eye.

While readers of past Parker books can expect the usual great writing, fast-moving plot and intriguing characters, this one may not be so much suited to first-timers mainly because of too many references to past books and which, as a result, may at times seem confusing or even irrelevant. It is recommended that the uninitiated try some of Mr Connolly's other Parker books first before delving into this one.

More contemplative in nature and easily more affecting than some of the earlier Mr Connolly books, The Unquiet is invested with a much different tone and pace. The author takes time to stop and take toll of where all the characters are in their lives, and he confronts some issues that had, hitherto, remained unresolved for Charlie Parker in the previous entries.

This time Charlie Parker, along with various friends and other characters, is trying to track down a group of paedophiles, guilty of various disturbing acts, who have gone to ground for years following the killing of one of their victims. This narrative thankfully has a lot less of the supernatural in it than some of the other Parker books and is more thriller-based.

The book, however, is typically spiced up with sporadic violence which, when it comes, is simply vicious. The daughter of a missing psychologist linked to the sinister paedophile ring hires Maine private investigator Parker to deal with a malevolent stalker. The stalker is a killer who believes the psychologist was involved in his child's disappearance. As Parker fends him off, he comes across an old adversary ‒ our old friend the Collector ‒ and the Hollow Men, flimsy creatures who hover on the edges of the action.

Beautifully written, in parts very emotional and touching, the book tackles a very complicated, sensitive and current affairs issue particularly in connection with the heart-breaking case of five-year-old Madeleine McCann and other children who have disappeared or been abducted: child abuse and the horror that surround it. As with each of Mr Connolly's books, some of the villains Parker meets can really make your skin crawl and your stomach ache. The Unquiet is not a book where you will find a dead body in every chapter, thank goodness, but it still makes for a thrilling read.

• Mr Flores is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written books of fiction and non-fiction as well as poetry in both Maltese and English. He was one of the co-founders of the Moviment Qawmien Letterarju.

• A review copy of this title was supplied by www.ilovebooks.com.mt