Saturdays With Kaye: A Time of Torment by John Connolly

A Time of Torment by John Connolly

Former NYPD detective Charlie Parker is back from a fatal encounter with a Neo-Nazi group. He was left for dead and was, actually, dead, but was revived and came back stronger than before. Now he’s patched up and ready to battle demons and particularly evil humans. This book is called a thriller, but it reads like more of a supernatural horror tale of carnage and killing while righting terrible wrongs, and featuring rather graphic violence.

The first character to appear is Roger Ormsby, outwardly a small, colorful man who is well liked and generous in the community. Inwardly, he is the Gray Man, who wants to destroy as many lives as he can, those of cherished, good people, as slowly as possible. This sets the tone for the swirl of complex, interwoven events.

Charlie wades through the tangled weave of evil, backed by two dangerous men, Angel and Louis. Together, the three are a formidable team.

The story centers around a West Virginia place called The Cut, which is home to a rough bunch of primitive people who have been isolated—and inbreeding—for many long years. They serve an entity they call The Dead King. That’s the real enemy Charlie has to try to ferret out and defeat.

Fans of the series will love this new one. Readers new to the series can pick this one up without reading the first twelve. It’s a long book, but a quick read because it’s breathtakingly hard to put down.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Death on the Trek, for Suspense Magazine