Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 5/22/2020 + 1183 more book reviews

This is the first book in Connolly's Charlie Parker series. I have read one other book in the series, The Unquiet, which I thought was a very superior thriller. In Every Dead Thing, Parker's wife and daughter are killed in a very brutal manner while Parker was out getting wasted at the local tavern. Parker was a detective in the NYPD when this happened but the murders turn Parker away from the police and he then works on his own as an unlicensed investigator. As such, he gets involved in a series of child killings which are somehow tied indirectly to the mob in New York. To solve this case, he goes to a small town in Virginia to track a missing young woman and gets into the path of some very vile serial killers who have been killing children for years. Parker is able to solve this case but then he moves on to try to find the killer of his wife and daughter who is known as the "Traveling Man." This leads Parker to the bayous of Louisiana and some more very violent and disturbing killings. But who is the killer and why has he targeted Parker?

This novel was very intense and kept me guessing right up to near the end. The novel was actually two stories in one with the earlier child killings and Parker's later pursuit of the Traveling Man. I was pretty much engrossed with the story although I did think it could have been shortened or maybe even done as two separate novels. Anyway, I will be reading more of the series - hopefully in order.

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