A Time of Torment by John Connolly

Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on August 2, 2016

Jerome Burnell’s life was destroyed because he stopped for gas at the wrong place and time. Years later, after being released from prison, Burnell’s first phone call is to Charlie Parker. Burnell is on parole as a registered sex offender who possessed child porn, an offense he has always denied.

Burnell had once been a hero, having saved lives by killing two thugs. He thinks he was set up for the child porn charges for reasons that are related to his killings. Two women whose lives he saved have disappeared and he fears that their fates were also dictated by his act of heroism. Burnell, who never considered himself a hero, hopes that Parker can find the truth. He’s also concerned that a thug who tortured him in prison while speaking of the “Dead King” is also a free man, free to resume the torture.

A related plot thread involves a cultish group of people who live in a part of the Appalachians known as the Cut. The group has a long history of terror. Most county residents outside the Cut find that ignoring that history is the safest way to live.

Can Parker assure Burnell’s safety? Who or what is the Dead King? (Hint: we’re not talking Elvis.) What’s up with the evil residents of the Cut? John Connolly answers some of these questions quickly, but only by giving birth to new questions. Others take longer to resolve. You’ll need to read the book to get the answers.

And I do recommend that you read it, at least if you don’t mind the addition of a supernatural flavor to your thriller stew. The story becomes creepier as it moves along and a few of the scenes are graphically gruesome, so if you are easily disturbed, you will probably want to avoid the book (and most others in the series). On the other hand, if you like thrillers mixed with horror stories that benefit from literary prose style and strong character development, Connolly is the author for you. His prose is so fluid, and his story-telling skills so strong, that it’s difficult to stop reading his books.

Having said that, I will also say that A Time of Torment is less original than some other novels in the series. The plot moves in predictable directions, although Connolly adds rich detail and interpersonal conflicts that add to the story’s interest. Basing the story on an evil cult with a vague connection to the supernatural just seems too easy, given the creative complexity that Connolly brought to earlier Charlie Parker novels. The Dead King is a pedestrian device forced into the plot for the sake of harnessing evil actions to an incarnate evil force. That’s one of Connolly’s recurring themes, but it didn’t work for me here, although I liked the twisted explanation of the Dead King that Connolly saves for the final pages.

What did work are secondary characters, like a local sheriff with a heart condition and two female victims who refuse to behave like victims. And despite the book’s darkness, unexpected one-liners by Louis and Angel (Charlie’s instruments of death) made me laugh. There are always plenty of reasons to recommend a Charlie Parker book, even if the book, like A Time of Torment, is one of the lesser entries in the series.

One final note: The story sets in play what will likely be an ongoing storyline involving Parker’s living daughter. I think there are already enough ongoing storylines in this series (The Collector and the Gray Man and the ghosts of Parker’s wife and daughter all pop up in this novel); I think it might be overkill to add another.

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