"The Unquiet" by John Connelly

by Adrienne Kelsey

Ok, so I started reading this novel by John Connelly called The Unquiet and at first I couldn't put it down. The prologue is obscure and leaves you with a feeling of intrigue as to how it will be applicable to the rest of the story. John Connelly's eloquent writing is very easy to read. You quickly get engulfed in the lives of these characters as you learn more about them and can almost feel what they are going through.

Let me give you the description of the book to give you an even closer insight into The Unquiet.

Daniel Clay, a psychiatrist alleged to have worked with a child-abuse ring, is missing and presumed dead. His grown daughter, Rebecca, is being stalked by an ex-con whose own daughter is missing. Rebecca hires Portland, Maine, investigator Charlie Parker to protect her and dissuade her stalker, a former contract killer named Merrick who is intent on either finding his daughter or avenging her death.

The case leads to a very dark chapter in Maine's rural history and to the still-operational remnants of a syndicate of highly organized child abusers. Connolly weaves elements of the supernatural into a disturbing, very dark tale.

Parker is haunted by the specters of his late wife and daughter as well as an ephemeral embodiment of death who offers both advice and warnings as the detective ventures ever deeper into the darkness of the real world and his own soul. The disquieting subject, coupled with Connolly's dark, lyrical prose, will leave unshakable images lurking on the edge of the reader's consciousness.

So after reading all this, you are probably wondering why in the world would I stop reading this book?! Alas, my pathetic reason is that it is too intense for me. I know ... go ahead and say it ... "I'm a sissy". Not you ... me. I don't know why, but before I had children I could handle anything crime fiction that came my way. And now, I just can't seem to handle it at all.

So here's my plan from now on ... instead of abandoning this blog, I'm going to change it up a bit. Whenever one of the publishers associated with Reel Girls Media puts a new crime fiction novel on my desk, I will research the web for reviews from others that have already read the book and provide these reviews to you (as long as I deem them credible of course!).

If you think this is a good idea, let me know. If you think I should scrub this blog altogether, let me know. ;-)

Otherwise ... getting back to The Unquiet ... I ABSOLUTELY recommend reading it if you are not of the faint of heart and enjoy a deeply involving story.

All the best.