A Book of Bones

By: John Connolly

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Private Investigator Charlie Parker returns in this heart-pounding thriller as he seeks revenge against the darkest forces in the world, from the internationally best-selling author of the acclaimed The Woman in the Woods.

He is our best hope. He is our last hope.

On a lonely moor in Northern England, the body of a young woman is discovered. In the South, a girl lies buried beneath a Saxon mound. To the southeast, the ruins of a priory hide a human skull.

Each is a sacrifice, a summons. And something in the darkness has heard the call.

Charlie Parker has also heard it, and from the forests of Maine to the deserts of the Mexican border, from the canals of Amsterdam to the streets of London, he will track those who would cast the world into darkness.

Parker fears no evil - but evil fears him.

With John Connolly’s signature “blend of crime and supernatural horror” (Crime Reads), A Book of Bones is a terrifying and suspenseful thrill ride that will keep you guessing until the very last moment. 

©2019 John Connolly (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

Needs a better narrator

This is one of my favorite series of books, but boy do we need a new narrator! His basic narration is fine but the accents he tries for are cringe worthy and distract from a fine plot. Charlie Parker and friends deserves better!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Worst yet!

22 hours of a meandering story where I easily lost interest with side vignettes that really didn’t add to the story. Parker books have lost their way! The narration continues to be horrible. Local dialects are terrible and I have commented before about the poor portrayal of women’s voices. No woman would ever sound this way and they all sound the same! I would be challenged to read another Parker book and being from Maine, had really enjoyed the first few!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

I love all of the Charle Parker books in the series until this one. If this was my first Charlie Parker book I wouldn't have finished it. I was so excited when I saw the book was 22 hours but felt like it was 20 hours too long. it gives so much useless information that by the time it got to something useful I wasn't paying attention anymore. I really hope this isn't a sign for future books. The only positive with this audio book is the narrator who I think always does s great job. I know his accents can be off at times but in my mind he is the perfect Charlie Parker

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

narration distracting

This is one of my favorite writers and favorite series but deserves MUCH BETTER narration! Think Scott Brick or Ari Fliakos. Maybe even Craig Wasson. Harding's narration, especially with dialects,is laughable and knocked me out of the story numerous times, like something out of bad community theatre. Shame.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Disjointed and jumped around a lot.

I listened to this continuously until finished. I had difficulty following the who and what, and how it fell into place within the body whole of the story.
The author kept jumping from character to character so often. There’s so many characters to follow!
This is one big jigsaw puzzle of tiny pieces and it takes patience to follow it through to completion.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Seriously questioning continuing

I am about half way through this. I dunno if I want to finish it. Perhaps Mr. Connolly doesn't have an decent editor anymore, but most of the verbiage that I have heard so far could have, and should have, been edited out. I am wondering if, maybe, Mr. Connolly is tired of Charlie Parker. He's got him into such a straight jacket with the FBI, scared of his daughter, scared of his former partner putting restrictions on his visitation, that he is beginning to pall. Angel and Louie could have saved this book, too, but illness has deferred their repartee so not even that is evident, so far. He's lost a lot of the topics I enjoyed with the rest of the series, and this muddled mess, (again, I am only half way through!), does nothing to recover or replace those interests.

I also soooooo dislike this narrator. He went to college in Maine, but has no frakking idea how we talk, or even how to pronounce names of places around the state. For instance, "Piss ca TACK quiss" instead of "Pis CAT a quis". It made me cringe every time in the last book. I felt sure it would have been corrected in future, but, no. I also dislike the way his voice rises at the end of sentences. That, combined with this largely vacuous rambling story, means I will have to actually read this book, because I doubt I will ever listen to this mess again. This, although I listen to the series at least a couple times a year. I am no judge of his British and Scottish accents, but his whiny nasal Downeast accent sends irritation deep into my brain. For those of you who are not familiar with Maine, that accent is nearly eradicated in our state, and is rarely heard.

Oh, and, politics? Give it up.

Ooookay. I finished it. I stand by everything said above. This book may be available in abridged form. That may be better. I do hope Mr. Connolly gets a better editor, and that Mr. Harding calls me to help him with his pronunciation of Maine place names, giving up the notion Mainers all speak with Downeast accents.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good book

Narrator is absolutely terrible with British snd other European accents! Like the narrator otherwise but as this takes place in Europe...

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The best book in awhile for John Connolly.

Worthy book for the series. The plot moves the story well and the book was hard to put down. Lots of interesting twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Long

Too long. Could have been done better if some of the background was eliminated. I fell asleep during parts and continued on with the tale never missing the slept through parts. I so like Parker. Hope the next is better.

Wrong reader and 20% too long

I love John Connolly’s books and have read or have the audible file for every single one. This one was over 22hrs long on Audible but I went for it. The story suffered from the same affliction that affects Stephen King: no editor to insist it be trimmed. This was easily 20% unnecessary, complicated fluff. The reader emphasized every last word in every sentence which is horribly annoying. He mispronounced common words and his attempt a a Yorkshire or English accent was farcical and distracting.