The Killing Kind

A Charlie Parker Thriller

By: John Connolly

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Irish author John Connolly delivers the third novel in his best-selling, critically acclaimed series featuring troubled ex-cop turned detective Charlie Parker.

John Connolly takes battered ex-cop Charlie Parker on his third outing after Every Dead Thing and Dark Hollow. Still struggling with the horrific ghosts of his past, Parker is now a disillusioned private eye hired to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Grace Peltier - which neither her father nor a former US senator believes was suicide. The trail leads to a mass grave in Northern Maine where a Baptist community disappeared 40 years earlier. The deaths of the Baptists and Grace are connected and point in the direction of a shadowy organization known as the Fellowship. With the assistance of some idiosyncratic and murderous acolytes, Parker soon confronts the Fellowship's demonic leader and finds himself caught in a situation more gruesome than even he could ever have imagined.

©2001 John Connolly. All rights reserved. Originally published in 2001 Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton. All rights reserved. (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Needs a different narrator

I might have enjoyed this story better had it been narrated by someone else. It was so hard to care about the story (and I'm a JC fan) that I was continually thinking that our ceiling needs painting. Jeff Harding and George Guidall (previous narrators) do Charlie Parker so well. They have the gravitas to actually sound like a former cop whose wife and daughter had been brutally murdered. By comparison, Holter Graham sounds like a puppy. I imagine he'd do well narrating other books. His diction is good and his voice is (too) pleasant. Here he just sounds glib, like a candidate for Student Council president. Too bad.

Narrator was awful!

I enjoyed the book but struggled with Holter. The narrator does the Dark Hunter books This book should be read by Jeff Harding.

Story ok but pronunciation!

It’s Louis (Lou-e). I figured the joke about the king would’ve been a clue. And it’s Muh-CHI-us! Real places in Maine, so it’s annoying and distracting when they’re pronounced incorrectly.

Terrible narrator!

I couldn't finish chapter one. I am returning it. Light weight boring narrator trying to portray an emotionally heavy weight character.

Graham is a ruin.

Graham has about 2 1/2 voices throughout the book, and cannot even keep those straight. What an atrocious reader.

Why the change in narrator?!?!

I am so disappointed with the change in narrator. The narrator for the first two books did a great job with all of the characters, the narrator for this one butchers Angel and Louis. Disappointing overall, sticking it through for the good story...

The scariest book of the series, for me.

I re-read the series every year, and I hear different things every time. This one is something I cannot read at night. Too much of my least favorite thing! So glad John Connolly finally got this book on Audible.

Anyone who is not a resident of Maine will probably not be bothered by the faults in narration. However, I would like to offer my free expert advice to all narrators who are giving voice to books set in Maine. As a life long resident, I could tell you that "Calais" is, in Maine, pronounced like "callous", not "cal-ay" like the French, or how "Machias" is pronounced. That kind of thing is the only reason this book did not get a full five stars. Most of the narrators make these mistakes, even while they capture our Downeast accent, and use it for all of us, although there are at least 4 distinct regional accents

Other than that, you will enjoy this book!.

Great novel, but...

Needs a good narrator. This one was too young and had the wrong pace, depth of voice. Also, it was upsetting to hear several Maine place names mispronounced. I live in Maine and cringed often. This affects reader reception of the novel itself. Bird needs to be tougher. Voices of his buddies were also better and funnier in first books.

Wrong, wrong, wrong narrator

This book was soooooo good, but the narrator was ALL WRONG. First of all, don't these narrators listen to each other? You can't go changing "Louie" to "Luis." And, this narrtor's voice is way too young for Charlie Parker. That being said, his voice for the spider guy was AMAZING - wow. Gave me chills every time that guy spoke.

Wrong Narrator Choice

I normally think it is unfair to review a book before completing it, but I am going to make an exception for this one. I can already tell the story is going to be as good as the other Charlie Parker stories, my problem is with the narrator. I don't think the narrator is bad at his job, but I am having a hard time picturing the same Charlie Parker as the one Jeff Harding portrayed. His voice and delivery makes him seem like an eager, sarcastic 20-something, which Charlie Parker is not... I would recommend listening to a sample of this before purchasing as it is rather distracting. I would like to stress again that the narrator is not bad, but would be more suited for voicing Spiderman or a puppy in a Disney animated movie. I will edit this review when I finish the book should my opinion change, but I don't have high hopes.