The Furies: Two Charlie Parker Novels

In The Sisters Strange, the first of two novels in Connolly’s exceptional 20th book featuring Portland, Maine, PI Charlie Parker (after 2021’s The Nameless Ones), a lumber company owner fears that his girlfriend is at risk from her ex-lover, ex-con Raum Buker. Parker’s probing leads him to believe that Buker may be connected with the theft of some valuable coins and drawn the ire of a murderous collector, who has already left bodies in his wake, including a man choked to death by coins forced down the victim’s throat. In the title novel, set at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Parker’s approached for help by mobster Nate Sawyer’s widow. After Sawyer was poisoned in jail, her husband’s former criminal associates harass and assault her, believing she knows where he hid some stolen money. Vivid word pictures (“she caught an inkling of something in his eyes beyond mere annoyance, like the brief flash of a sharp blade before its owner thinks better of using it and sheaths it once again”) and humor enhance suspenseful plotlines. This is an easy entry point for newcomers. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary. (Sept.)