by John CONOLLY
First published 2009
Charlie Parker serves drinks in a Portland bar after losing his private investigator's license. The police watch his every move. He uses this forced break to dig into his own history, particularly his father's suicide. His father killed himself after shooting two unarmed teenagers, a tragedy that shattered Parker's understanding of his family. As Parker searches for answers about his parents, other threads emerge. A young woman flees from danger that already killed her boyfriend. A former journalist named Mickey Wallace pursues his own investigation. Two mysterious figures lurk in the background, a man and woman who have shadowed Parker throughout his life. They seem determined to end his existence. Parker's quest forces him to question everything he believed about his beloved parents and himself. The investigation becomes deeply personal as past and present collide.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-investigation, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Portland, Oregon
Period: Contemporary
341 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books
Content warnings: suicide, violence