Dark Hollow
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| Author | John Connolly |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Cover artist | Mark Harrison |
| Language | English |
| Series | Charlie Parker series |
| Genre | Crime, suspense |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton, Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | 2000 |
| Pages | 489 |
| ISBN | 0-340-72900-7 Search this book on  . |
| Preceded by | Every Dead Thing |
| Followed by | The Killing Kind |
Dark Hollow is a 2000 crime novel written by Irish author John Connolly. The second book in his Charlie Parker series, the novel follows private investigator Charlie Parker as he returns to his hometown of Scarborough, Maine, and tries to find and execute a serial killer who had eluded his grandfather thirty years earlier, to put the spirits of the victims to rest.
The novel was published by Hodder & Stoughton in Ireland and the United Kingdom and by Simon & Schuster in the United States. It was critically acclaimed for its well-researched details, complex, multi-layered plot, and well-written prose, and affirmed Connolly as a leading crime novelist.
Plot summary[edit]
Emily Watts flees from a nursing home and makes a raving warning about the return of Caleb Kyle before killing herself. Meanwhile, a botched ransom exchange ends with the deaths of an FBI agent, four Cambodians and three members of the Boston Mafia, along with the disappearance of millions of dollars of mob money.
Retired New York City police detective Charlie Parker returns to his hometown of Scarborough, Maine, to start over as a private investigator. Parker investigates the disappearances and deaths of a half-dozen young women, who were found hanging from a large tree 36 years earlier by his maternal grandfather. Haunted by ghosts from recent and past killings, Parker suspects that the serial killer has resurfaced and will kill again.
To find answers, Parker and his associates Angel and Louis search for Billy Purdue, who is also hunted by the local and state police, mobster Tony Celli, and a pair of killers who want the money for themselves. Crossfire between the competing groups leaves many dead in the dense forest at the onset of winter. It all leads Parker to the small town of Dark Hollow, where Kyle's memory is perpetuated in a schoolyard rhyme: "Caleb Kyle, Caleb Kyle, when you see him, run a mile."
Major characters[edit]
- Charlie "Bird" Parker – the main character, a private investigator who can see dead people and seeks to avenge them to ease his conscience over the death of his wife and daughter.
- Rita Ferris – the victim who gets brutally murdered along with her son, Donald.
- Billy Purdue – the ex-husband of Rita Ferris and father of her son. He is the chief suspect of her murder case.
- Angel and Louis – A contract killer and thief, respectively, who are friends and allies of Parker.
- George Grunfeld – he dies earlier in the book as a result of lymphosarcoma. He is one of the people who tried to convince Charlie not to retire after the death of his wife and daughter.
- Bob Warren - Parker's maternal grandfather and former policeman who tried to find Caleb Kyle after he was convinced Kyle was responsible for the murders of half-dozen women who found hanging on a tree years ago.
- Caleb Kyle - The main antagonist and serial killer in the story.
Development and writing[edit]
Dark Hollow is the second novel by Irish author John Connolly and the second in his Charlie Parker series. Connolly was inspired by American crime fiction and used the genre to explore universal themes of morality, corruption, violence, and its impact on society. The novel is partially based on the murder of a woman in Dublin. Connolly also used fairy stories as inspiration, to get the "feel of monsters [and being] lost in the woods".
He set the novel in Maine, where he had briefly worked as a waiter in 1991 at the Black Point Inn at Prouts Neck in Scarborough. Connolly felt that "every word became a problem" as he sought to be genuine without becoming imitative. According to Connolly, the manuscript went through more than twenty rewrites. The novel's title is taken from the song of the same name by Gene Clark.
Publication history[edit]
Dark Hollow was published by Hodder & Stoughton, officially released on 6 January 2000 in Ireland and the UK. It was published in paperback in September 2000. It was first published in the United States by Simon & Schuster in July 2001.
Reception[edit]
Literary critics responded positively to the novel, finding it an improvement upon Connolly's acclaimed first novel. Critical consensus was that the novel was well-researched, complex and well-written, with Connolly having developed a unique style through his perspective as an outsider writing about American crime.
References[edit]
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