John Connolly is at a point in his career when he probably could phone in a new book or two and his fan base would be happy. What he continues to do is anything but that. A SONG OF SHADOWS, the 13th and latest installment in his iconic Charlie Parker canon, may be his best book to date; if not, it certainly ranks right up there.

Connolly so wonderfully and unerringly balances the mystery and the supernatural that if fans of either or both genres are not reading his books, they definitely are missing one of our finest practicing contemporary authors. Connolly is more than a fine storyteller of dark tales; he is a literary writer as well, one who never lets the sound of his own voice get in the way of the characters, plot or anything else. This is true of all of his work, whether it be his young adult series or recent forays into science fiction, but is particularly true of his Parker series. It just doesn’t get any better than this.

"One of my favorite elements of the book is that readers new to the Parker series can pick it up and read it with minimal confusion occasioned by what has gone before. If you are one of those and are so inclined, by all means indulge."

It appeared that we might have seen the end of Parker at the conclusion of THE WOLF IN WINTER. While such is not the case, it was obviously a near thing. A SONG OF SHADOWS opens with a much diminished Parker residing in Boreas, Maine, recovering from the life-threatening injuries he sustained near the end of the former. His sabbatical, alas, is not to be a long one. If Parker is not drawn to troubles on his own, the troubles of others are drawn to him. So it is that his seaside cottage has a pair of troubled neighbors: a mother and daughter who are seemingly haunted by some unspoken troubles.

When a body washes up on shore one day in proximity to their residences, suicide is the explanation, but the mother knows better, even as Parker intuits the same. It’s a warning of sorts, and when another tragedy occurs, Parker finds himself in the familiar role of protector and, yes, target from enemies old and new, who perceive a weakened and perhaps vulnerable foe who can be eliminated for good. The “new” enemies, if you will, have their roots in Nazi Germany, and as the cold steel of slow justice inexorably begins to catch up with them, an escape of sorts is seen with Parker as a weakened obstacle whose elimination is regarded as a goal.

Parker, while perhaps permanently injured, is not helpless and is far from alone. Louis and Angel are there, of course, a close and protective presence who also provide a dark comic relief to the otherwise grim and frequently frightening proceedings. Other continuing characters are on hand as well, some of whom do not make it to story’s end. At that point, Connolly introduces yet another surprise. Those who believed that Parker would fade into the ether at the conclusion of THE WOLF IN WINTER will find cause at the end of A SONG OF SHADOWS that Connolly is nowhere near done with Parker. For the short term, at least.

One of my favorite elements of the book is that readers new to the Parker series can pick it up and read it with minimal confusion occasioned by what has gone before. If you are one of those and are so inclined, by all means indulge. Be warned, though: you will want to spend at least part of the next year reading the series in order, the better to prepare yourself for what comes next.