By John Connolly

Hodder, out now

Look for a missing boy? Should be an easy job for Charlie Parker – but he’s not the only one on a missing person hunt…

If there’s a motto for the entire Charlie Parker series, I suspect it would be that “actions have consequences”. There’s definitely a feel of things heading inexorably towards a cataclysmic showdown in this latest instalment in the series, as things return to bite everyone in the nether regions. Those who have seemed invulnerable up to now are no longer so and the consequences of decisions – whether instinctive (over)reactions to situations or long ago choices – continue to resonate. Those of us who’ve been on this ride alongside Parker for the last twenty or so years have seen the supernatural and horror elements of the series gradually ascend, and even if there are “worldly” explanations for events, what the characters themselves believe shows a darkness that’s increasingly pervading – and a clinical nastiness at times that continues to terrify in retrospect.

Connolly never neglects the human element at the heart of the story – Parker’s relationships with those around him, whether it’s his daughters, or Angel and Louis (whose fate I increasingly believe will be intricately linked with Charlie’s), are central to the tale. The antagonists are rounded characters, even if their agendas (and the lengths to which they’ll go to achieve them) are ones that most of us would baulk at even contemplating.

And, as is often the case, Connolly shines a light on a real world horror along the way – on those who suffer domestic abuse and those who risk everything to help them try to achieve some form of escape. Some of the most harrowing sections have nothing to do with people seeking pages of books that could potentially change the world, but with the evils that people commit behind closed doors.

Verdict: Maintaining the standard of one of the best crime horror series there is – if you’ve not met Charlie Parker yet, then get to it! 10/10

Paul Simpson