In this 22nd book in the 'Charlie Parker' series, the Maine private investigator searches for a missing man. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a bonus.
PI Charlie Parker has a connection to the supernatural world, including his daughter Jennifer, who died as a teenager. Ghostly Jennifer feels compelled to protect her father, and refuses to go on to the afterlife despite the exhortations of other spirits.
In this book Jennifer visits Charlie while he's asleep, to alert him of inchoate danger. This may have something to do with the fact that Jennifer hears children calling, "the same words repeated like an incantation or a summoning, howling like animals desperate to be found." Jennifer's forecasting is prescient, as Charlie soon discovers.
After attending the sculpture exhibit of his acquaintance Zetta Nadeau, Parker agrees to look for Zetta's missing boyfriend.
Zetta's vanished beau, Wyatt Riggins, is a former military man who's been working in a local marijuana dispensary called BrightBlown. Riggins left without saying goodbye or taking his belongings, but his cell phone - found in a coffee shop - has a text message reading RUN.
Parker discovers that Riggins disappearance is connected with the abduction of four children from the compound of Blas Urrea, a Mexican cartel kingpin.
Urrea wants the children back, and he sends two ruthless killers - Eugene Seeley and La Señora - to retrieve the stolen youngsters.
The kidnapping was a complicated affair involving a chain of people, and Seeley and La Señora start with the first miscreant in Mexico. They torture the man for information, then rip out his heart and move on to the next culprit. The string of perpetrators eventually leads Seeley and La Señora to Maine, where a loose conglomeration of criminals and drug distributors have the children.
The American malefactors include a ruthless family called the Dolfes;
Devin Vaughn and his advisor Aldo Bern, who run the BrightBlown dispensary as well as a widespread criminal enterprise;
and an older couple called the Swishers.
Most of the novel follows two threads: the bloody mission of Seeley and La Señora to find the stolen children; and the attempts of the Maine criminals to protect themselves and neutralize the killers. Parker is tangentially involved because he's looking for Wyatt Riggins, who's hiding from Seeley and La Señora.
Along the way Charlie gets beat up and hospitalized, and he receives help from his usual posse: Angel and Louis - two tough birds who like nothing better than killing bad guys;
and Paulie and Tony Fauci - a couple of bruisers who are good at surveillance AND the rough stuff.
This book isn't among the best in the Charlie Parker series, partly because Parker is only marginally involved in the main plot, and - though there are supernatural elements in the story - most of them don't involve Charlie.
On the upside, Parker - who was a loner - is now in a relationship with police detective Sharon Macy;
and Charlie gets a visit from his college-bound daughter Sam, who confides she wants to be a PI like Charlie.
This is one of those mystery series in which the protagonists age over time, and Parker's body is starting to show the effects of repeatedly getting bruised and shot over the years. Fingers crossed that Charlie carries on for a while longer.
I'd recommend the book to fans of the series. For other mystery aficionados, I'd suggest starting with an earlier Charlie Parker novel.
Thanks to Netgalley, John Connolly, and Atria for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5stars
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