Instantly this book brought me back to the first book in this series. The incredible writing, an excellent well thought out story, and incredible writing.
It is interesting because the reader could actually start with this book and then move on to the first book—Every Dead Thing, in what is an amazing series. ( )

As I progress through the series, I keep finding that each book is better than its predecessors. The Dirty South is an amazing achievement by one of my favorite authors. Charlie Parker is one of the great creations in fiction, and this novel goes back in time and details his first case, which occurred while searching for the murderer of his wife and child. Mesmerizing and propulsive, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year. ( )

Few series have been as consistently fascinating and satisfying as John Connolly's Charlie Parker books. In this flashback novel, Parker travels to Arkansas to follow possible leads in the murders of his wife and daughter. He agrees to stay and help a local police chief look for at least one killer of young Black women. This is while battling corruption on several levels, all while people anticipate a corporation agreeing to build in their county and bring prosperity to many, but especially to those already in power. ( )

Charlie Parker, retired New York, detective, has gone South to the small town of Cargill, Arkansas. He is a man with a sad past. Driven ever onward in this search for the murderer of his wife Susan and his beloved daughter Jenifer, he is drawn to dark places, where evil dwells and the brutal business of murder is an unwelcome occurrence. The dehumanized bodies of 2 young girls have been exposed, possibly connected to a similar and earlier discovery. The local chief of police Evander Griffin needs a quick resolve to safeguard future investment and development which would ensure the future of this once prosperous community.

For lovers of John Connelly’s brilliant Charlie Parker series this is a prequel with a young detective burdened by the horrors he has witnessed and the great sadness he is doomed forever to carry…..”Either you’re on a crusade said Griffin or you’re trying to find whoever killed your wife and child. My guess is the latter. You’re interested in murders involving mutilation and display, which is what drew you to Cargill”........”Sometimes he believed that he saw them, his lost wife and child. He called glimpses of them in the shadows, or smelled their scent. He conversed with them, and heard their responses. It was not uncommon he knew this conjuring of the dead by the living”.........”he carried himself like someone much older, although that was almost certainly a consequence of all he had endured. He radiated watchfulness without fear, and a self-aware intelligence”.....

An antihero forever doomed to seek out answers to understand the reasoning behind the death of his family, in the hope that it might bring peace but in the knowledge that each day takes him further into the void and the blackness that ultimately awaits him. ( )

In sear ch for killer of his wife and daughter, Parker arrives in the rural fiefdom of Cargill, AK because of unusual sadistice murders of teenage Black girls. Occurs +- years before most novels in the series. ( )