If you like Hellboy, you will love this

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	• Nocturnes John Connolly Ullstein Taschenbuchvlg., 2007 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A mixed bag

Connolly is one of my favorite authors, but his novels are much stronger than his short stories. There are some winners in the mix, but many of the stories left me thinking there should have been something more. However, the Charlie Parker novella more than made up for any shortcomings. Connolly is one of the greatest thriller writers around not because of his scary plots, but because the characters he draws exude evil. In the short stories, he doesn't always have the time to draw them as well. In "The Reflecting Eye," the Charlie Parker story, he is as strong as ever. A few of the short stories also shined more brightly than the others--"The Underbury Witches," "The Inkpot Monkey," "Miss Frome, Vampire" and "Mr. Gray's Folly" all were commendable.

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Nocturnes, and some preludes ...

This is a wonderful collection of short stories and two novellas. I was unfamiliar with Connolly's work before someone recommended this collection, and I'm glad I picked it up. This is horror in the British mold, which means it relies far less on the gross-out details and more on mood and setting. Some of the stories are a little predictable but the narratorial voice (many are written in the first person but none of them sound exactly the same) makes up for that. There are some wonderfully surprising twists and a couple of really funny moments that take the edge off. And at least one of the novellas feels like it's leading into something longer ("The Cancer Cowboy Rides.")

Definitely worth reading!

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If you like Hellboy, you will love this

These wonderfully polished stories of the supernatural appealed to me instantly the moment I opened the book. I started with "The Underbury Witches", which is written in a quasi-victorian style and is truly a detective story in the style of a Sherlock Holmes yarn, only this one involving supernatural elements. Another story, "The Reflecting Eye," is also a detective story in which the protagonist, Charlie Parker, is facing off with a supernatural evil. Hellboy is a detective of sorts who deals with supernatural threats, and this very element kept coming up in the stories. I hope that someday Mr. Connolly will do us the honor of penning a Hellboy story for us. I think he is uniquely suited to give us some very compelling Hellboy tales.

Many of the stories, like Hellboy stories, involve mythical themes, like ancient pagan entities in "The Shifting of the Sands," and the demonic monster imprisoned beneath an ancient chapel in "Mr. Pettinger's Daemon." Not every writer can write well about myth. I think it can be difficult to recreate myth and folklore in your fiction. But as you can see, Connolly writes very much in the same vein as the Hellboy stories. It is easy to envision Hellboy making an appearance in any of these "nocturnes." However, none of the stories really needs Hellboy in them. They stand on their own and I am happy to recommend them as fine reading for fans of supernatural and gothic fiction.

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A great read

It has been a while since I read a book that drew me into it the way "Nocturnes' did. Full of short stories, each could be expanded into a book length, but John Connolly made the wise decision to keep them short and thorough enough to deliver the final blow at the end at the right time.
I liked all of the stories, but my favorite is "The Wakeford Abyss." I think the despair at the end of the story - so vaguely described yet stated clearly -- did it for me.
I totally recommend this book for someone who's into elegant horror.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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