First and foremost: If you are arachnophobic, you might want to be careful, the novel includes a lot of spiders.

This was another fantastic installment of the series about Charlie Parker.

In this novel, to find out what had really happened to a young woman who was found dead in her car, Charlie has to face a religious cult, another hitman, and an unsettling arachnologist.

John Connolly does know how to write a terrifying villain, let me tell you that. Mr. Pudd is certainly one of the most memorable antagonists I've read about in a while. Connolly also knows how to connect multiple plotlines, even those you thought had been completed in previous books. Seeing the Traveling Man mentioned, and how he was connected to Charlie's current case, was very clever, in my opinion. I really enjoyed that, just as I still enjoy the lyrical way Connolly writes about gruesome crimes.

As always, Charlie's friendship with Louis and Angel was my favourite part of the story, and it continues to bring me a lot of joy. The ending of the book had me gripping my blanket, since I was worried about Angel the whole time.

The one thing that truly disappointed me about this novel was the conclusion of the Golem's subplot. He was such an intriguing character, and since his first appearance I wanted to find out more about him, so I was dissatisfied with what happened to him in the end. I have to admit, I was hoping for some sort of professional rivalry moments between him and Louis, but I guess we can't have everything we want.

But other than that? I enjoyed The Killing Kind a lot, and I can't wait to read The White Road.

Very good. I think this one is on a par with the first in the series. The writing is dark and intense; full of foreboding. It’s a pleasure to read and Connolly somehow manages to walk just the right side of the line between poetic and pompous…

“The door closed gently behind him, its sound in the empty synagogue like a breath exhaled from the mouth of God.”

Having said that, occasionally some of the characters talk in the same poetic voice as the author, especially when they’re giving Parker background information, and that doesn’t quite work for me.

The supernatural element is up a tiny notch in this one (Parker’s glimpses of ghosts now include brief interactions) but it works well and it’s still not the main focus of the books. The characters are great and most of them act the way I believe they would (though why Rachel stays with Parker given the queue of deranged killers he keeps leading to her is beyond me). The pacing is perfect, balancing Parker’s dark introspection with mounting creepiness and bursts of violence.

The highlight of this book is definitely the villain. Mr Pudd is one of the creepiest characters I’ve ever read.