A read of pain-wracked panache - but not as sleep-disturbingly scary as expected

KEVIN COURTNEYreviews The WhisperersBy John Connolly Hodder Stoughton, 410pp. £12.99

SHHHH. WHISPER it, this is my first time reading a Connolly novel, my first encounter with the Irish author’s best-known creation, the haunted, harbinger- of-death detective Charlie Parker.

I haven't read the acclaimed debut novel, Every Dead Thing,that introduced this iconic character, and I missed The Unquiet, which many consider Connolly's best Parker novel.

For someone who vacuums up thrillers like a particularly peckish aardvark, this is a bit of a serious omission on my part, like being a rock fan without ever having heard AC/DC. The Whisperersis a first instalment in a plan to make amends.

I don’t need to have read the previous Parker novels to twig his back story – this man’s demons have demons, which makes him perfectly qualified to investigate the darkness in other men’s souls.

This time out, he’s looking into a cluster of suicides by soldiers who had all served together in Iraq and suspects it to be more than mere coincidence or post-traumatic stress.

The key to the mystery lies in an ancient box stolen from a museum in Iraq and smuggled into the US. Locked inside is a malevolent presence that writhes and whispers; anyone coming in contact with this box will have their minds destroyed.

But Parker is not the only one in search of this lost ark of the Sumerian dynasty. Also in hot pursuit is a ruthless, dying man named Herod, accompanied by his wraith-like companion, the Captain; on their heels is the feared figure of the Collector, whose help Parker must enlist if he is to solve this ancient puzzle.

Parker seeks advice on post-traumatic stress from an ex-army doctor and learns more about his own deep psychological wounds that have tortured him since the murder of his wife and child many novels ago.

The narrative shifts – sometimes awkwardly – between first person and third person, effectively relegating Parker to just one of an ensemble cast of characters.

There’s a serious if slightly preachy attempt to tackle the issue of US government treatment of Iraq war veterans.

The band of soldiers Parker is investigating have been left by their superiors to deal with their own demons – the last thing they need is a real demon to send them right over the edge.

Given Connolly’s reputation for creating gory horror tales that crawl under your skin, I fully expected to be scared out of my wits from the get-go.

Although The Whisperersdoes build up an eerie sense of impending evil, and the story belts along at a decent enough clip to its creepy climax, it may not be the sleep-disturbingly scary read Connolly fans have come to expect.

Some may feel he’s toned down his darker hues to appeal to a more mainstream readership, but he’s still able to tell a compelling story and deliver it with pain- racked panache. And no one can bring the state of Maine into such sharp relief as Connolly.

There's a bonus for fans of Connolly and for fans of good music: a CD of songs compiled by the author as a musical mood accompaniment to The Whisperersand his previous novel, The Lovers.

The previous two volumes contained songs referenced in Connolly’s novels or listened to by his characters; this third and final volume – containing tracks by artists such as Sebastien Tellier, Shack, Amiina, Joan As Police Woman, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Magnolia Electric Co and Richmond Fontaine – is more about evoking the atmosphere of the novels. Who knows, play it loud enough and it might just drown out the whispering . . .

Kevin Courtney is an Irish Timesjournalist