“The Woman in the Woods” by John Connolly – From the Belly of the Beast

John Connolly never ceases to deliver thrills and chills in his wide range of mysteries and detective stories, returning to helm his ship the best way he knows with his new novel The Woman in the Woods.

The sixteenth book in the Charlie Parker series, it follows the private investigator as he is hired to shadow a police investigation into the recently-discovered, half-preserved body of a woman in the woods, bearing all signs of having given birth shortly before her demise.

Though the child doesn't know it, all sorts of parties are out looking for him... even a dead woman.

Deep into the Woods with John Connolly

Death has always been an integral part of human life, and it should come as no surprise we have developed countless ways to try and deal with its many aspects. As a result, this creates some social expectations which can divide between the natural and unnatural demises.

When a person dies, it is expected we'll be able to find out who they were, how it happened, and trace the chain of events which led up until that point.

When we are unable to obtain these answers, what we are generally left facing is an abnormal atrocity, or what we refer to in the world of literature as a mystery.

In John Connolly's The Woman in the Woods we get treated to just such an affair, and although at first it begins to seem like a very normal excursion it becomes increasingly apparent something rotten is at play.

The plot itself is quite simple, or at least it starts off this way. The corpse of a woman buried years ago has been discovered in the woods, and from the looks of it, she died during or shortly after childbirth.

Nobody knows who this woman is or what might have happened to the child. Enter our protagonist, private detective Charlie Parker, who is called upon to help discover the woman's identity, lay her to rest, and find out what happened to the baby.

Charlie begins to slowly follow the trail of clues left by the enigmatic woman, but soon the skies turn crimson for another mysterious party also seems to be working towards the same goal, leaving a pile of fresh corpses behind.

The clock starts ticking for just about everyone, because even though Charlie doesn't know exactly what the madman would want with the child, he surmises nothing good can be expected from this butcher.

To put a cherry on top, somewhere out there, a dead woman is about to make a phone call to a cabin in the middle of the woods.

Into the Parker Mythology

To begin with, I would like to address the fact this is the sixteenth book in the Charlie Parker series, so we're dealing with a rather well-established figure with quite a lot of past to reference.

This book does seem to somewhat focus on the development of Parker's life, with various conversations touching on topics from previous books. While I can't say I was exactly engaged into them, I still felt they helped me catch up on some of the character development I might have missed from the previous books in the series.

In other words, if this is your first foray into the series I don't think you need to worry as it has enough of its own ground to stand on and welcome newcomers.

While the characterization of Parker and the exploration of his world certainly don't overstay their welcome, we still manage to learn a great deal from them.

We get to learn about his daughter, the havoc he ended up wreaking on some people close to him, the things he did for what he believed was the greater good, and in a more general sense how his unusual life has shaped him.

Connolly also uses Parker's character to explore some greater themes which seem to recur in his novels from time to time. For instance, he touches on the topics of whether or not it's actually possible to fight and win the ultimate battle against great evil and how reality contrasts with our sense of morality.

There is a good amount of food for thought to be found, and in the end I believe Parker was a good centerpiece to deliver it.

Of Murders and Ghosts

With all this book has going on it can become a little easy to forget it has an extremely simple yet far-reaching plot. In and of itself, the concept of a mysterious Jane Doe with a missing child isn't something we've never seen before.

However, John Connolly certainly makes the most of it and uses the small thread to weave an entire tapestry. Every single beat of the story seems to offer us a little bit of new information to hang on to, some new piece of the puzzle with no place to fit in yet.

Slowly but surely he adds more and more elements to the mystery, and a very palpable sense of danger in the form of the murderer trying to track the child down.

We ceaselessly keep wondering what exactly they might want with the kid and why all these murders are worth finding him, and what did happen to that woman many years ago.

Connolly sinks his hooks deeper and deeper as your turn the pages and doesn't let get until the very end, where things are wrapped up in a memorable conclusion.

There is an additional element to this otherwise very down-to-Earth and grounded mystery, and it's the supernatural. Without spoiling too much of it, certain scenes focus on the child himself, and we are led to believe he is receiving calls from the beyond on his toy phone.

While generally-speaking the addition of this sort of element would have me rolling my eyes, I want to reassure those of you who are like-minded, the author never gives it too much importance in the story.

As a matter of fact, it is even conceivably the result of the child's imagination spilling over into reality, to some extent at least. Connolly tries to keep the paranormal in the realm of hints, as if it sits just beyond the confines of the book.

The Final Verdict

With all things said and done, The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly is a thought-provoking and captivating entry into the Charlie Parker series, hitting all the right notes with the characters, their background, and the mystery at the centre of it all.

It takes an extremely simple premise and truly makes the most of it, expanding it into a complex and layered painting. If you enjoy missing person and murder mysteries, this novel will be right up your alley.

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John Connolly Personal site John Connolly is an author from Ireland best-known for the Charlie Parker series, including novels such as Every Dead Thing, The Whisperers and The Woman in the Woods . His other works of writing also brought us the Samuel Johnson series (which is being adapted into a movie franchise), The Chronicle of the Invaders trilogy, as well as some standalone stories such as The Book of Lost Things and The Gates of Hell Are About to Open. Amongst the many awards he has won are the 2000 Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel, the 2003 Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel and the 2012 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction