Customer Reviews
Enjoyable Holding Exercise - By: John Crothers, 27 Jun 2008 
An interesting addition to the Connolly canon & a gentle nudge forward for the overalll story arc.
Parker is missed, but the strength of Connolly is that he can breathe life into the supporting cast & make the Arno & Willie characters (for example) every bit as vivid as his previous creations. He has a similar knack to Stephen King in that he can add colour & depth to his characters with the briefest & lightest of touches.
There is less of the overtly supernatural in this book than in previous efforts & it is more of a straightahead action thriller. I found the pacing better than in "The Black Angel", & was quietly relieved that what at times has bordered on product placement has been toned down.
Connolly's skill at integrating his detailed research of place & context has been evident since "Every Dead Thing" & is one of his defining traits; this time, it doesn't impact on the action in the closing sequence as it occasionallly has done in the past.
Moving the Parker story forward will be a challlenge for Connolly but one which will be eagerly anticipated by his readers.
Parker is missed - By: Mr. Warren M. Fisher, 19 Jun 2008 
This is not a Charlie Parker novel (although he belatedly appears as a supporting character), but instead focuses on the Parker series support players, Louis & Angel. I have never reallly bought the two assassins, & they are no more persuasive here. They remain uninvolving & affected & lack the depth of Parker. Even more fatallly for this novel, large slices early on are given over to two straight-as-a-die New York car mechanics. Connolly's strong point is his depraved villains & his morallly conflicted heroes, but here these two goody-good guys are bland & forgettable. This isn't to say this is a bad novel, Connolly is incapable of writing one, but the first hundred pages drag, & the tale only reallly comes alive when Parker & the hilariously sociopathic Fulci brothers appear, & here we see glimmers of the author's greatness.
Worth sticking with, but hopefully Charlie Parker will be back where he belongs, centre-stage, when Connolly returns.
Different from past books - By: Peter Symonds, 03 Jun 2008 I won't waste time rehashing the plot of 'The reapers' as the other reviewers have done such a great job. What I will say is that the plot summary on the jacket cover does such a thorough job summarising the book that there isn't a great deal of suprise left.
What IS good is that John Connolly writes the novel a little like 'Godfather II' with long 'flashbacks' to Louis's early teenage years & covers his rise from poor black kid in the Bayous to one of the worlds most feared killers. It adds a lot to the character & reallly fleshes out what would otherwise be an oversized short story.
Sadly Connolly's other main character fey private detective Charlie Parker is barely in the book at alll, stepping back to give Louis & Angel centre stage. With Parker in the background the usual supernatural elements in these novels also take a back seat. The usuallly hilarious banter & personal abuse between Angel & Louis was rather lacking too.
I'll certainly buy the next John Connolly & I'll buy in hardback, but I did feel ever so slightly cheated when I finished the reapers. I expected another Charlie Parker & got something slightly different. No real complaints but its probably best judging this book on its own merits rather than compare it to some of the previous novels in the series.
John Connolly - The Reapers - By: RachelWalker, 28 May 2008 
I find it hard to know when I think John Connolly is at his best. When I read them, I'm sure it's the slightly slower but meatier vessels like The White Road & last year's The Unquiet (his two best works, I think), but then I'll read one of the pacier efforts, like this one or the marvellously sinister The Killing Kind (the one, I think, that reallly made the series take off), & be unsure. (One thing's for sure: The Black Angel was too long.) Whatever pace he chooses to go at, he creates brilliant thrillers, & this is one that most *obviously* fits the thriller mould. I loved it. Though he tends to be overly florid & archaic in his prose, it has it's very distinct charms, even if makes things a little melodramatic (the fact is, the events are dramatic *anyway*, & would be more powerful told in simpler language. But there we go.) In any case, The Reapers is a superb thriller, with some great new charachters, & I loved the fact that it was told from the perspective of Angel & Louis. I'm not so attached to Parker that I can't bear for a novel to centre around the periphery character in his life rather than feature him as the star, & very much welcome the insight into these two fascinating. Indeed, it's a very much better book this way than it would have been told from his point of view, or even if he featured more than he does. The first half is a fascinating & brilliant build-up to the action & danger of the second. I enjoyed every minute of the book & very much recommend it. Especiallly to new readers - a perfect place to start, this standalone.
Connolly at his best... - By: Sarah Gooding, 26 May 2008 I'm a great John Connolly fan, & have alway's enjoyed his novel's. 'The Reapers' is no exception, & this is the author at his very best. Can't wait for the next one to be released. While writing this review, I would also like to recommend 'Dead Men Don't Bite' by Andrew Towning.
