The dark legacy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The dark legacy is a thriller by the Irish writer John Connolly and is the second volume in the Bird Parker series. The book was published in 2000 under the original title Dark Hollow and as a German edition by Ullstein Verlag in 2003.

Blurb

“ After the traumatic loss of his family, the New York ex-cop Charlie Parker retired to Maine, the place where he grew up. When a young woman and her son die at the hand of a stranger, Parker must go into pursuit. Because the key to solving the crime lies in the story of his own family. And in the dark forests of Maine, the origin of a mythical killer ... "

- John Connolly: The Dark Legacy

content

The story, which takes place in the years 1990 to 2009, begins a year after the "Traveling Man" case was closed. After the vigilante justice of the said serial killer, Charles “Bird” Parker retires from the police force and acquires a license as a private detective. To come to terms with the violent death of his wife and daughter, he retreats to his grandfather's house in Scarborough, Maine . Parker has to collect maintenance money for his friend Rita Ferris from her ex-husband Billie Purdue, a violent petty criminal. The private detective succeeds in taking the money from him. The money, however, comes from a robbery that Billy had looted during a ransom delivery. Members of a gangster family were about to hand over two million dollars to the kidnappers for the life of their leader's daughter when everyone involved was shot dead by Billie Purdue. Mafia boss Toni Celli learns that Parker now has part of the ransom and demands it back from him. Celli himself is under enormous pressure because he has embezzled money, which is now being demanded back. Parker is kidnapped, interrogated, and severely ill-treated. The past catches up with him when Rita and her son are murdered. The hit men Abel & Stritch, who together make a gay couple, are also on the trail of the missing ransom. They want to use it to finally retire after a long “professional life” full of torture and murder. In addition to the two killers, various departments of the Mafia and the police are after the hid Billie Purdue. Billie is on the run, but is also looking for his birth parents, who gave him up for adoption at the time. Parker has taken up his lead, but finds only murdered witnesses and suspects that Billie may have wanted revenge on them for his botched life. Parker suffers from nightmares and mysterious incidents take place in his home. For example, he has visions of his murdered wife and daughter that appear to him from the beyond. A woman mentions the return of the mythical serial killer Caleb Kyle (“the shadow of the woods”, a kind of superhuman and invulnerable killer) shortly before her suicide, who kidnapped six young women in 1965, slaughtered them and as a kind of “human sacrifice” to a tree had hung. Caleb Kyle was already wanted by Charlie Parker's grandfather, who happened to meet the killer in a bar.

characters

  • Charlie "Bird" Parker. Protagonist and main character of the story. Charlie is thrown completely off course by the tragedy caused by the violent death of his wife and daughter. It is therefore marked forever. First through police service with the NYPD, later as a private investigator, he tries to catch himself again. In order to cope with the shadows of the past, he moves to his grandfather's town, Scarborough, Maine, where new eerie events soon overtake him.
  • The “Traveling Man” in the original. A sinister mass murderer who left a trail of blood through the United States and slaughtered Charlie Parker's family, among other things. The psychopathic “traveling man” has the cruel habit, as his kind of individual handwriting, to drape his victims in a special way.
  • Rachel Wolfe. Rachel was also very much shaped by the traumatic events. Together with “Bird” she later tries to solve the riddle of Caleb Kyle as a criminal psychologist and unofficial advisor to the New York police. The two also approach each other privately.
  • Louis and Angel. The duo supports “Bird”, with the help of his good contacts in the underworld, in the most difficult and dangerous moments of his investigation. Louis accepts this order for the symbolic sum of one dollar. Its motive is to fight the evil in the world.
  • Rita Ferris. Known from “Bird”. She gives him the rundown investigator to collect maintenance money from her ex-husband Billy Purdue. She and her little son are murdered.
  • Billy Purdue. Purdue is a young outsider, neither smart nor clever, but a good guy. The orphan has a number of criminal records. Among other things, he stole two million dollars from the mafia and is therefore being persecuted by various parties.
  • Abel and Stritch. The gay hit men are one of the antagonists of the story. They are feared by those around them for their cruel deeds. Stritch in particular has the gift of giving death an obscene face. They, who are almost comic-like overdrawn in their viciousness, are on the lookout for Billy Purdue and the missing ransom so that they can have a golden retirement.
  • Rand Jennings. Jennings is the Scarborough Police Commissioner. Rand wants revenge on “Bird”, who had a brief affair with his wife.
  • Lorna Jennings. An unhappy woman. Young and morally “faded”. She and Rand have an unhappy marriage relationship.
  • Tony Celli. Mafia boss. Celli arranged the kidnapping back then. Of course, he doesn't get his hands dirty himself, but hires killers for “wet” jobs. Celli urgently needs the money from the kidnapping back because he himself has debts and is under high pressure.
  • Caleb Kyle. Antagonist and mass murderer. In Maine folk lore, Caleb is a mythical and superhuman figure known as the "Black Man". This myth has a very serious background because it is actually a serial killer who actually existed and who has a connection to Charlie's grandfather. An old woman announces the return of Caleb Kyle before she commits suicide. In 1965 , Caleb brutally killed six young women and, following the rite of a primeval human sacrifice, hung them from a tree, where they bleeded to death.

linguistic style

“ The Dodge Intrepid was under the cover of the fir trees, the windshield facing the sea, the lights off, the key in the ignition so the heater kept on. No snow had fallen this far south, but hoarfrost covered the ground. The surf could be heard from Ferry Beach, the only sound on that quiet Maine winter night. Four boats lay in tarpaulins behind the red-wood boathouse and a catamaran was moored at the public landing stage. Otherwise the parking lot was empty. "

- John Connolly: The Dark Legacy, Ullstein Taschenbuch, 2003, ISBN 978-3-548-26391-5 , Prolog

Reviews

" Rolled down by the force of evil, " is how Michael Drewniok describes the book on Krimicouch. The thriller is atmospherically " dense " but partly " overloaded with plot ". The otherwise “ streamlined action” would experience certain “bulges ” as a result. In addition, the story was overloaded with scenes of " mass slaughter ". The great strength of The Dark Legacy would be the " masterful combination of individual trades into a monstrous and captivating overall picture ". The mystical surroundings of Maine, the land of Stephen King , would also go well with the story. With the character of the cynical and tough protagonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, who survived the end of his family, but will remain a person marked by madness for the rest of his life, Connolly has created a believable and genuine character. On is The Dark Lineage called the best piece "Hardboiled literature." Masterly in building an atmosphere full of tension. The characters, atmosphere, suspense and scene of action are consistently consistent.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Dark Legacy. In: leo-nord.de. the network LEsen Online NORDbayern - LEO-NORD, accessed on July 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j “Murder-Rumble in the Jungle”, review by Michael Drewniok on Krimicouch
  3. ↑ "a few bodies a long the way"
  4. ↑ Connolly: Dark Hollow at www.goodreads.com
  5. ↑ Review on Lovelybooks

Web links