John Connolly (writer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Connolly, 2011

John Connolly (born May 31, 1968 in Dublin ) is an Irish writer.

Life

Connolly grew up in Dublin, studied English at Trinity College and then journalism at Dublin City University . After a number of temporary jobs, he worked as a journalist for the Irish Times for five years before writing his first novel.

Connolly became known through the novel series about the former New York police officer Charles "Bird" Parker, whose wife and daughter were killed by a serial killer. Parker has been a private investigator since the murder. His collaborators are Parker's friend Angel, a "retired" burglar, and Angel's life partner, the hit man Louis.

Connolly named its protagonist after the jazz musician Charles Parker , whose nickname was also "Bird" or "Birdman". The supporting characters Louis and Angel are a throwback to the movie Angel Heart , in which Harry Angel and Louis Cyphre make a similar duo.

In the novels, reality and the supernatural mix: ghostly apparitions, hallucinations or visions and supernatural beings appear in the stories. Connolly's characters are also often mystically exaggerated: Louis is introduced as a "hitman without equal" ("killer without equal"); he and Angel often act as Parker's "Guardian Angels". Parker himself appears to have telepathic abilities, and many of the crimes have an esoteric background. In the criticism, Connolly has often been compared to Stephen King , especially since some of Connolly's works are set in King's home city of Portland , Maine , where his protagonist Charles Parker is from.

2000 Connolly was the first foreign author to the US " - Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel for" Every Dead Thing (dt .: The black heart excellent).

In 2004 he wrote a series of scary stories for BBC Radio 4 that appeared in the anthology Nocturnes . The book also contains a Charlie Parker novella, which fills the time gap between the novels The White Road and The Black Angel .

In 2006 Connolly wrote his first book for young people, The Book of Lost Things , in which a boy finds himself in a fantasy world during World War II .

Works

Bird Parker series

  • Every Dead Thing , 1999
  • Dark Hollow , 2000
  • The Killing Kind , 2001
  • The White Road , 2002
  • The Black Angel , 2005
  • The Unquiet , 2007
  • The Reapers , 2008
  • The Lovers , 2009
  • The Whisperers , 2010
    • The Brotherhood of the Night, German by Georg Schmidt; List, Berlin 2012. ISBN 3-471-35066-7
  • The Burning Soul , 2011
  • The Wrath of Angels , 2012
  • The Wolf in Winter , 2014
  • A Song of Shadows , 2015
  • A Time of Torment , 2016
  • A Game of Ghosts , 2017
  • The Woman in the Woods , 2018

Samuel Johnson series

  • The Gates , 2009
  • The Infernals , 2011 (UK edition: Hell's Bells )
  • The Creeps , 2013

Invaders trilogy

  • Conquest , 2013
  • Empire , 2015
  • Dominion , 2016

Other novels

Short stories

  • Nocturnes , 2004
  • Mr Gray´s Folly , 2006 (in Dangerous Women - an Anthology of Short Stories from 17 Crime Writers , Edited by Otto Penzler)
    • Mr. Gray's Magnificent Building, in Murderous Affairs , ed. by Otto Penzler, construction, Berlin 2007. ISBN 3-746-62355-3
  • The Cycle , 2005 (in Moments: Short Stories by Irish Women Writers in Aid of the Victims of the Tsunami . Edited by Ciara Considine - under the pseudonym Laura Froom).
  • A Haunting , 2008 (in: Downturn Tales: Stay-Up-All-Night Stories from Your Favorite Bestselling Authors )
  • Lazarus , 2011 (in The New Dead - A Zombie Anthology . Edited by Christopher Golden)
    • Lazarus, in The New Dead - The Zombie Anthology , ed. by Christopher Golden (Ed.), Panini, Stuttgart 2011. ISBN 3-833-22253-0
  • The Caxton Lending Library & Book Depository , 2013
  • The Wanderer in Unknown Realms , 2013

Non-fiction

  • Books to Die For , 2012 (with Declan Burke )
  • Parker: A Miscellany , (contains essays and introductions to the Parker novels), 2016

Awards

filming

In 2009 Connolly's short story " The New Daughter " was filmed by the American production company Gold Circle Films. Kevin Costner as John James and Ivana Baquero as his daughter Louisa James play the leading roles . Directed by Luis Berdejo.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Connolly, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin