John Connolly | |
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 John Connolly at the 2011 Miami Book Fair International | |
| Born | 31 May 1968 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Genre | Crime fiction, horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, drama |
| Notable awards | |
| Website | |
| johnconnollybooks | |
John Connolly (born 31 May 1968) is an Irish writer who is best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker.
Connolly was educated at Synge Street CBS [1] and graduated with a BA in English from Trinity College, Dublin, [2] and a Masters in journalism from Dublin City University. [3] Before becoming a full-time novelist, he worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a gofer at Harrods department store in London. [4]
After five years as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, he became frustrated with the profession, and began to write his first novel, Every Dead Thing, in his spare time (he continues to contribute articles to the paper, most frequently interviews with other established authors). [5]
Every Dead Thing introduced readers to the anti-hero Charlie Parker, a former police officer hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. It was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and went on to win the 2000 Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel, making Connolly the first author outside of the US to win. [6]
Connolly has since written further books in the Parker series, 19 as of 2019, and a non-Parker thriller. He has also ventured outside of the crime genre with the publication of an anthology of ghost stories and The Book of Lost Things, a novel about a young boy's coming-of-age journey through a fantasy realm during World War II England. Film and television adaptations of his works are currently in development; the earliest to appear to audiences was partially based on the short story "The New Daughter", and starred Kevin Costner and Ivana Baquero.
Connolly also tours to promote the launch of his books. In 2007, he made book store appearances in Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Taiwan to promote The Unquiet.
The seventh book in the Charlie Parker series, The Reapers, was published in 2008. It differs from the earlier books in that the story is told from the point of view of Parker's close friends and allies in combat, Louis and Angel. Louis and Angel are an unlikely couple whose quibbles and good humour are sometimes the source of comic relief. Louis is an enigmatic, large black man who was a hired killer but who now seems to be in semiretirement; Angel is a small part-Latino man and ex-burglar. They appear episodically throughout the Charlie Parker books as his only close friends, revealing themselves when Parker is in need of help and professional protection from his enemies.
The ninth Parker novel, titled The Whisperers, was published in 2010; the tenth, The Burning Soul, in 2011. The Wrath of Angels, the eleventh Charlie Parker novel, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK in August 2012, [7] and was released by Atria/Emily Bestler Books in the US on 1 January 2013. [8] The Wolf in Winter, published in 2014, represented a shift from Charlie Parker's customary first-person narration to a third-person point of view, [9] a shift that continues in A Song of Shadows (2015) [10] and A Time of Torment (2016). [11] A Book of Bones (2019) marks the end of the sequence that began with the novella "The Fractured Atlas," included in Night Music: Nocturnes Vol. 2 (2015), and is a true sequel to The Woman in the Woods. [12]
2009 marked the publication of Connolly's first novel specifically for younger readers, The Gates. [13] [14] A sequel was published in 2011 as Hell's Bells in the UK [15] and as The Infernals [16] in the US. The third book in the Samuel Johnson series, The Creeps, was published in 2013. [17] Connolly also collaborated with his partner, journalist Jennifer Ridyard, on The Chronicles of the Invaders, a fantasy trilogy for teen readers: Conquest (2013), Empire (2015), and Dominion (2016). [18]
Connolly collaborated with fellow Irish author Declan Burke to edit Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels, a nonfiction anthology published in August 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton [19] and in October 2013 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books. [20] Books to Die For was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America, [21] won the Agatha Award for Best Non-fiction, [22] and won the Anthony Award for Best Critical Nonfiction Work. [23]
In 2017, Connolly turned a decades-long fascination with the comedian Stan Laurel [24] into the novel he, a fictional exploration of the comedian's last years. [25] Horror Express, a monograph based on the 1972 film, [26] was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction. [27]
Connolly was drawn to the tradition of American crime fiction, because it seemed the best medium through which he could explore the issues of compassion, morality, reparation and salvation. He credits veteran authors Ross Macdonald, James Lee Burke, and Ed McBain as influences, and is often praised for writing in a rich and introspective style of prose. [28]
Lindsey Davis is an English historical novelist, best known as the author of the Falco series of historical crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire. She is a recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger award.
The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by The Bookseller. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the National Book Awards from 2010 to 2014.
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.
Lavie Tidhar is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London. His novel Osama won the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating Stephen King's 11/22/63 and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. His novel A Man Lies Dreaming won the £5000 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, for Best British Fiction, in 2015. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2017, for Central Station.
Jan Burke is an American author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Agatha for Best Short Story, the Macavity, and Ellery Queen Readers Award.
Peter May is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. He is the recipient of writing awards in Europe and America. The Blackhouse won the U.S. Barry Award for Crime Novel of the Year and the national literature award in France, the CEZAM Prix Litteraire. The Lewis Man won the French daily newspaper Le Télégramme's 10,000-euro Grand Prix des Lecteurs. In 2014, Entry Island won both the Deanston's Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the UK's ITV Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year Award. May's books have sold more than two million copies in the UK and several million internationally.
Sophie Hannah is a British poet and novelist.
Margaret Murphy is a British crime writer.
Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction, best known for his 2020 award-winning thriller, The Chain, and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. He is a winner of the Edgar Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Macavity Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award, the Audie Award, the Anthony Award and the International Thriller Writers Award. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.
Leslie S. Klinger is an American attorney and writer. He is a noted literary editor and annotator of classic genre fiction, including the Sherlock Holmes stories and the novels Dracula, Frankenstein, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel Watchmen, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
Kelli Stanley is an American author of mystery-thrillers. The majority of her published fiction is written in the genres of historical crime fiction and noir. Her best known work, the Miranda Corbie series, is set in San Francisco, her adoptive hometown.
Lauren Milne Henderson is an English freelance journalist and novelist who also writes as Rebecca Chance. Her books include thrillers/bonkbusters/chick lit, mysteries, Tart Noir, romantic comedies, and young adult. Between 1996 and 2011 Henderson published 17 books under her own name. She began writing as Rebecca Chance in 2009, and now writes novels exclusively as Rebecca Chance.
Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling American author known for his collaborations with George A. Romero and Guillermo del Toro.
The Ides of April is a 2013 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the first book in the Flavia Albia Mysteries. Set in March and April AD 89, in the Aventine Hill area of Ancient Rome, the novel stars Flavia Albia, the British-born adopted daughter of Marcus Didius Falco. Albia, a widow, works as a "delatrix" in ancient Rome, like Falco. The book's front cover image depicts a small glass pot and a needle dipped in blood. It carries the strapline, "Falco: The New Generation".
Andrew Williams is a British writer and former television journalist. He is a former Senior Producer and Director at the BBC, the author of six historical novels and two histories of the Second World War.
Erin Hart is an American author of crime fiction.
Alma Katsu is an American writer of adult fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, and have been published in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain and Italy.
Reed Farrel Coleman is an American writer of crime fiction and a poet.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry is a novel written by the Swedish columnist, blogger, and writer Fredrik Backman. The book was first published in Swedish in 2013. The English translation was later published in 2015. The rights for translation have been sold in more than 40 countries. In 2017, the novel was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
Bouchercon is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher; also the inspiration for the Anthony Awards, which have been issued at the convention since 1986. This page details Bouchercon XLIV and the 2013 Anthony Awards ceremony.
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