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It's interesting that two of the leading crime and thriller writers in the US at the moment are from abroad -- Lee Child is a Brit and John Connolly comes from Ireland. I don't claim to be fluent in American English (although editing this website means I am seriously thinking of adding it to the list of languages I speak, alongside French and beginners Italian!), but so far I've heard no complaints from the native speakers about the accuracy of their work. The blurb writer for Connolly's THE WHITE ROAD deserves a pay rise, as the back cover description got me reading the book. Yes, there is a "a dreamscape of sorrow haunted by a murderous specter of a hooded woman, by a black car waiting for a passenger that never comes . . ." But there's also too much telling and not enough showing by quite some way -- the action frequently grinds to a halt as Connolly obligingly recaps screeds of info which we probably could manage without. As a result, there's the constant feeling that the action is happening elsewhere. The past is truly terrifying, but the menace of the present, so often hinted at, isn't quite there. PI Charlie Parker, trying to rebuild his life with new partner Rachel after the death of his wife and child, is drawn into the job from hell -- trying to clear black teenager Atys Jones, who is accused of raping and murdering his white girlfriend Marianne Larousse. The Larousse family wield immense power in South Carolina, so anyone attempting to clear Jones is likely to become a pariah. But Parker and his gay sidekicks Angel and Louis become embroiled in a case which soon intertwines with a nightmare case from their past -- that of preacher Aaron Faulkner. Not having read that previous book is no handicap, given Connolly's attachment to information overload. But again the main plot is frequently stalled by what's happening elsewhere, particularly when the narration is taken away from Parker. I understand from a friend who knows these things that crime/horror crossovers could be the next 'in thing.' If so, I shall be out somewhere else. At times Connolly strays close to that sort of territory with the nightmares and visions that may or may not be real -- the aforementioned ghostly woman, the spooky car and the sinister swamps of South Carolina. The horror that Connolly does pinpoint unerringly, though, is that of the deep south, slavery and racism, and how history can and does return to haunt future generations. I pretty much guessed the ending (and despite the number of crime books I read, I quite often don't), and I'm not totally convinced that Connolly is testing the boundaries of the crime genre. But that said, I'm glad I read THE WHITE ROAD as when Connolly does hit the mark, his prose is up there with the best of the writers in the genre.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, March 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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