Bad Men: A Thriller

I immerse myself in John Connolly books; the supernatural reality that he creates is scary and hugely entertaining, every time. If you like John Connolly this is another must read. If you haven't read his work before this is a good start as it is a stand alone novel despite the Charlie Parker cameo.

Bad Men = Bad Book ...actually a HORRIBLE book....worst money I have spent on a book in a long time.
Being honest, I couldn't get past the first 35 pages. The rape of a 6 year girl old sealed the deal for me. I have deleted this book from my library....I don't even want it in my iPad. The world is full of well written books with great story lines, mystery, great characters, adventure, etc. Why would anyone waste their time on this book when there are a few thousand really good books waiting for you. I am not reacting to the violence....hey, Lee Childs Jack Reacher books, or Andrew Klavan books are filled with violence...but they are also full of great dialog, tight story lines, really well written characters, great pace. Any author who has to resort to the story line in this book needs better ideas or a better editor.

I love Connolly's books. First, they are always filled with great mysteries and suspense. Second, there is always a small dose of the paranormal mixed into it. And finally, his writing is so poetic and so beautiful that it makes the reading experience all that more entertaining. Bad Men does not disappoint. Although it is a rare book that doesn't feature detective Charlie Parker, it is still an intricate novel filled with great characters and incredible twists and turns.

The small island of Sanctuary, Maine, has a dark past. Its history is full of murders, traitors and deceptions. The island has been dormant for some time now, the inhabitants having been left alone to live their every day life without fear or pain. But when a group of Bad Men arrive on the island, things change quite dramatically.

Joe Dupree, the island's Sheriff, is somewhat of a legend for Sanctuary. Called the giant because of his towering height, he is in love with
Marianne, a young mother who has just moved to the island. Little does he know that Marianne holds some secrets she isn't ready to share, secrets that will undoubtedly threaten the very existence of the island. Secrets that will awaken the dark side of the island.

Although the first half of the novel is a bit too slow moving, the author taking his time to tell the tale of the island and of the Bad Men in question, its second half is well worth the wait. As the story progresses, you never know where it will take you. No one in this story is safe. No one in this story is fully good or fully bad. These are flawed humans with secrets, secrets that might very spell their doom.

This is one of my favourite Connellys. I couldn't put it down. When the novel ends, I actually wanted more out of the story. It's still amazing to me that Connolly, and Irishman living in Europe, can capture the essence of small-town coastal Maine.

I can't wait for Connolly to write another stand alone novel. I love his Charlie Parker mysteries, but Bad Men prove that he has much more to offer.

Saralee says
Charlie Parker, the ex-cop turned private detective, is the usual protagonist in the popular mystery series by author John Connolly that includes The Killing Kind (Pocket Star), Dark Hollow (Pocket Books) and The White Road (Pocket Star). Connolly's books featuring Parker have developed a loyal following because of the author's ability to write a great story and his distinctive style of writing which includes a wry sense of humor.
Although Parker does make a very brief appearance, Bad Men (Atria Books) introduces us to Joe Dupree. Joe's job is to protect the small island called Dutch Island once called Sanctuary in Maine, where most of the book takes place. As the story begins, the reader learns that something terrible happened in Sanctuary more than 300 years ago. There are bad people who want to murder and wreak havoc in the present and spirits who may or may not be helping them. Edward Moloch is as evil as bad men come and he plans to escape from prison and find his wife Marianne who is hiding on Dutch Island with their son. It is up to Dupree and rookie police officer Sharon Macy to protect the citizens of Dutch Island from the horrors, which are often unexplained, along with preparing for Moloch's arrival.
Did you think this book was too violent? Parts of it made me squeamish and were hard to read. How does Connolly compare to Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Thomas Harris as far as scaring you? Is Bad Men to be read late at night or in the safety of daylight? As for me, I will read the next book by Connolly that features Parker with joy and relief.
Larry's language
The pace never slows in Bad Men as author Connolly, not to be confused with Los Angeles mystery writer Michael Connelly, takes us on a murderous journey from a Native American Indian attack 300 years ago to a jailbreak today to a cross country killing spree. Each of these events seems to happen in isolation, both in reference to each other and in terms of being cut off from the rest of society.
For our book club questions, this kind of writing is meant to evoke things that go bump in the night. Do you ever awaken suddenly thinking that you heard an unusual noise? Do you ever wonder if some stranger or alien presence is in your home? If so, this is not the kind of book to read when you are alone.
Connolly tightly weaves this story of a young mother, Marianne Elliott, fiercely protecting her young son Danny by moving across the country to a desolate island off the coast of Maine. Elliott completely changes her life and a good thing considering what a mess she had made up to that point.
Every good story needs a classic villain. The father, Edward Moloch, escapes from prison in a bloody rampage and, with his band of merry killers, Moloch sets out to trace his missing wife and child.
Connolly's most endearing character is Joe Dupree who serves as the sole island police officer and whose father and grandfather held the same job. Because of his huge physical size and gentle manner, Dupree is isolated from the other folks on the island but this only strengthens his resolve to serve and protect.
This book succeeds in establishing the insecurity and sense of fear that is necessary primarily by emphasizing the island's lack of connectedness to the mainland and by carefully creating a sense of place and a 300-year history of evil as Connolly describes the island.
This book confirms Connolly as one of our best thriller novelists along with authors Dean Koontz, Lee Child and Stephen King. Much like these other authors, Connolly succeeds in each of his books because of his sharp characterization, distinctive plotting and his writing instills a deep sense of unease and suspense in the reader.

In 1693 a horrific massacre occurred on the small island of Sanctuary, Maine. An outcast returned with a group of cutthroats to rape and pillage the settlement before killing all. In modern times, Moloch, as he restlessly sleeps in a Virginia prison cell dreams of the massacre as if he were there.

On modern day Sanctuary, now known as "Dutch" Officer Joe Dupree senses something is not right with his island home. At seven feet two inches and known to the residents affectionately as "Melancholy Joe" he is the island's resident policeman and is assisted by a rotation of officers from the coastal city of Portland, Maine. Dupree knows the legends and the history of the island and he knows that something is wrong. Something is stirring on the island having been awakened from its long slumber.

Joe isn't the only one on the island sensing something. Vincent "Jack" Giacomelli is aware also. As the island's landscape painter, he isn't very good but he does make money selling to the tourists. He spins a tale about his past as well for the tourists and soon another painting is sold. But his paintings are changing and he isn't aware of the changes until the painting is finished. Small black shapes are appearing in the paintings. Small black shapes that he did not paint and almost look human.

There are other signs as well. The birds are gone, the marsh in the center of the island at the massacre site is rapidly expanding and vegetation is growing even in the dead of winter, and the animals are acting strange. Then there are the moths that are appearing. Hundreds of them are appearing, sometimes a solitary moth, sometimes large clouds of them, even though it is the middle of winter and these kind of moths never appear on the island. The signs of something strange continue to accumulate while Moloch escapes and leads a group of hardened evil men in search of his ex-wife, a child he cares nothing about and more than $800,000 of his money.

Like the blizzard that is bearing down on the small island, Moloch and his men bear down on the island leaving a trail of torture and executions in their wake. They seek vengeance and retribution while also seeking the pleasure they derive from inflicting pain and death on others. They are led by a man, Moloch, whose reality slips more and more back to 1683 than in the present. They aren't the only ones seeking vengeance however. So too is the presence on the island as the blood debt from 1863 must once again be repaid.

Blending themes of fate/destiny and the nature of pure evil, the author has created an intense read that highly entertains for the nearly 400-page novel. The work moves back and forth from supernatural events to the mystery components and along the way numerous characters are killed. Often very graphically and in very violent ways. As such, the read is intense, dark, and very disturbing at times.

At the same time, watching the slow psychological collapse of several of the characters was interesting. As were the ways the author weaved the many storylines and character viewpoints in such a way to draw the reader in all the while suggesting a possible rational explanation for events. This is a book that crosses genres between horror and mystery and for those readers so inclined, a very good book.

Book Facts:

Bad Men

By John Connolly

[...]

Atria Books

2004

ISBN # 0-7434-8784-2

Hardback

This stand-alone thriller combines a chilling thriller with a haunting supernatural tale as modern day evil parallels a 300-year-old massacre on an island off the Maine coastline. It's a break from the Charlie Parker series, although he does make a blink and you'll miss it cameo early on.
The island known as Dutch Island to some and Sanctuary to others is home to around 1000 inhabitants. The locals are used to strange events on the island, with unexplainable deaths throughout its history not being particularly rare. Just lately there have been a growing number of these strange events casting a rather uneasy feeling over the island.
A couple of the main characters on the island are the memorable policeman and giant Joe Dupree, the rock-steady Dutch Island local who oozes common sense and capability, and the quiet newcomer, Marianne Elliott who is plagued with dark secrets from her past. Both play integral parts in the story and both draw feelings of sympathy from the reader. I thought in their own ways, they were very tragic characters.
On the other hand, we follow the progress of a group of cold-blooded killers making their way north. Moloch, their leader has broken out of prison and is tracking down his wife in order to serve his own form of justice for handing him to the police and stealing his money. On their way they leave a shocking trail of bodies, illustrating just how dangerous they are. The tension builds as they near their destination, until it peaks in a devastating confrontation on Dutch Island.
I thought this was a well-crafted story that was able to slowly build up the pressure until the final rip-roaring few chapters. Although the ending is rather inevitable, the pleasure lies in it's telling and Connolly has done an excellent job in this department.

I suppose it is impossible to see similarities between John Connolly's "Bad Men" and the novels of Stephen King, not just because the main setting for this horror novel is an island in Maine, but more because the title characters really are bad men and they are joined in the festivities by some supernatural counterparts. But even with King's penchant for engaging in gross out gore, Connolly takes it to a level more akin to true crime books.
The novel's heroine, Marianne Elliott, was married to a psycho-killer named Edward Moloch that she betrayed to the police. He is in prison back in Virginia and even though they have thrown away the key Marianne has taken a new name, changed her look, and found herself on a remote Maine island called Sanctuary. However, it seems that way back in 1693 the island was overrun by a gang of "bad men" who raped and pillaged before they slaughtered the entire community. There is a feeling in Sanctuary, articulated by "Melancholy" Joe Dupree, the 7-foot-2-inch gentle giant who is the island's only police officer, that the massacre tainted the land. This seems a reasonable interpretation of events since any one who ends up wandering around in the forest near where the bones of the settlers are buried tend to meet mysterious deaths. Now giant gray moths are appearing all over the island and the ghostly figure of a little girl has been seen. All the signs suggest that something wicked will be coming this way.
Of course, that terms out to be Moloch. All these years in prison he has been spending his days obsessing about finding and butchering Marianne, but at night he is having dreams of the massacre on Sanctuary during colonial times. It also turns out that he has a fan club and in due course Moloch has his own gang of "bad men" that are moving north on a bloody killing spree taking heads and visiting other indecencies on their victims. The climax takes place on the requisite dark and stormy night on Sanctuary, where Marianne turns out to have some allies in welcoming her husband to her new home.
Ultimately the comparison that comes to mind by the time you finish this blood-drenched book is not Stephen King or Thomas Harris but Laurell K. Hamilton. Like Hamilton, Connoly's book will probably never be filmed because to do it right would be to mandate at least an NC-17 rating. If you can stomach the blood and gore, then you will fine "Bad Men" a good late-night read. The pace is brisk and each of the characters is made memorable, although some of them in a way you might prefer not to remember. I have not read any of Connolly's other novels featuring the Portland-based private eye Charlie Parker, which makes sense to me because if they were anything like this one I surely would have heard about him and his work because when you have somebody who can carry off this sort of a bloodbath word gets around.

Moloch dreams. Dreams of a slaughter. Dreams of a Sanctuary, that is anything but. A place with a history of violence. A place with a future of violence.

Marianne dreams, as well. Dreams of running. Dreams of being chased by her past. Dreams of escape.

It is all going to come together on the island, where there are forces greater than either of them can imagine that have awakened and are hungry. Hungry for vengeance.

John Connolly does it again with another excellent supernatural thriller. This one is paced very well and has a smooth flow of plot. The characters are thoroughly fleshed out and there is plenty of action to keep you engaged until the last page. Solid 4.5 Stars! Highly Recommended.

Bad men are coming to the island of Sanctuary. These bad men, led by the vicious Moloch, are coming to seek out and punish Rita, his wife, who before running away to hide from him on the quiet, insular island, stole two important things from Moloch: his son and a substantial amount of cash.
Sanctuary itself has a bloody history: in 1693 a group of settlers on the island were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has rested in three hundred years of peace. But, now the Bad Men are on the way; the Bad Men with their violence and malintent, and strange things are starting to happen on Sanctuary. The inhabitants can sense them, sense the changes. The island is waking once more. It is restless now, and it will not tolerate the shedding of blood any longer. Yet still the bad men come.
Clearly, this supernatural novel is a departure from Connolly's normal work. But is it? Well, actually, not really. His books have always been smattered with supernatural happenings among the violence, ghostly goings-on, and they have worked to brilliant atmospheric effect in his Charlie Parker novels. However, this one is a full-blown supernatural thriller (with, strangely, hints of a Western about it - as the bad guys breeze into town and the Sheriff stands up against them - which is odd but invigorating). He takes the horror and mystical elements, and puts them all in one book, underpinned by the traditional thriller template. Obviously it is a risk for any author to depart from their norm. The important question is: does it work? The answer is yes, partly.
Without any doubt, Connolly writes with lyrical brilliance, as exemplified marvellously by the opening to the book: "Moloch dreams. In the darkness of a Virginia prison cell, he stirs like an old demon goaded by memories of its lost humanity," and nothing can take that away from him. Bad Men is a pleasure if only for the ethereal, vivid prose which bathes the descriptions in a sunset-like glow. It is also a pleasure for the presence of Melancholy Joe Dupree, the giant policeman who guards the island. He is a masterpiece of a character: gentle, damaged by the isolation caused by his physical difference, lonely, and yet prepared to go to great lengths of violence to do his duty, he will not be forgotten easily once the book is put down. The other characters, though, are nothing really special or very well well-drawn.
The supernatural elements, too, are merely adequate. Personally, sometimes I felt that they actually took away from the power of the story in some instances. Sometimes, they contributed, along with the Western schemas, to the fact that the main plot thrust is, on occasion, pretty predictable, and bits dragged because of that. In others, though, the horror and supernatural influences do create a brilliant eerie atmosphere and some excellent paths for the story, and the haunting recurring image of those grey moths is not going to leave me for some distinct while.
For those that lament the fact that this isn't a Parker book, he does make a brief appearance, even though I know that that is no real consolation. He will return (indeed, in 2005 I believe, with "The Black Angel"). And, I am sure that as Connolly stretches his literary wings in this fashion, he will be back all the better for it. If nothing else, this book will allow Connolly to grow and develop as a writer, which can only be to the benefit of his series. In the meantime, pick up Bad Men and enjoy. It's not excellent, but it's adequate, and the electrifying show-down finale is undeniably thrilling reading. Bad Men is just about worth its money.

John Connolly's compelling novel "Bad Men" is unique in that the setting of the story has a personality and therefore plays much like any of the main characters. "Bad Men" is actually a juxtaposition of two stories, the history of the setting, Dutch Island and a life and death struggle among the characters.
Dutch Island, also known as Sanctuary is a smallish island located in Maine's Casco Bay with access by boat from Portland. Dutch Island was the site in 1693 of a brutal massacre of it's original inhabitants, memorialized in a remote area called the Site. Around the Site spectres and spirits of the slaughtered colonists have been observed lurking about and causing mayhem, unwilling to allow more violence to desecrate Dutch Island.
Dutch Island happens to be the home of both Joe Dupree and Marianne Elliott. Dupree, a 7 foot 2 inch giant and descendant of the original colonists of Sanctuary is head of Dutch Island's police force and unofficial keeper of the history of the island. Marianne Elliott and her son Danny are recent inhabitants. Elliott unwittingly married Edward Moloch who turned out to be a sadistic, homicidal sociopath presently incarcerated on death row in a Virginia prison. She unearthed his ill gotten cache of some $800,000 and after ratting him out to the police, fled with the loot and her young son to the remote Dutch Island.
Moloch aided by a crew of murderous, blood thirsty felons escaped from prison. They are presently combing the country leaving behind a trail of dead bodies trying to determine the whereabouts of Marianne, Danny and the money. That path inexorably leads them to Dutch Island.
Connolly, an exceeding talented purveyor of the eerie and the macabre in his work does an excellent job in his first departure from his usual hero, Charlie Parker (Parker actually makes a cameo appearance in "Bad Men"). His wonderfully descriptive novels delve deeply into the aberrant personalities of his characters. "Bad Men" is a shining example of exactly that.

In the 1600's, the colonists, tired of the Indian raids, settled on Sanctuary Island off the coast of Maine. For a time life was good until one of the settlers was suspected of various crimes and fled to the mainland. He returned with a gang of criminals killing all the settlers. In the present day, Sanctuary Island, now called Dutch Island, contains a thriving community but from time to time inexplicable things happen to evil men.
The island is preparing for the coming of Bad Men including Edward Molloch, a sociopathic predator who is coming to Sanctuary to kill the wife who betrayed him and retrieve the money she stole from him. In his need for revenge, he leaves a trail of destruction that begins when he escapes from his prison guards and ends on the island he dreamed about during his last year in prison. Accompanying him is groups of fellow sociopaths who do not believe the laws of society apply to them. Dutch Island will once again flow in a sea of red with no one being safe.
John Connolly, the author of the Charlie Parker mysteries, has written a very dark gothic crime thriller that will frighten readers because the fear comes from real people, not imaginary monsters. Written in the third person from both the viewpoints of the islanders and the criminals, the audience sees that the true monsters wear the mask of humanity to hide an evil core. In many ways, the predators are more interesting than the heroes of this book because their thought processes are so alien to what makes people human. BAD MEN (a very appropriate title) is as terrifying as a novel gets.
Harriet Klausner

John Connolly is emerging as one of the boldest, freshest and superior novelists of our time. BAD MEN is a brutal, gut-wrenching, mesmerizing, violent and excellently penned thriller. Connolly wastes no time in getting us introduced to the bad men of the title, and they are definitely BADDDDD!
Edward Moloch lies in prison having dreams of a seventeenth century bloodbath on a remote island north of Maine. Moloch wants revenge on the wife who betrayed him and took off with almost a million dollars of his money. He recruits some really cold-blooded, despicable associates to help get his wife and his money.
The wife has moved on to Sanctuary Island, the very island of Moloch's dreams. She has a new name for both her and her son, and she has fallen in love with the island's sheriff, Joe Dupree. Joe is an enormous man, considered a "giant" and maybe even a freak by the islanders, but he is a gentle, kind man, and despite his size, is respected and admired.
A lot of corpses accompany the escaped Moloch and his crew as he slowly winds his way to the confrontation with his wife.
Connolly creates a terrifying mood of suspense, and even adds the supernatural in that the slaughtered villagers from the 17th century are hanging around and thousands and thousands of moths, too! In less competent hands, this addition would be preposterous. In Connolly's, however, they only add to the sheer terror of this breathtaking thriller.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I am a huge fan of John Connolly. Thriller novels aren't usually my genre but Connolly has me hooked to his Charlie Parker character with the first of his books I picked up. Bad Men only features a cameo by Parker and, at first, that had me worried if it would be any good. I was not disappointed. This book has Connolly's mixture of mystery & supernatural with just a tinge of sarcastic humor. Just when you feel like you can relax the tension mounts again and leaves you clutching the pages desperately hoping your heart won't burst. If you can't tell by now I loved the book and would recommend it to anyone. If you don't like this (or any of John Connolly's book) then you're not twisted enough.

John Connolly delivers an impressive thriller, which I found almost impossible to put down after jumping into its exquisitely elaborated plot. He switches back and forth between the past and the present with ease, demonstrating his skills. Dutch Island is situated at a one and a half hour ferry ride from Portland, and it has been the setting of mysterious and unsettling events throughout its history. This is the setting for the marvelous story presented by Connolly.
In the late seventeenth century Indians consistently raided the various islands in the area outside of what is known today as Portland, pushing the white settlers away. But in 1691 thirty individuals arrived to Dutch Island, which at the time was also known as Sanctuary, and decided to give it a try. Bauer, one of the men that formed part of the group, was justly accused of attempting to rape another man's wife. When he asked his own wife for shelter against his pursuers she did not comply and he was captured. However, he was able to escape and he returned years later with renegade Indians as his "hired help" bringing mayhem to the village. After the horrible events that developed in the island, the ghosts of the dead were left behind to cohabitate with the living. Usually, they do not interact much with humans, but now something is growing, and some people in the island can feel it.
Connolly creates interesting and well-developed characters, like the giant Joe Dupree, seven feet two inches and three hundred and sixty pounds, who is in charge of the police department in Dutch Island. He is courting Marianne, a woman who has some secrets in store, but he also has some secrets of his own. Moloch is sitting in jail awaiting his forced appearance before the Grand Jury, and knowing that when that happens he will be facing charges that deserve the capital punishment. When he sleeps, he has disturbing dreams, in which he leads a gang of renegade Indians into an island in search for his wife who had betrayed him. Finally, there are a couple of other characters that add flavor to the mix: Jack, a painter with little talent, but whose paintings evolve after he is done with them, and Richie, a twenty-five-year-old "kid" who has the ability to see unnatural events unfold.
It is reinvigorating to find authors that besides creating exciting stories that keep you reading all night, possess the gift of writing. This is the case of John Connolly, who not only leads us towards the end of the story with a fast-paced plot full of suspense, but who also knows how to make us enjoy the ride to get there.