My former coworker liked John Connolly books so much that, even though they are published in the UK about a year before they are here in the US, he couldn't wait to read them so was willing to pay the postage to get his hands on them sooner. I decided to find out what all the fuss was about.

If Connolly is really that good, I feel I should be able to jump right into the middle of a series and understand the characters and what is going on with them. THE WOLF IN WINTER is well into the Charlie Parker series. I didn't feel lost.

While this novel's beginning is about Parker and his investigation into the whereabouts of the daughter of a homeless man, that soon leads him to a peculiar, even Stephen Kingish, small town in Maine. This town, Prosperous, rather than any single person, is the main character and this is what the book is really about.

Connolly mixes fiction with fact throughout THE WOLF IN WINTER. That's good, but sometimes, as a result, this book is a slow thriller. Does "slow thriller" sound like an oxymoron? It really is both. But I didn't mind the slow because it was so interesting.