Sadly I couldn’t get on with this book probably because I wasn’t aware it was part of a series. I did finish it but I felt I didn’t know enough background story not having read the others.

"All is was, all is were.”

This is a brilliant book, crafted by John Connolly, one of the best writers of intellectual thrillers. I say somewhat scholarly because he provided a small history lesson regarding Yugoslavia and Tito. After Tito, the President of Yugoslavia, died in 1980, there was a scourge of sorts, the Serbs versus Croatia and Slovenia. That historical period was the first time I heard the term ethnic cleansing. In order to create a Serbian monopoly, murder reigned. This small amount of information helps to understand the cast of characters and the plight to survive and goals of the Serbian war criminals.

The book opens with a heinous crime in Amsterdam resulting in the death of four people in a canal house. The emphasis is on their slow, tortured death and the extreme suffering of the victims. This book is part of the Charley Parker series which involve two of his friends who happen to be assassins, Louis and Angel. We are introduced to the killers, the Vuksans brothers, in the first horrific scene of the book. They were nothing characters, after that first scene. I thought they would be fleshed out.

Connolly does not allow details to go astray. The reader receives a packed punch of macabre violence. I am not impervious to reading about the level of ferocious brutality. Sometimes, I found it difficult to go on to the next page. However, Connolly is a master of creating flawless sentences and I admire his genius.


My gratitude to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the pre-published book. Opinions expressed are mine only.

I unfortunately, had not read the previous books in this series and because of that I felt a bit disengaged from the meat of the storyline. It was an interesting novel but it felt almost half told. Loved the supernatural aspect of one of the characters and I enjoyed the fact that the violence was suggested instead of going into every gory detail. I will look into the beginning of the series and delve into what made the earlier works to see exactly what made this book tick. John Connolly in an undeniable excellent story teller.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

First off let me thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to preview this book. Full disclosure, the Charlie Parker series by Connolly is one of my all time favorite series, maybe my number one so I was beyond thrilled to get this one. That being said, this is not one of my favorites in the series. Parker is in it very little and while I love both Louis and Angel, I miss Parker. Also, there is very little of the supernatural element that I enjoy in the series. I found one of the resolutions at the end to be extremely annoying... a character does something that up to that point we'd been made to believe wasn't even a possibility and seemed so out of character and if it had been done earlier, well lots of bad stuff wouldn't have occurred. But then I guess there wouldn't have been a story. Here's hoping the next installment will get back to Parker.

<i>The Nameless Ones</i> is brutal murder mystery in the Charlie Parker series. The protagonist, Louis, is a professional assassin while the two antagonists, The Vuksans are Serbian war criminals who viciously commit horrendous crimes. <i>The Nameless Ones</i> is #19 in the Charlie Parker murder mystery series written by John Connolly.

Spiridon and his brother Radovan murder De Jaager and three of his people in Amsterdam as revenge for the murder of one of their colleagues a number of years before. Radovan is very hesitant about committing these particular murders but his brother insists and so they go ahead. Radovan is quite concerned there will be consequences and he is right. Louis, an assassin and a friend of De Jaager, comes looking for the Vuksan brothers. In the meantime, the brothers have a cousin who is murdered in a Serbian restaurant as part of a criminal takeover. It becomes evident to Radovan that they must go on the run for having committed the murders in Amsterdam and that they can no longer go back to Serbia. The story basically continues with many people getting murdered. Some of them are linked to the original murder in Amsterdam while others are linked to the political and criminal situation in Serbia.

I find the book is well written and clear. It is a very quick read. One of the most interesting characters in the book is the lawyer for Vuksan brothers. His character is complex because he must deal with the brothers, as well as, with a wife who doesn’t love him and with a daughter who hates him.

I find the violence and the number of murders that occur overwhelming. In the end the story basically boils down to people killing people and then other people killing the murderers for revenge. I don't find the story compelling in terms of plot line.

I'm sure this story is a compelling for people who understand and follow the Charlie Parker series but for me it was one murder after another with very little plot. I give the book 2 on 5. I want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book. I am providing this review voluntarily

I just really can't stay interested in this series. I can't stand the characters and ended up putting this down and not coming back. I hear amazing things so I WANT to love it, but it's just not for me

I love Charlie Parker and this is a nice interlude in the series.

This book focuses on Louis, with Charlie being a minor player. While I love Louis and adore Angel, I have to admit that I missed Charlie. While he pops up in the background, and the story hints at some fascinating things to come, I missed the pathos and edge that he brings to the story.

Our story is very violent – it starts heavy and crescendos upward at a furious pace. We also get the introduction of a new dark character who is truly intriguing. I want more of this one.

If I had one complaint it is that I never actually worried for Louis or Angel at all. I needed more of the danger to touch them directly.

Still a very good book. It adds to the series and definitely whets my appetite for the next book!

*ARC via Net Galley

Lots of good juicy twists and turns written in signature style. A great escape for the afternoon in this crazy world that we are now living in. Thanks

Outstanding literary work!

Love how the author gives life to amazing characters, that are good, evil and in between.
This instalment could be read as a standalone, but you will miss the backbone of this series. Definitely recommend this book for any fan of mysteries and thrillers.

Be sure to check out the work of this great author.

His usual protagonist, Charlie Parker, has only a minuscule role in this one, but his compatriots Louis and Angel take up the slack.
As always a mystery/ thriller but on an “ advanced” level. Well researched, heavy on modern day technology( drones etc)meticulously detailed, and with enough bloodshed and truly barbaric atrocities as to give one nightmares.
For me, the absolute best part of the book is a detailed explanation ( for the non historian)of the collapse of Yugoslavia after Tito’s death and the subsequent “ ethnic cleansing” campaign waged by the Serbian nationalists against the Croats and the other minorities.
The one drawback for me: tough dealing and remembering , let alone pronouncing, many of the Balkan names-a small price to pay for a true eye-opener into the atrocities of the aforementioned” ethnic cleansing”.

I read half of this book. Although the writing is very good, I did not like the novel. The subject matter did not appeal to me and violence is not something that I tolerate well. So not a “good fit”for me. Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This is my first Charlie Parker book and I was hoping for a bit more of Charlie in this story but his role is more of a bit part here. The story deals with Angel and Louis avenging several deaths at the hands of a group of ruthless Serbians. I really enjoyed the research put into the areas in the book as I learned a few things along the way. The killings were gruesome but not over the top and fit well in the story. I look forward to reading more from John Connolly. The inclusion of some shady characters along the way made the story richer but I lost track a bit along the way due to the extra players in the story. A well written book,. Thank you Netgalley, Atria Books and John Connolly for the DRC for my honest review.

John Connolly returns with his nineteenth Charlie Parker thriller, this one largely sans Charlie Parker as the focus shifts to series staple hitmen, Louis and Angel, who are seeking revenge against Serbian war criminals.

After detouring back into the early years of Charlie Parker's hunt for a serial killer in The Dirty South, The Nameless Ones returns us to the present-day, picking up shortly after A Book of Bones. While The Nameless Ones could theoretically function well-enough as a standalone, I suspect new readers, who are only just now entering into a series well into the double-digits, won't find some of Connolly's character beats quite as charming as long-time fans and will most likely be confused about the necessity of brief one- or two-chapter narrative detours to recount backstory for the Fulcis and Parker's current goings-on through the eyes of The Great Lost Bear bar-owner Dave Evans.

I was more than happy to return to these characters, though, if only momentarily. One the hand, I'm glad to be back in the present-day with these characters. On the other hand, I found myself missing Parker, who only puts in a few small cameos here, and I'm more than ready for the chance to reconnect with him for longer in a future novel.

Like The Reapers, The Nameless Ones is firmly centered around Louis and Angel, two characters that I love a great deal. Connolly's knack for crackling, whip-smart dialogue remains firmly intact with this odd couple pairing. I don't think I'll ever tire of Angel's harassment of FBI officials for keys to the secret bathrooms he knows they have hidden around the country, or Louis's wry and dry humor, such as when he's confronted with news of a family's reticence to bury their loved one whose head has gone missing following an assassination by bomb: "Funny how sentimental people can be."

Where The Nameless Ones ultimately fell short for me was in its villains. I couldn't find many ways to connect with the Vuksan brothers and quickly grew disinterested in the many detours the story takes to recount the very little they're up to as they sit in hiding waiting for fake passports to return them to Serbia. While they initiate some backroom deals and move around a few players to deadly effects, I found them quite boring, particularly in comparison to some of Connolly's past killers. The Vuksans make a bloody splash in the book's opening, and Connolly's depiction of a family's murder is deeply unsettling, but then do little else for the book's remainder. Every time the story shifted focus toward them, everything ground to a halt. More interesting was Zorya, a possibly supernatural girl and merciless sadist, who accompanies the Vuksan's as they seek to flee the country. Although she plays second fiddle to the war criminals, she's wonderfully enigmatic and provides some of the book's more chilling moments.

While Connolly is one of crime fiction's best, particularly when it comes to supernatural thrillers, The Nameless Ones was a near-miss for me. It's still good, but it just can't compete with those top-tier Charlie Parker books (and there's a lot of them!). As ever, though, I'm eager to see what comes next.

It seems I chose this book by mistake - I was thinking of a different Connolly, whose novels are police procedurals set in LA. This Connolly's book could be ranked as the same genre as it's about crime and attempts at punishment but in a more intense form--it is full of seriously scary Eastern European gangsters, violent war criminals and gruesome violence against everyday humans and enemies alike, both in Europe and the US. I was willing to give it a try but ultimately did not get very far, nor did I finish the book. The writing was good but the level of cruelty and punishments wielded by the thugs and mob bosses was too much for me. The book should appeal to people more immune to violence.

Yugoslavia had been held together by a series of clothes pins and bandaids for the entire Cold War. A strongman, Tito, held the various ethnic communities in his iron grip, masking the hate and division that seethed under the surface. With his passing, the very gates of hell opened up and devils walked among men. The genocidal barbaric cruelty that was wrought as while villages were executed, rape camps established, and torture chambers created, burned into history the names of towns like Srebernica and other places. When the wars ended, some of the devils were tried, but others marched back into Sarajevo, and others tore a path of criminality and bloodlust across Europe.

The nineteenth book in the Charlie Parker saga almost does not include Parker, but features his two associates, Louis and Angel, on a hunt across Europe as a pair of crime lord brothers, their associates, and a witch who sometimes crosses over, painted the walls of an Amsterdam safe house with blood. Others are hunting too for the brothers as their deeds prove too much for the crime bosses back home and they fail to complete a deal with others who cannot be trifled with.

This is a thick book that takes some time to work through, but it is worth the effort because it is such an exciting, well-developed international thriller with unforgettable characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. I requested it because I thought I knew the author, John Connelly. It turns out I did but I had avoided him because his thrillers veer into the Sci-Fi. This time, I decided to finish the book. What a surprise! I really enjoyed the book, It is full of violence and blood but it is also humorous and thoughtful and extremely well written- in my opinion. In an attempt to find out why I had been avoiding Connelly, I looked him up on Wikipedia and ended up on his website. He is prolific, well-regarded and as a journalist, he has interviewed and written lengthy columns about all my favorite writers.
With just that change of perspective, I finished The Nameless Ones and intend to go backward and read others.
If it is an actual series as implied by calling it the Charlie Parker series, there are a lot of them. I will be reading for a while.
To call this one of the Charlie Parker series is stretching it a bit. The story revolves around two dear friends of his, assassins with good hearts, who are out to avenge the killing of a friend in Amsterdam. Parker shows up for one very short chapter. There are many references to Parker, his personality, why the two assassins are such good friends. In other words, It probably helps to have read more of his books. However, it did not diminish the story for me.
The book has much Yugoslavian and the Baltic Wars history in it. I knew much already but appreciated how careful Connolly is in getting his facts straight. He also writes with a moral tongue in cheek - if I may make up a phrase. With a couple of exceptions, all the protagonists have good and bad sides but have chosen one way or the other while still rationalizing out their choices. So although the book is mostly fun and these characters aren't ones you or I are likely to meet in the course of our days, I found it interesting how love of family, power, money, avenging wrongs, and patriotism all get thrown into the mix to create this thriller about Eastern European thugs that most of us have no fondness for because of books like this!!!
As far as the Sci-Fi element, it was dark, evil, and destroyable. I was able to manage all that and happy at the end, that the sympathetic guys win at the end.

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The book was well researched about Serbia, the Balkans and other European countries and their political affiliations. It was just too detailed and I became disinterested in it all. Being unfamiliar with the history and places the book was not an enjoyable read. Added to my limited knowledge of events and places were the numerous characters who all seem to be connected but not in a friendly way. The book was dark and gruesome in its descriptions of the vicious killings of people . These characters were so far removed from my world. I have enjoyed previous books with Louis and Angel assisting Charlie Parker. Their banter was often humorous and their dealings with Parker were criminal but in this book criminality was grotesque and overpowering. They need to return to Maine to regroup after the horrors of this book.

I was really excited to be able to read an ARC from the Charlie Parker series. I am definitely a fan of this series and have read every book so far. I had to look twice when I realized that this is the 19th book, somehow I didn't realize that we had gotten that far. The last book - Book 18- was a little bit different as we went back into the past and took a break from the unbelievable craziness that had been building and building with the story arc. With book 19 though, we are back to where we left, yet this story focuses on Louis and Angel, but really on Louis.

Without going into spoilers, this book was really "heavy". That is really the first word that comes to mind and even when I tried to come up with another word, "heavy" really seems to fit the best. Why? For the most part, there is a lot of history that Mr. Connolly gives us. A lot of back story to explain relationships and.... reasons, maybe? There is a tremendous amount of history given to explain the situations with the Serbians and the Croatians and the entire Baltic arena. On top of that, this story is very dark. There is a LOT of violence and a lot of brutality. Unfortunately, this is not something that is new to this series, but it did seem like it was more in your face.

We do not really get to see Charlie Parker in this one. He does make a surprise visit - which made me happy - but after that he is only then mentioned peripherally. This book is really about the decisions that Louis makes and the actions that come about from those choices. The over all story arc does move forward, but it only moves forward a very small amount. There is also a very interesting development with Jennifer Parker. I am really curious to see what develops with that.

All in all it was good to get back into the saddle again with this series. I enjoyed the last book, but as it was a journey back to the past, it was good to get to see what is going on with our gang in the here and now. It is obvious that things are only heating up.

I guess the wait is now on for book 20. Patience was never my strong suit.....

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me this ARC. All opinions are completely my own.

It’s been barely six months since John Connolly graced us with his Charlie Parker series prequel, *The Dirty South*, and now he’s back with a terrific novel, *The Nameless Ones*.

This book, although part of the Charlie Parker series, turns its focus away from Parker and toward two incredibly interesting characters, in Louis and Angel.

The book opens with a brief introduction, reminding the reader of the series of conflicts that occurred in the Balkans during the 1990’s after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. It’s a great reminder that helps set up the plot of the story.

In Amsterdam, multiple people are butchered with their remains scattered around their crucified patriarch, De Jaager. Louis is tasked with hunting down the killers before they can escape back east.

John Connolly delivers a novel that we’ve grown to expect from him. I constantly have to remind myself to not take his writing for granted, as it’s so well done. His ability to paint a vivid picture makes his writing come across as poetry. He has his usual large cast of characters that you have to track, but he makes them so interesting, that they become unforgettable. Connolly’s attention to detail is astounding, and it seems that his research is some of the best in the business. He injects a level of the supernatural into his writing that keeps the plot scary and a little creepy.

It took no time for the action and mystery to start, and I was hooked into the story. I flew through the remainder of the book, and I was sad when it was over. Like other great books and great writing, turning the last pages leaves a wake of sadness, knowing that the story is over, and you can’t ever experience it for the first time again. I look forward to hearing what other readers think of this novel. It was great and should be on every mystery and thriller lover’s to-be-read list.

I have been re-reading this series since I finished Dirty South. I wanted to see if the story held together through so many years and so many books (it does). Dirty South was a diversion to the past but this is a step into the future.

I loved the focus on Angel and Louis, I know it's the Charlie Parker series but these two stopped being bit characters a long time ago. I very much enjoy the time spent with these two, getting to know them outside of their relationship with Parker. The book has Connolly's usual attention to detail, you learn a lot about new places. There's an element of supernatural but not the "usual" level of the later books, just enough to remind you that the world is a strange place.

I hope the series continues to change and adapt and there are more stories after this one.

I received an advanced readers copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.