The Reapers

Private detective Charlie Parker is drawn into a case involving a group of veterans returning traumatized from Iraq, a cross-border smuggling operation running between Maine and Canada, and a series of deaths that seem to reach into the criminal underworld from directions Parker cannot fully map. John Connolly's seventh Charlie Parker novel widens the series' mythology while grounding its supernatural undertones in the very real aftermath of war on soldiers and their families.

Jay O. Sanders narrates with a weathered gravity that suits the series' particular blend of crime fiction and dark mythology. His delivery makes the novel's quieter moments of violence feel more unsettling than its explicit ones, and he handles the ensemble cast of secondary characters with clarity. At just over six hours, The Reapers moves at a pace that respects both the investigation and the character work that Connolly layers beneath it.