The Reapers: A Thriller Audiobook

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly’s The Reapers , featuring private detective Charlie Parker, is now available from Encore.

As a small boy, Louis witnesses an unspeakable crime that takes the life of a member of his small, southern community. He grows up and moves on, but he is forever changed by the cruel and brutal nature of the act. Now, years later, someone is hunting him, targeting his home, his businesses, and his partner, Angel. The instrument of his revenge is Bliss, the most feared of assassins, a lethal killer of killers with a personal vendetta. Hardened by their pasts, Louis and Angel decide to strike back. But when they mysteriously disappear, their friends are forced to band together to find them. They are led by private detective Charlie Parker, a killer himself, a Reaper in waiting...and the harvest is about to begin.

Connolly creates a world where everyone is corrupt, and murderers go unpunished, but betrayals are always avenged. Mesmerizing, terrifying, and transfixing, The Reapers is yet another masterpiece from a proven talent.

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""The Reapers" is a slight departure for John Connolly, whose main protagonist, Charlie Parker, P.I., takes a backseat in this one in order to showcase one of Parker's enigmatic partners, Louis, a tough Southern black killer-for-hire. Louis (pronounced "Loo-ee", like the French King) is a fascinating character, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that he is gay. He's actually part of a two-man crew of hired killers. His lover, Angel, is also a hit-man. They met and fell in love in prison, and they have been together ever since. Angel, not to be too cliche, completes Louis. He provides a balance of calm and peace to Louis's tumultuous, violent soul. In this book, we find out more about Louis's dark past: his father was an outspoken black man living in the Far South, who got "too uppity" with the wrong people one night and was subsequently lynched and set on fire. Louis is still haunted by his father's ghost (metaphorically AND literally), which he calls "The Burning Man". Louis's rage at his father's murder set him on the course that led him to become the violent killer he is. He has learned to control that rage somewhat, but he has many regrets of things in his past. One of those regrets has returned with a vengeance. One of Louis's early "hits", a vicious killer ironically named Bliss, is, it turns out, very much alive and well. He has spent nearly 30 years planning the perfect revenge: the murder of every single person Louis loves. Fortunately, Louis had long ago put protective measures in place to prevent such an attempt. Unfortunately, Bliss has hired a spectacular crew of killers, calling themselves "Reapers". Louis, along with the help of Angel, Parker, and his own eclectic crew of Reapers, must find and kill Bliss before he can find Louis. Bliss, however, has had almost 30 years to plan this out. As always, Connolly has written another dark and disturbing tale that is as beautifully written as it is bloody and ultra-violent."

— Scott (4 out of 5 stars)