Overall, this scored little better than a giant Meh. The characters were ok. The plot didn't stink. The pacing wasn't bad. All in all, not too bad, but not very good either.One thing I have noticed about Angel and Louis. Connolly presents them as a gay couple, but basically--as far as the reader is concerned--they are asexual. I'm not on pins and needles wanting to learn all the gory details of gay sex, but these guys never even kiss! You see more going on with Cam and Mitch in Modern Family tha...

In ‘The Reapers’, number 7 of the Charlie Parker mysteries, the reader is treated to a Louis and Angel story (‘The Detective’ Parker arrives late in the plot). Instead of the usual paranormal horror mystery in which Parker tends to become involved, this tale explains Louis’ backstory for half of the book in alternating chapters of flashbacks (view spoiler)[(he really IS an ex-CIA guy!) (hide spoiler)] with an entertaining black-ops thriller filling out the remainder of the book. Louis is a man w...

The Reapers is being advertised as Charlie Parker 7th book while the book is more about his friend Louis and his partner Angel. In this tale we get more insight in Louis past and it about catches up with Louis. But it is also about the world he created around him and the relations within his surroundings.A great thriller about violence and friendship.Well worth a read but only if you have read some more tales from the Charlie Parker universe, only if you want to make more sense of it all.

Coming back to this. I need to start with book one 😳

I doubt that Connolly ever had the idea that he would do an entire book dedicated to Louis and Angel. That being said, I had hoped early on that this book would eventually exist.In The Reapers, long time associates of Charlie Parker, Louis and Angel, get their own novel. Louis and Angel have recently fallen into the cross hairs of a rival long thought dead. A former colleague of Louis, Bliss, has returned to seek his vengeance against those who brutally disfigured him, leaving him for dead years...

Number 8 in the Charlie Parker series and each book gets better than the one before. This one centres around Louis and Angel . Charlie only makes a token appearance but that does not matter at all. The reader discovers heaps about Louis's past and the reasons for him being the way he is. At the same time there is a fast paced, thrilling story plus some laugh out loud dialogue especially between Angel and Louis. John Connolly writes so well. His descriptions of the American way of life are master...

A Charlie Parker book where he isn’t the main character. I enjoyed my time with Louis and Angel. I liked meeting Willie and Arno. On to the next one!

While not my favorite (what can I say, Charlie Parker is my guy), this was a heck of a cat and mouse chase. Back story galore on Charlie’s best dudes— Louis and Angel. Lots of dots connected but in the end, just not enough Parker. But happy that there are plenty more left in the series...

Like so many others, I love the characters of Louis and Angel! It’s great that they get an installment in this series dedicated more to them. More great storytelling by Mr. Connelly here. Can’t wait to jump into the next book.

THE REAPERS (Susp-Angel / Louis-Cont) - PoorConnolly, John – 7th in seriesHodder & Stoughton, 2008, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 9780340936658First Sentence: Sometimes Louis dreams of the Burning Man.Louis and Angel are killers; accustomed to being the hunters. Now they find they are the hunted and the targets of a fellow hitman named Bliss.I was a huge fan of Connolly’s earlier books. Unfortunately, his style seems to have changed and the elements I one loved have been lost, particularly the lyrical st...

The problem that the Reapers has is that, with me reading these novels in order at a fast pace, there is a lot of recycled information that I've read about recently in the past books. If you had a break from the series then it would probably be good to have them here to refresh you, but in my case it wasn't really needed.I also thought that this was gonna be full of the trademark humour that Angel and Louis are known for, but it's pretty much humour free until the last hundred pages or so when,

2nd read - This time we see more of Louis and Angel, with Louis's time as a young man and his recruitment into "The Reapers", a clandestine organization that rents it's members out for killing jobs. Louis has left the group behind years ago, but is now targeted by persons unkown with a link to the Reapers, including his recruiter and mentor, Gabriel.Parker, the detective, is seen only peripherally, with appearances by Jackie and the notorious Fulci brothers.'Louis found it hard to understand who...

This was great!!I think I'm going with 4.5 stars with this one.The Reapers is mainly about Louis and an organization that he is involved in.Louis is one of Charlie Parker's friends in the series.Besides having a present day plot of who's killing who, the book also goes into the past. It shows us how Louis becomes a Reaper.Below, I am putting the description of a Reaper in a spoiler tag.I don't think it will ruin the plot for you, but at the same time, I'll cover my ass in case you don't want to

This copy is signed by John Connolly.

THE REAPERS is Book 7 in author John Connolly's "Charlie Parker" series. This book is a bit of a departure from the usual because Charlie Parker, himself, is side-lined for much of the novel. Instead, the focus is primarily upon Louis and his partner, Angel, fighting a battle from something in Louis' shadowed past. ". . . Cancer offers a better survival rate than crossing you . . . " As usual, Connolly weaves a trail that wraps up all the threads perfectly in the end. With one of the best writ...

This was one of my favorites so far!! It is almost only about Louis and Angel! Their backgrounds and how the moved forward from it!!! The reapers is a great name once you figure out what it actually means!! Charlie is more just their friend who comes when they are in need much like they are to him in every other book I’ve read!

I really liked this book. I am a huge fan of Greg Isles and John Connolly goes into that realm with this book. (or it could be the other way around...) Most of the previous books in the Charlie Parker series kinda have a little Stephen Kingish in them. Since I really like both authors, I love this series.

Realised I never got around to writing my review!... I loved my time spent with Angel and Louis and appreciated getting some deeper viewpoints from other characters on Charlie Parker. As a stand alone this book would be a 5 star for me, but they are part of a much bigger set and unfortunately for Connolly The Black Angel was my all time favourite, 5 starer so now each one of the Parker series have to live up to that one to get the 5 star prize!

"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...

Another excellent entry into what is quite possibly the best detective series out there. This time Connolly lets Charlie Parker take a back seat with Louis and Angel as the driving force. The reader gets a deeper insight into Louis' upbringing and things that made him the killer with occasional sparks of conscience that he became. The book also works as a fine meditation on the nature of evil and/or violence and on the effects it has on the innocent and not so innocent bystanders. The adversarie...