Book list
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A small plane crashes virtually unnoticed in the vast woods of northern Maine. In the wreckage is a list of names that could tilt the balance in a secret war between two shadowy armies. One army is searching for the fallen angels banished from heaven for rebelling against the Divine. Charlie Parker, Connolly's decent, resolute, deadly Portland PI, is a soldier in the opposing army, and it falls to him to find the wreckage and the list, but the mysterious Maine woods hold a threat to anyone who enters. So, it's Evil versus Good versus an entity indifferent to both. Connolly often stretches the boundaries of the crime novel, but he also tells a ripping-good yarn and creates vividly drawn characters: e.g., a rabbi who battles Evil by acting like a cross between a CIA spymaster and a Mafia don; a child who remembers his own death; and a right-wing radio hatemonger who discovers he's wholly owned by Evil Inc. The plot is almost shambolic, but anyone willing to suspend disbelief is in for a great read.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2010 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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From its ominous first pages, Connolly's 11th Charlie Parker thriller (after 2011's Every Dead Thing) takes readers on a gruesomely entertaining ride. Marielle Vetters, to honor her late father Harlan's wishes, meets PI Charlie in Portland, Maine, to tell him of Harlan's discovery, during a hunting trip in the woods outside their small town of Falls End, of a crashed plane with $200,000 and a short typewritten list of morally compromised public figures aboard. Charlie's interest is piqued by hearing that the serial killer Brightwell, who murdered the detective's wife and son, also came looking for the wreck. Later, Charlie learns of the existence of an alternate version of the list, apparently of souls belonging to the devil, that includes his name. Efficiently sketched characters, both old (e.g., the psychopathic self-styled avenger, the Collector) and new (e.g., the badly scarred but beautiful Darina Flores), bring to life Connolly's portentous but exciting fusion of the occult and the hard-boiled. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal
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The Poe-esque opening line launches another somber, disturbing narrative from Connolly, who writes seamlessly about an array of forces both criminal and super-natural, killings, and torture alongside the plethora of more prosaic human failings that he delineates so compassionately. The novel's focus is a small airplane that crashed in Maine's Great North Woods near the atmospherically named town of Falls End. Here is a zone where magnetic forces are askew, where the lost soul of a child wanders, where an altar to idolatry is constructed. Private eye Charlie Parker in his 12th outing (after The Burning Soul) is trying to locate the plane and retrieve from it a list of names, thereby preventing that list from falling into the wrong hands. VERDICT Though scarred by murder, grief, despair, separation, physical and psychic wounds, loss, and revenge, Parker-whose resilience itself verges on the supernatural--shines in his fundamental decency. Strongly recommended for plot, characterization, authenticity, angels, gay assassination team, horror, humor, and humanity. [See Prepub Alert, 7/15/12.]-Seamus- Scanlon, Ctr. for Worker Education, CUNY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Connolly's antihero, former cop turned private detective Charlie Parker, continues his fight against the forces of darkness in this supernatural thriller. Parker isn't so much a man on a mission as one whose missions find him, much like a stray dog following home a schoolboy. And although he doesn't go looking for trouble, he's not averse to taking it on, even if it comes to the Backers, a shadowy group that supports what Parker and his confederates believe to be a movement of fallen angels expelled from the heavens and capable of evil in unimaginable proportions. The former angels take on many forms and corrupt the corruptible among men by promising their hearts' desires, foremost of which are success and power. Parker becomes entangled with these forces one more time when two individuals at a local bar offer a strange tale about a plane crashed deep in the Maine woods, a bizarre and frightening child that haunts it, and a list of names that might shine a light on some of the dark forces moving about. Parker soon finds himself searching for the rest of that list with the help, and hindrance, of an unlikely ally, as well as a frightening competitor who is contemplating putting Parker and his sweetly homicidal buddies, Louis and Angel, on his to-do list. Add in a once beautiful but now ruined woman with a heart as black as the woods and a child that isn't a child, and the author sets the stage for another one of Parker's adventures into otherworldly events. Connolly's Parker is wry, and the writing is particularly engaging when he brings Louis and Angel into the picture. This story inspires both a shudder or 20 and the vaguely realized idea that as far out as Connolly's stories can sometimes be, there is always the possibility that he could be onto something. And, if he is, then we're all in a whole lot of trouble. Connolly's Parker remains an interesting character, but Connolly's books are infinitely more enjoyable when he refrains from political moralizing.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.