Night Music

Starred review from August 31, 2015
Fans of bestseller Connolly’s Charlie Parker mysteries (A Song of Shadows, etc.) will welcome his second story collection, which showcases his talent for crafting paranormal tales with healthy injections of humor. The standout is “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” a novella with the ingenious premise that, after authors die, those of their characters that have become part of the public consciousness come to life and reside in an obscure library hidden in the British countryside. This means, for example, that only some of Chaucer’s pilgrims are animated, because “nobody remembers all of them.” This unique institution also appears in “Holmes on the Range,” in which Conan Doyle’s decision to kill off Sherlock Holmes has some unexpected consequences. Connolly’s range is impressive, from a two-page ghost story, “A Dream of Winter,” to an old-fashioned bogeyman tale, “Razorshins,” set in Maine during Prohibition. An amusing, digressive essay, about the author’s interest in the ghostly, concludes the volume. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary (U.K.).