<B><I>NEW YORK TIMES </I>BESTSELLING AUTHOR JOHN CONNOLLY WRITES AN "UNFAILINGLY COMPELLING" (<I>New Orleans Times-Picayune</I>) AND LYRICAL TALE THAT FORCES PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR CHARLIE PARKER TO EXAMINE HIS HAUNTING PAST AND ALL THAT HE HAS EVER BELIEVED TRUE ABOUT HIS BELOVED PARENTS—AND HIMSELF.</B>Stripped of his license, Charlie Parker takes a job in a Portland bar. Alone and directionless, he faces at last a shadow he has lived with since his childhood: what made his father, a respected police officer, apparently shoot dead two unarmed teens and then commit suicide. His quest leads him back to the little New York town where he grew up, to the secret history of the NYPD, and to the existence of mysterious friends and hidden enemies.<P>For waiting in the shadows, as they have been throughout Charlie's life, are a man and a woman with only one purpose: to bring an end to his very existence. . . .