In The Lovers, John Connolly’s latest, highly individual entry in his distinguished Charlie Parker series, his doughty private eye’s life is in a downward spiral. The authorities don’t trust him, and he has been deprived of his investigator's license (including his right to bear arms). He’s holding down an undemanding job in a Portland bar. But Charlie is not the kind to stay in the shadows for long: he is about to undertake the most challenging (and potentially destructive) assignment of his life: he has decided to uncover the facts behind his policeman father’s death and – even more importantly -- the killing of a young couple that his father was responsible for. Immersing himself once again in the painful circumstances of his own childhood, he comes across a mystery: an unidentified young man and woman who appear to have been present at many death scenes; and – even harder to accept – they have been seen right back to the days of the suicide of Charlie’s father. This mysterious duo are shadowing Charlie -- will he find out the motivation behind his father’s terrible act before he, too, violently dies?