74 – John Connolly and the Many Faces of Metaphysical Mystery

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Kicking off the New Year right, by interviewing one of my favourite living writers.

John Connolly is the author of the bestselling Charlie Parker series, a 19 book odyssey that takes us from the Maine coast to the darkest corners of the USA (and elsewhere), in the process, transmuting hardboiled detective noir into cosmic horror.

After two decades of reading about Parker, you can be sure I have plenty to ask John – about writing American horror as an Irishman, Maine’s hostile spaces, the thrilling allure of literary violence, and whether he has an end in sight.

But John is also here to talk about a whole other beast. Shadow Voices: 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction is his mammoth attempt to map the contours of his native literature, and expose the snobbery that has suppressed it. We talk a lot about how genre works (and doesn’t work), and how Irish fiction is at the very bedrock of this horror thing we all love.

I’m a fanboy this week, no point denying it. I just did my best not to embarrass myself – especially as we were both enjoying a festive drink!

Enjoy!!

Shadow Voices: 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction was published October 2021 by Hodder and Stoughton.

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

• Every Dead Thing (1999), by John Connolly – the first Charlie Parker book.
• Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver
• All the White Spaces (2022), by Ally Wilkes
• The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories (2020), by Sinéad Gleeson
• American Gods (2001), by Neil Gaiman
• The Godwulf Manuscript (1973), by Robert B. Parker (first appearance of Spenser)

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