The Unquiet is the sixth instalment in Irish writer John Connolly's increasingly impressive and unsettling series of crime novels. The term 'crime novel' hardly does justice to the heady brew of genres Connolly serves. While each episode centres on Maine private eye Charlie Parker, his investigations have slowly evolved from a racy mixture of gore-fest and detective story (Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow and The Killing Kind) into a spellbinding kaleidoscope of gothic, horror, thriller, supernatural and literary fiction. So it is with The Unquiet: a seemingly routine assignment to protect a woman and her child from a threatening stalker spirals into a twisted plot involving child pornography, a sinister religious cult and grim echoes of Parker's past. What elevates The Unquiet from the crowd is the quality of Connolly's prose (the masterly opening pages introducing Merrick the revenger are worth the price of admission alone) and his deft way with the uncanny: the eerie, T.S. Eliot-inspired Hollow Men; Parker's satanic nemesis, The Collector; and the unnerving contours of Maine itself, which haven't been evoked like this since Stephen King's heyday. If you haven't discovered John Connolly yet, The Unquiet is the perfect place to start.