The Killing Kind

## Overview

Connolly discusses his love for Ian Fleming and his villains, and notes that he modeled this novel's villain - Mr. Pudd - after just such an over-the-top villain.

In *The Killing Kind*, the supernatural becomes more pronounced. It is more obvious that Parker does, indeed, see his wife and child, along with a series of other apparitions - who refer to his wife as the Summer Lady.

## Synopsis

### Prologue

Parker talks about the "honeycomb world" - the way the past is buried but constantly intrudes on the present.

Connolly recounts the last days of Dr. Alison Beck, an abortion doctor and an associate of "Mercier." She is found in her car the victim of a massive nest of brown recluse spiders and balck widows.

The prologue's second part recounts the discovery of the remains of several people on St. Froid Lake, just outside the town of Eagle Lake, by a crew of workers.

### Part One - And heavy is the tread / Of the living; but the dead / Returning Lightly dance...

Parker notes that spring is arriving in Maine. It has been over a year since the events at Dark Hollow. He is hired by Jack Mercier - a former US Senator - to investigate the suicide of Grace Peltier. Parker and Peltier dated many years ago, and he regretted the way things ended between them. Grace had been found in her car - but Grace's father (Curtis Peltier) and Jack Mercier did not believe that she had killed herself.

Parker sees a vision of a boy in black-rimmed glasses, one lens obscured by black tape, with a wooden board hung around his neck by thick rope. The child is comforted by a woman wearing a summer dress, though the day is a cold spring day. He dubs her the Summer Lady, and notes that she bears a resemblance to his murdered wife Susan.

Curtis tells Parker that Grace was working on a graduate student thesis concerning the Aroostook Baptists - a religious community led by a Reverend Aaron Faulkner that had disappeared in 1964; they were also called the Eagle Lake Baptists and Curtis helps Parker make the connection with the bodies recently found there. He gives Parker all of Grace's notes (which Parker copies and stores in a safe location). Curtis also gives Parker the names of two friends who never made it to the funeral - Marcy Becker and Ali Wynn. Just before she died, Grace was supposed to have interviewed a man named Carter Paragon, who runs a religious organization called the Fellowship.

Reviewing the notes on the case, Parker is struck by a number of incongruities. Her father portrayed her as not doing drugs or drinking or owning a gun, and the ME's report noted that her system was clean. But they found cigarettes and cocaine in the car, and she had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The cigarette pack had three sets of finger prints on it - suggesting that someone besides Grace may have been in the car. Parker also knew Grace to be right-handed, but she had wielded the gun in her left hand. Her clothes were soaked in salt water, she had cut off her pony tail with a blade, and none of her notes for her thesis were in the car with her.

Parker is dating Rachel Woode, and arranges to meet her in Boston for the weekend and meet up with Louis and Angel.

Parker recounts a homicide case that his father had worked - a woman had been brutally stabbed. When Parker asked his father who would do such a thing, his father replied "a dark angel." Parker notes that the Traveling Man thought of himself as a dark angel - the "fruit of the union between earthly women and those who had been banished from heaven for their pride and their lust." Parker goes on to discuss the philosophical history of evil, noting that St. Augustine and Nietzsche thought of evil as free, rational power independent of humanity - which ultimately robs us of that which makes us human - namely our love, compassion, and empathy.

After a night of bad dreams, Parker finds that someone has infested his mail box with spiders. He torches the mailbox and continues on his day. As he leaves breakfast, he sees that he is being watched by a strange man. He tries to talk to Carter Paragon at the Fellowship's offices in Waterville, but is rebuffed by a Ms. Torrance. He follows Ms. Torrance and Paragon to a residence and sits outside their house watching them when a Detective Lutz out of Machias - the next town over - approaches Parker, tells him to leave, and assaults him. Parker goes to visit the site where Grace had committed suicide and realizes that it is not easily seen from the main road. He meets with an Officer Voisine who found the body. Voisine states that he waited until the detective on the case arrived - John Lutz. Parker goes to Bar Harbor, where Marcy Becker's parents owned a hotel and Grace had called several times before her death. Parker asks where Marcy is, but her parents are very defensive and tell him to leave. Parker leaves his business card.

On the way back to Scarborough, Parker stops at Curtis Peltier's house. He learns that Grace was actually the product of an affair between Jack Mercier and Curtis' wife. Curtis also reveals to Parker that both he and Mercier had relatives among the Aroostook Baptists - Elizabeth Jessop and Lyall Kellog. When he returns home he finds that someone has broken into his house and stolen Grace Peltier's case file.

The next day, the strange man who was watching him pays him a visit. He introduces himself as Mr. Pudd, and Parker is greatly unnerved by his appearance, particularly his hands. After expressing mild dismay with what Parker did to the spiders in his mailbox, Mr. Pudd warns him off of talking to Carter Paragon. He is accompanied by an equally unpleasant woman, whom he refers to as "my Nakir." Mr. Pudd hands Parker a business card before leaving, which almost immediately blisters Parker's fingers.

Parker is contacted by Arthur Franklin, a lawyer, on behalf of Harvey Ragle, a "film maker" who specialized in snuff films. Ragle believes his life is in danger, and was referred by Al Z. When Parker meets with Franklin and Ragle, they also report a meeting with Mr. Pudd, who apparently did not like Ragle's use of spiders in his films. They give him the name of Ragle's spider supplier - Lester Bargus. Bargus is an old high school classmate of Parker's. Parker goes to visit him, and deduces that Pudd approached Bargus and to get Pudd off of him, Bargus gave him Harvey Ragle's details.

Parker has a vision of the Summer Lady and the boy, and is able to read the wooden sign around the boy's neck - which says simply James Jessop, Sinner. He then sees shades of all the Aroostook Baptists.

Parker goes to Boston, and meets with Ali Wynn - Grace's former room mate. Ali tells Parker that Grace had become obsessed with the Aroostook Baptists, so much so that she has to ask her not to stay at her apartment. Ali confirms that Grace never touched drugs, and didn't seem depressed. Parker doesn't get the vibe that Ali Wynn was with Grace in the car.

That afternoon, while waiting for Rachel and reading the newspaper, Parker sees the picture of someone he recognizes from a picture at Jack Mercier's house - Rabbi Yossi Epstein, who had been found dead after suffering some sort of seizure. Epstein's office had been firebombed the same night. He had recently begun working to have the tax exempt status removed from several churches, among them the Fellowship. The law firm that was representing Epstein - Ober, Thayer & Moss of Boston - happened to be the same one that Jack Mercier used, and Ober's son was engaged to Mercier's daughter. Parker has Walter Cole hook him up with the detective investigating Epstein's death. Lubitsch tells Parker that Epstein's death is officially homicide, since the ME found a puncture wound in Epstein's armpit, and traces of a spider neurotoxin - likely black widow - in his blood. Plus, they had removed several inches of skin from his back. Lubitsch also reveals that the Minneapolis PD is calling him because of a similarity to the death of Alison Beck.

Parker visits Al Z, who reveals that he is likewise interested in eliminating Pudd and drawing his sponsors out into the open, and that the Jews have hired an assassin from Eastern Europe who calls himself the Golem to roust Pudd and his confederates. Al Z tells Parker to talk to Mickey Shine - Michael Sheinberg, a Jew who used to work with the mafia. When Parker talks to Mickey Shine, he learns of Shine's run in with Pudd. Shine believes Pudd is a *dybbuk* - the evil spirit of a dead man that possesses the body of another living being. When Shine was running low on money a few years prior, he took a contract on Pudd. But Pudd found him instead, kidnapped him to a small shack by a lighthouse. Pudd threatened Shine's family, and then swarmed him with spiders. Shine survived the attack, but was disfigured. Shine also reported that Pudd cryptically said that if Shine came after him again, all their "names would be written ... and then we would be damned."

### Part Two - Judge not the preacher, for he is thy Judge.

An extract from Grace's thesis spells out Aaron Faulkner's early life. He was the product of an unwed mother and father in Alabama in 1924. He had gone through life just skirting the law. He had worked as a printer and binder.

Rachel had some friends at Harvard do an analysis on the business card Pudd had given Parker, and it turned out it had been treated with blister beetle venom. Parker and Rachel go to see the premier of the ballet *Cleopatra* at the Wang Center, when Parker notices that Al Z has shown up in a section completely reserved for him. He watches in horror as he sees Pudd appear and murder Al Z. Pudd sees Parker before fleeing the scene. Parker gets in touch with Mickey Shine, who agrees to meet him at the Cloisters.

Trying to gain more information on Yossi Epstein, Parker goes to the Orensanz Center and there meets with Rabbi Ben Epstein, Yossi's father. That very day, security footage shows the Golem entering Lester Bargus' shop and - after failing to get any information out of him - killing him.

The exhumation at St. Froid Lake continues - and it is revealed that the bodies are those of the Aroostook Baptists, who were all killed violently. This is aided by the inclusion of wooden boards attached around their neck. The remains of James Jessop is discovered, with obvious signs that he had been shot in the back of the head and the bullet exited through his right eye. An extract from Grace's thesis outlines the internal tensions that tore the Aroostook Baptists apart, including preferential treatment for Faulkner's own children, and a growing affair between Elizabeth Jessop and Lyall Kellog.

Parker goes to meet Mickey Shine at the Cloisters, and views an exhibit on Apocalypses - illuminated manuscripts that depict the end times. He recognizes from the Fellowship's pamphlets one of the apocalypse's images, with a translated note from the illustrator - "For if the names of the saved are to be recorded in the Book of Life, shall not also the names of the damned be written, and in what place may they be found?" Instead of Mickey Shine, Parker encounters Pudd and Nakir, who has mounted Shine's head on a pike, and explains that they are looking for something Grace stole from them. "Louis ex Machina" saves him, but Pudd and Nakir escape.

An extract from Grace's thesis makes clear that Faulkner's main income was from the sale of the lavish set of Apocalypses he had made, drawing inspiration from Dürer, Cranach, and Masereel. After the creation of the Eagle Lake community, he had apparently stopped making these Apocalypses.

When Parker returns to Scarborough, Jack Mercier's wife - Deborah - attempts to bribe him to stop the investigation. Parker susses out that Mercier was moving against the Fellowship, and had attracted Dr. Beck, Rabbi Epstein, and Warren Ober to his cause. It was Deborah, however, who got Grace interested in the Aroostook Baptists, knowing that this would bring her into conflict with the shadier side of the Fellowship. Parker confronts Mercier - Mercier obviously knew who killed Grace when he hired Parker. Mercier reveals that "someone" broke into Curtis Peltier's hose, tortured him, and slit his wrists. Mercier further reveals that he believes the Reverend Faulkner is still alive; Mercier had collected 12 of Faulkner's Apocalypses, but when he acquired a thirteenth, sold by Carter Paragon, Mercier noticed that an adhesive developed in the last 10 years had been used on the pages. Mercier suspected that the Fellowship was thus a front for Faulkner, and he began to apply pressure to flush Faulkner out. When Grace was killed and Curtis Peltier came to him, Mercier needed to confirm that Faulkner was behind the Fellowship and how Grace had become involved - so he hired Parker. When Deborah barges into the room infuriated, Mercier realizes the truth.

### Part Three - To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned...

Parker speculates that the thing Grace stole that Pudd wanted back was a 14th Apocalypse. He resolves to visit St. Froid Lake, and calls on Ellis Howard - deputy chief of Portland's Bureau of Investigation - to get him in to see the spot. Howard asks him why, and Parker confesses what he knows. Howard explains that Grace's case has become "reenergized" wth the murder of her father, and tells him to talk to John Lutz out of Machias, who is the liaison for state CID.

On his way north, Parker visits the Colony - a religious community run by Doug and Amy Greaves. The Colony was responsible for taking Parker when he was at his lowest, and sheltered him. Parker had come to them a "confused, self-pitying man" and left with a clear purpose to find and kill the Traveling Man. He asks them about the Fellowship and Mr. Pudd, and they confirm what Parker has found. There are two Fellowships - the one led by Carter Paragon, and the other, more sinister, guided by an unknown and darker presence. They further go through a litany of aliases for Pudd: Ed Monker, Walter Zaren, Eric Dumah, Ted Bune, Alex Tchort... They are all names for demons throughout the world. Monker and Nakir are Islamic demons/angels who examine and judge the dead. Elias Pudd was a pioneer in arachnology who specialized in brown recluses. Amy and Doug also tell Parker that they crossed paths with Pudd and the mute once - who stole their rabbits and fed them to recluses. They say there are a lot of rumors, and Parker asks them if one is about a book of the damned; they confirm that it is.

Amy then reveals that Parker isn't the first person to ask about the Fellowship; several years ago the Traveling Man came to see them and asked about the Fellowship. Parker has a vision of the Traveling Man transformed into a dark angel. Parker calls Special Agent in Charge Hal Ross. Since Parker had killed the Traveling Man, the FBI had a dedicated investigation, collating all information they had and referring to their subject as Charon. Parker asks him for any information he has on Charon in Maine.

At St. Froid, Parker learns that they have found the remains of everyone, including Faulkner's wife Louise, except for Faulkner and his two children. When Parker arrives, they are exhuming the remains of James Jessop. Parker has a vision of James Jessop, who tells him it didn't hurt when he was killed, and that they said it was because he was bad - but he was never bad. Parker asks him if he has seen the Summer Lady, and James replies that she's waiting for him to take him to the others.

Angel, Louis, and Parker break into the Fellowship's office, but find nothing - other than the fact that someone else had amateurishly broken in early. They go to Carter Paragon's house - which also shows signs of a break in. There they find the body of Carter Paragon, badly beaten, and with a shard of clay jammed into his mouth; the calling card of the Golem. When the trio return to Scarborough, they are visited by the Golem. Parker notes that the Golem bears the scars of a burn victim, and also has numbers tattooed on his forearm - suggesting he was a concentration camp survivor. The Golem asks them if they know the location of Pudd, and simultaneously warns them off from interfering with him.

The next day, Parker leaves Rachel in the house to get bagels; when he returns, he is attacked by Pudd and Ms. Torrance, knocked unconscious, and bound to a chair. When he comes to, there is an old man who is inspecting him. The old man tells Pudd - "He sees them, you know." The old man suggests that Pudd spares Rachel, but if she dies, he wants all of her skin; he can use them, and then he leaves. Pudd begins to torture Rachel, but Parker breaks the chair and uses a spindle to kill Ms. Torrance and fires at Pudd, who once again manages to get away. He gets Rachel to a hospital, and gets patched up himself. Wallace MacArthur from the Scarborough PD, tells him that no body was found at Parker's house - but there was a hell of a lot of blood. As they are talking, word comes in that they have spotted Mercier's yacht which has a body lashed to the mast.

Parker bargains his way with MacArthur on to one of the Scarborough PD police boats. When they get to the yacht, Parker recognizes that it is indeed Jack Mercier lashed to the mast. The inside of the yacht is literally dripping with blood, the head smells of chemicals and has been scrubbed clean, and in the main salon were the bodies of Deborach Mercier, Warren Ober, and his wife Eleanor. Written on the wall in blood behind the bodies is the word SINNERS.

Ali Wynn and Marcy Becker's parents both call Parker, telling him that Lutz had contacted them about Marcy's location. Marcy Becker's parents confide that they had told Lutz where Marcy was - their house at Boothbay Harbor. Louis, Rachel, and Parker rush to Boothbay Harbor, leaving Angel in Scarborough. They find Marcy before Lutz gets there and they explain the danger; Marcy says that he also wants the book. She explains that she was the one who accompanied Grace, and they went to Waterville and Machias. Marcy explains that Grace returned at 2AM to the hotel in Machias, soaked and hysterical, said something about "He's alive" and a lighthouse and then rushed them out of the hotel. As they drove, a police car pulled them over. Grace raced ahead of them, pulled off the road, and told Marcy to get out - throwing her rucksack and the book at her. Marcy watched from just out of view as the initial police man called a second officer. They searched her car and demanded to know where "it" as and then - after a brief struggle - shot her.

Lutz and an associate show up at the house. Parker incapacitates Lutz, but when he goes outside to find Louis he finds that the Golem has killed the associate and disarmed Louis. The Golem demands Lutz, and Parker and Louis load him into the Golem's car; the Golem refuses to share information. When they return to Rachel and Marcy, they discover the book is indeed an Apocalypse - the binding and cover of which is made of human skin and bones.

### Part Four - A great book is like great evil

Besides being made of human skin and bones, Parker notes the incredible art work, and how all of the illustrations included Faulkner - as St. John, one of the Four Horsemen, the beast, the jaws of hell - in positions where he was judging and exacting punishment. On each of the pages were the names of the Aroostook Baptists as well as others; as Parker explains - "A book about damnation made up of the bodies of the damned."

Parker arranges to stow Marcy at the Colony, looked after by Angel. Parker considers the number of lighthouses on the Maine coast. He calls Ross again to see if there was more information on Charon in Maine. Ross explains that Charon was working on a case that was intertwined with Ms. Torrance and Lutz. Charon's records report nothing north of Waterville, but there was a gas receipt in Lubec - an hour north of Waterville on the coast, with 3 lighthouses.

When Louis, Rachel, and Marcy get back to Scarborough, they discover that Angel had been taken. Louis and Parker separately drive to Lubec. On the way Pudd calls Parker and arranges a fake exchange - there is no way Parker can make it to the rendezvous in the allotted time. Parker continues on to Lubec and Louis goes to the rendezvous. When Parker gets to Lubec, he learns from the locals that there are the remains of a 4th light house, and it is occupied by an old man who gets sick from time to time, and a man and a woman. The younger man shopped in the variety store, and paid cash - but the owner knew him as Monker.

Parker assaults the island where the 4th light house is located, As he wades along the causeway to the island, he realizes this is why Grace was soaked in salt water. Once on the island he discovers that the Golem has been killed. He encounters the mute and kills her. He tracks Pudd to an outbuilding where spiders and insects are kept, destroys the cases, and locks Pudd inside. He chases Faulkner into the light house, where he finds and rescues Angel. He catches Faulkner as he is about to board a boat, shoots him, and shoots holes in the motor. Faulkner argues that he has nothing to answer for, that the Lord sent angels - not demons - to kill the firstborn of Egypt; he was merely harvesting sinners. Faulkner taunts him, saying that the spirits of his wife and daughter are being raped while the dead wait for Parker. Pudd suddenly appears and he and Parker struggle. As Pudd is about to choke Parker into unconsciousness, Angel appears and kills Pudd. Faulkner's boat dies, and he begins firing at Parker. Parker grabs a flare and waits until Faulkner is out of ammo. He raises the flare gun and can imagine lighting the spilled diesel on fire and igniting the boat and Faulkner; he notices the look of satisfaction on Faulkner's face and realizes he would be damning himself. Parker then uses the flare to signal the authorities.

### Epilogue

Parker talks about the honeycomb world, and how Tante Marie taught him that there is "nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness." Parker pledges to help ease the suffering of innocent people. He notes that Susan and Jennifer are far away and safe from the dark angels.

At the very end of the book, Rachel tells Parker that she is pregnant.