John Connolly's A Book of Bones is a true doorstop of a book, but do not be daunted by its 700-plus pages because with Connolly's great writing style you will fly through it.

The book is part of the Charlie Parker series that started two decades ago, but you can enjoy it as a stand-alone volume if you have not already become addicted to the very unusual cast of characters and events.

The series achieves the almost impossible of combining a standard thriller with the supernatural, but do not let the latter put you off. I had thought myself long outgrown the horrors of Stephen King and the like, and would have run a mile from such a book at this stage. Connolly is much more subtle and, like James Lee Burke or Diana Gabaldon, he helps us suspend our disbelief enough to enjoy a thrill ride where the supernatural may not be that much outside the possible.

The characters manage to be both larger than life and real. Their lives are not quite lived inside the law, but we grow to accept the reasons why they may take those extra steps. Parker is one the more likeable of modern fiction heroes.

The descriptions of peripheral characters ring so true because of being so ordinary, like a character who wears a suit that looks like one bought when people still bought clothes on installment plans. Or where "everything he wore matched, just not with the other things he wore."

Unusually in the series most of the action takes place in England rather than Maine, and in fact a large part of the story revolves around characters from that country rather than Parker and his crew. Also, there are sections that could be read separately as historical fiction and are in fact printed on pages designed to look like manuscript pages to great effect.

The story or stories will leave you rushing through the book not wanting to leave it overnight and, unlike many such books, it will leave you more than satisfied with the time invested.

As an added bonus, the author recounts the way he started the series all of 20 years ago with his life at the time, the rejections, the bad reviews and the determination to succeed.

Read this book, and if you have not read the earlier stories I guarantee you will be hell-bent on seeking them out.