The Nameless Ones
Reviewed By Ian Banks August 21, 2021
Author John Connolly
Distributor: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 9781529398359
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Release Date: July 2021
Website: https://www.hachette.com.au
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To everything there is a dark side, a side people are aware of but seldom, if ever, encounter: then there is the world of sadistic cruelty that is buried deep. The Nameless Ones from John Connelly explores this darkness on several levels through the world of organized crime, a world where life is cheap, expendable; a world where sadistic pleasures are catered for and corruption is the name of the game.
When four people are butchered in a house in Amsterdam, their remains are left as a warning or was it pay-back. The men responsible believe they can get away with what they have done by crossing into Serbia, but they have failed to recognize Serbia is going through a transformation, seeking a place within the Economic Union.
To achieve this, the gangs who have held political sway for many years need to be bought under control therefor the people who have carried out the atrocities in Amsterdam, are now on the wanted list and retribution is sought by those in power.
Assassin for hire Louis, has agreed to come to Europe to seek out the killers, which through a variety of means he eventually does, until he realizes there has to be one more killer, six, not five, but who could it possibly be is an unanswered question.
Two women, both existing in the in-between world of the dead, which according to Serbian folkloric allows them to slide between two worlds, are known as Rusalki; female entities that stay eternally youthful, formed from the souls of young women who have drowned, and are out for revenge for one reason or another. Somehow these women seem to be in places they should not be, at times when it is unexpected.
Louis and Angel (Louis’s boyfriend) work together to discover the sixth killer, a killer who needs to be stopped before the already inflammatory situation becomes worse, but it proves far harder and more chillingly dangerous than they ever imagined.
Connolly has combined pure menace with ancient folkloric beliefs, mixed in with superstition, based in a world of political intrigue to create a chilling masterclass in crime fiction, in a country where past is present.