The Black Angel was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2005. The novel shifts focus partially to Louis — Parker’s lethal, enigmatic ally — whose past as a professional killer catches up with him. A former associate is found tortured to death, and the trail leads to an organization trafficking in something far stranger than drugs or weapons: fragments of a medieval artifact connected to an entity called the Black Angel — Immael, a fallen angel imprisoned centuries ago.
The investigation takes Parker and his allies from New York’s criminal underworld to the monasteries and ruins of Eastern Europe, where medieval religious communities attempted to contain supernatural evil through relics and ritual. Connolly expands his cosmology dramatically: the evil that Parker has been encountering throughout the series is not local or random but part of a larger conflict between forces of creation and destruction, good and evil in the most literal theological sense.
The novel is structurally ambitious, intercutting between present-day investigation and historical narrative — the fate of monks and knights who first confronted the Black Angel centuries ago. Connolly’s research into medieval theology and demonology is thorough, and the historical passages are among the most atmospheric writing in the series.
Collecting The Black Angel
First edition (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2005): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine/fine: $30–$75
- US first (Atria, 2005), fine/fine: $20–$50