John Connolly is an acclaimed Irish novelist, best known for his crime fiction novels. He was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and has held various jobs including working as a journalist, barman, local government official, waiter, and a dogsbody at Harrods department store in London. Connolly studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University. He spent five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which he still contributes. Currently, he is based in Dublin but divides his time between Ireland and the United States.
Connolly is the author of the Charlie Parker series of private detective novels, which is his most famous work. The series features a former policeman, Charlie Parker, who is hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. The first novel in the series, Every Dead Thing, was published in 1999, and the eleventh novel, The Wrath of Angels, will be available in the UK in August 2012 and in the US in January 2013. In addition to the Charlie Parker series, Connolly has also written several standalone novels, as well as some supernatural short stories. Some of his standalone novels have been adapted to film. Connolly's genres of books include crime fiction, horror fiction, science fiction, drama, and fantasy. He has also written a series of young adult novels, the Samuel Johnson series, which includes titles such as The Gates and Hell's Bells (UK)/The Infernals (US). A third Samuel Johnson novel is expected to be finished in 2013.