The Wolf in Winter

I DON’T actually own an ouija board — says John Connolly with a laugh halfway through our conversation, and it’s hard not to be just a little disappointed.

The Dublin-born Connolly is the award-winning author of 12 novels in the best-selling Charlie Parker series, supernaturally-tinged tales of a haunted private detective set in Maine. Despite the crypt-like interior of Temple Bar’s Il Baccaro restaurant, however, Connolly is irrepressibly cheerful as he discusses his prolific output.