Michael Connelly
City of Bones (2002)
Author: Michael Connelly
Genre: Mystery/Detective (Police Procedural)
Plot Summary:
Loner LAPD detective Harry Bosch is called to investigate a suspicious-looking bone retrieved
by a neighborhood dog in Laurel Canyon. When the bone is discovered to belong to a child, Harry and the rest of the department race to find the crime scene. Once found, the victim's bones, buried for thirty years, tell a chilling tale of repeated and brutal abuse, as well as betraying the cause of death, blunt force trauma to the skull. The case hits hard-boiled Harry a little too close to home, and he vows to find the killer, no matter how cold the case. The plot quickly tangles as various suspects are charged and then released, sometimes resulting in murder. Further complicating the case is Harry's fledgling romance with reckless rookie Julia Brasher.
Geographical Setting: Los Angeles
Time Period: 1990's
Series: Harry Bosch series; Book 8
Appeal Characteristics:
For the reader who believes that the journey is the destination, City of Bones
provides a host of elements that satisfy. Harry Bosch is immediately likeable, albeit in a five o'clock shadow, drinking dirty martinis at three in the afternoon and sleeping in his clothes kind of way. It is obvious that Harry has had loss in his life, but although he is cynical, he still upholds his ideas of justice and truth. Readers interested in learning more about Los Angeles will appreciate the various landmarks and light regional history
scattered throughout the plot, and readers interested in the operations of a big-city police department will enjoy the many procedural details included. Those who read mysteries solely to solve the puzzle may be disappointed in the story, as Connelly discards many seemingly plausible endings for a rushed and rather unforeseeable conclusion. The pacing of the narrative is well-timed; the reader can grasp the sense of personal urgency with which Harry
regards the case, yet there are comfortable lags in the action, giving the medical examiner a chance to identify the bones and for Harry to seduce the rookie Brasher. Those interested in award winners will appreciate the fact that City of Bones won the 2003 Anthony Award, and was nominated for the Macavity Award (2003), the Crime Writers' Association Award (2002), and the Edgar Award (2003).
Read-alikes: For another fix of maverick Harry Bosch, try Connelly's The Black Echo, winner of the 1993 Edgar Award. For more police procedurals set in L.A. with a strong focus on characters, try Tami Hoag's Don't Kill the Messenger. Those interested in a female lead detective might try Katherine V. Forrest's Sleeping Bones: A Kate Delafield Mystery, which features ex-marine Kate Delafield of the LAPD and her new rookie partner as they investigate murder at the La Brea tar pits. Fans attracted to the "cold-case" aspect of the story might try James Hime's The Night of the Dance, also an Edgar Award winner (2004), but set in small-town Texas as opposed to L.A. Those looking for similar characterization, strong sense of location and the reality of crime in the big city,
here Washington D.C., will like Drama City by George Pelecanos.
Red Flags: Scenes of child abuse, violence, and some sex. None are portrayed gratuitously or graphically.
The Closers (2005)
Author: Michael Connelly
Genre: Mystery/Detective (Police Procedural)
Plot Summary:
Detective Harry Bosch is back in this bestselling, 2005 Quill Award nominee and BookBrowse Diamond Award winner. After a three year retirement, Bosch is working a new assignment (with his former partner, Kizmin Rider), in the LAPD "Open-Unsolved Unit" handling so-called "cold cases". His first day on the job involves re-opening the alleged hate-related murder of a sixteen year old, bi-racial girl in 1988, due to new DNA evidence. His methodical investigation relies not on forensic evidence, but good, old-fashioned police work (exposing the remnants of some old-fashioned police corruption as well). Connelly's realistically authoritative narrative guides you through the exacting motions of finding new leads (Could the LAPD have covered up a race related murder?), identifying suspects (What does a long defunct gang of white power youths have to do with the girl's death?), and building a new case (Is it even still possible to find out what really happened on July 5, 1988?), while providing probing, character insights from Bosch's thought processes and emotional revelations about his new place in the scheme of things. SPOILER: Bosch finds that his prime suspect, illiterate, white supremacist, Roland Mackey, was merely a pawn (and subsequent murder victim) in what turns out to be a crime of passion committed by Rebecca Verloren's high school science teacher, Gordon Stoddard; her then lover and father of her aborted child.
Geographical Setting: Los Angeles, California
Time Period: Present Day (2005)
Series: Hieronymous Bosch Detective Novels, Book 11
Appeal Characteristics:
This detail oriented, realistic narrative is all about studying the existing facts of the past, building a case by gathering new ones, and finding an answer. Though never slow, the pace is appropriately methodical, allowing you to follow along with Bosch's deductions and interactions. There are a few, quick-paced action scenes included, most notably, toward the end, but these thriller elements are scattered throughout the majority of the primarily procedure-based novel. Connelly focuses most of his depth of characterization on Bosch, but filters his precise narrative description of many of the secondary characters through Bosch's well-developed perceptions (There is nothing from the mind of the criminal here). As a result the tone is highly inquisitive, intelligent, and slightly world-weary (yet less angry and than previous novels), with a few humorous exchanges between Bosch and other officers throughout. Connelly delivers a protagonist that is ultimately a realistic hero; "more emotional than clinical", who admits when he's made mistakes, even when they've cost lives, renewing his motivation to 'speak for the dead' in his own tough, instinct-driven way of emotionally fueled Justice. Long-time fans will be intrigued by the new direction in Bosch's career, re-introducing several characters from previous novels in the series interesting ways. However, The Closers is framed as a new chapter in the protagonist's life and career, perfect for first-time readers of the series; providing just enough past detail that will make readers want to (re)turn to the earlier novels!
Read-alikes: Readers who enjoyed this book may want to, obviously, start with the first Harry Bosch novel; Michael Connelly's 1993 Edgar Award winning Best First Mystery Novel, The Black Echo, which focuses on the story of Bosch's investigation into the murder of a former comrade from the Vietnam War. Those interested in the realistically dramatized detail of methodical police procedure may wish to try the critically acclaimed HBO television series, The Wire (partially based on the 1992 Edgar Award winning Best Crime Fact book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, by the series creator, David Simon), which focuses on the 'novel-like' storyline of building of a case against a Baltimore drug operation (across multiple seasons), also involving a wire-tap as a major plot point. Jonathan Kellerman's The Murder Book is part of another bestselling, Los Angeles based detective novel series that can also be read as a stand-alone, dealing with a similarly complex storyline involving the reopening of a 20 year old cold case. Michael Connelly personally recommends the first novel in John Shannon's Jack Liffey series, The Concrete River, which contains similarities to his own; in that it contains a writing style that is often labeled as 'literary' (in a complimentary way), is set in modern day Los Angeles, and features a believable, honorable detective, also a Vietnam vet, concerned with Justice (in Liffey's case, the search for missing children). Connelly's rich narrative language and 'lone-wolf' type character owe a debt to Raymond Chandler's earlier Los Angeles set, private detective novels featuring Phillip Marlowe, like The Long Goodbye (a "classic" of the genre by many people's standards, including Connelly, who lists it as a major influence on his career as a writer).
Red Flags: Strong language moderately scattered throughout and a few scenes of descriptive violence.
Alcoholism and racial bigotry (language) are significant plot points.
The Poet (1996)
Author: Michael Connelly
Genre: Mystery (Amateur Detective)/Suspense (Hard-edged)
Plot Summary: While investigating the supposed suicide of his twin brother, who was a police officer, Denver crime reporter Jack McEvoy stumbles on the path of a serial killer: one who has murdered more than seven police officers across the country and made them all appear to have committed suicide. McEvoy is convinced to hold off writing this explosive story for his newspaper when the FBI allows him to be an integral part of the investigation to catch the serial killer. Because the killer leaves behind a line of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry as a "suicide note" at each crime scene, the FBI has dubbed this killer "The Poet." SPOILER: At the time of their deaths, each police officer was obsessed with catching a murderer. The reader knows the murderer is William Gladden because throughout the book, Gladden's third-person perspective is interspersed with McEvoy's first-person account of the investigation. The reader and the FBI initially believe Gladden had committed the "bait" murder to first pull in a police officer, then had murdered the detective a few months later. However, the reader later learns that Gladden had committed the first murders and moved on, while another killer then came in and murdered the detective in charge of Gladden's cases.
Geographical Setting: Denver, Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Los Angeles
Time Period: Contemporary (1996)
Appeal Characteristics: The heart of any mystery is the investigation, and that is certainly true in this story. Connelly does not lead the reader through the same old mystery story: The Poet is full of enough twists and turns to compel the most jaded mystery aficionado to keep reading. This mystery/suspense story messes with the readers' emotions through these twists and turns. For the majority of the book, the reader believes the killer is Gladden, and when it is revealed that The Poet is actually someone else, it a major shock. The ending also is ambiguous, because the reader does not know if The Poet lived or died at the end. This ambiguous ending might appeal to jaded mystery readers who are sick of mystery stories that are neatly, and sometimes unrealistically, tied up at the end. Jack McEvoy is a complex character, because at times, his motivation in the investigation is questioned both by the other characters in the story and the reader as well. Is he interested in being a part of the investigation because he wants to break a major story or is his main motivation catching the man who murdered his brother? McEvoy is a loner who has trouble trusting others, but this world-weariness is one of his most likeable characteristics. The secondary characters in the story are not as well-developed as McEvoy, but their familiar characteristics makes them immediately recognizable: the grieving widow, the unsupportive parents, the newspaper editor who is obsessed with deadlines, the lonely woman FBI agent, and the FBI agent who really dislikes members of the media. Dark in tone, the story jumps around the country, but the setting is not as important as the investigation into the serial killer, which really drives the book forward.
Read-alikes: The Harry Bosch series, also by Michael Connelly, will appeal to any reader who enjoyed The Poet. The investigator Harry Bosch, while a detective in the LAPD and not an amateur, shares many of the same characteristics of Jack McEvoy. Bosch also is a loner, who has trust issues and exhibits an almost palatable sense of world-weariness. If the reader is disappointed by the ambiguous ending of The Poet, advise the reader to try The Narrows, which is book ten in the Bosch series. The Narrows is the sequel to The Poet, and features Bosch on the path of the same serial killer, and the end of The Narrows provides a satisfying end to this search. Also, in a departure from the normal third-person perspective of the Bosch series, The Narrows is written from the first-person perspective of Bosch, and this first-person perspective is reminiscent of McEvoy's inner monologue in The Poet. Just as in The Poet, the Summer of Fear, by T. Jefferson Parker, features a crime reporter investigating the murder of someone in his life. Parker's amateur detective in this novel is Russ Monroe, who solves the mysterious death of his ex-girlfriend. Monroe's first-person account of becoming personally involved into the investigation of a serial killer reads very much like the investigation in The Poet. Any reader who enjoyed the alternating first-person perspective of McEvoy with the third-person perspective of the villain will enjoy L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais. This is book eight in the Elvis Cole series, and while the Cole series features a humor not evident in Connelly's works, L.A. Requiem has a relatively dark tone, as Cole tries to prove the innocence of his friend, Joe Pike. For those that enjoy Connelly's loner hero entangled in dark, twisted plots, the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child would be a good suggestion. The first in the series, Killing Floor, is an essential first read: Jack Reacher, an ex-military policeman, investigates the murder of his brother. Finally, the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman, especially The Silent Partner, would be an another great suggestion for those who liked The Poet. Also an amateur detective, Delaware's insights into the criminal mind are a great follow-up to McEvoy's questioning of how a serial killer is made. In The Silent Partner, Delaware investigates the supposed suicide of his ex-girlfriend, and shows a darker, more brooding side than in the previous Delaware novels.
Red Flags: Light sexual scenes, minor plot points of child abuse and child pornography, although this all happens mostly off stage, and violence that escalates to a climatic scene at the end.
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