Book #152 of 2024: The Waiting by Michael Connelly (Ballard and Bosch #5) As usual for author Michael Connelly’s stories about now-retired LAPD cop Harry Bosch and his extended network of supporting characters, this latest title juggles several subplots, mostly in the form of active police investigations. Since the protagonist here is Renée Ballard, that …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Waiting by Michael Connelly”
Book #194 of 2022: Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Ballard and Bosch #4) Author Michael Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch story — his 38th book in this broad continuity of LA cops, lawyers, and reporters, if my math is right — finds the detective once again ensconced in the department where he spent most of his …
Continue reading “Book Review: Desert Star by Michael Connelly”
Book #183 of 2022: The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly (Ballard and Bosch #3) Much like author Michael Connelly’s previous novel The Law of Innocence incorporated the real-life COVID-19 pandemic, this 2021 title reflects the strained state of policing in the aftermath of protests over the murder of George Floyd and the systemic racism it …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly”
Book #160 of 2022: Fair Warning by Michael Connelly (Jack McEvoy #3) This 2020 novel is the third title to center on reporter Jack McEvoy, an otherwise peripheral figure in author Michael Connelly’s broad Harry Bosch / Mickey Haller franchise. He’s always an interesting change of pace from those more frequent protagonists, and I pictured …
Continue reading “Book Review: Fair Warning by Michael Connelly”
Book #149 of 2022: The Night Fire by Michael Connelly (Ballard and Bosch #2) Another solid but unspectacular detective thriller, as so many volumes in this franchise have turned out to be. (At this point, I am almost reading less for the actual mysteries and more for the minor updates on Harry Bosch’s personal life, …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Night Fire by Michael Connelly”
Book #137 of 2022: Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly (Ballard and Bosch #1) Detective Renée Ballard has only appeared in one Michael Connelly book before this, but there’s still a frisson of crossover thrill when she encounters the author’s more established hero Harry Bosch early in this volume. After cautiously feeling one another out …
Continue reading “Book Review: Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly”
Book #125 of 2022: Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #20) A disappointingly underwhelming Bosch story. There are two parallel cases that the semi-retired detective is working on here, and we spend too long on the less interesting one, which is obviously author Michael Connelly’s attempt at tackling the hot topic of …
Continue reading “Book Review: Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly”
Book #101 of 2022: The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #19) It was interesting to read this novel soon after watching the first season of Bosch: Legacy, which adapted both of its main plotlines: the quest to find a possible heir to dying billionaire Whitney Vance and the hunt for a …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly”
Book #89 of 2022: The Crossing by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #18) This is one of the better Harry Bosch titles I’ve read, which makes me particularly excited that it’s reportedly going to be the broad basis for the upcoming second season of Bosch: Legacy, despite how the TV canon has diverged from the novels. …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Crossing by Michael Connelly”
Book #77 of 2022: The Burning Room by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch #17) Another perfectly competent police procedural with detective Harry Bosch, looking into a pair of cold cases from decades back: a shooting recently upgraded to a homicide after the victim finally succumbed to his injuries and the bullet could be extracted from his …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Burning Room by Michael Connelly”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more