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So I got home from work last night, and the Husband was out, so I got on the couch with my “new” Michael Connelly: A Darkness More Than Night. With his newest release, The Reversal, on its way to me (delivery estimate is today!), I was excited to get caught up. Darkness was the very last of his novels that I had never read. What fun.

(Darkness was published in 2001 and is not new. I have a liking for the series out of order, though.)

I’ve been excited, over the years, to see the serial characters I’ve come to know and love (Bosch, McEvoy, Haller, Rachel and Eleanor, even Cassie Black and Thelma the parole officer) come into contact with one another. It makes Connelly’s world so much more real to see them pass as ships in the night. It’s not like he created a group at the start and kept them together. It really is as if they’re all part of a larger, complex system, and they meet, perhaps only tangentially, and diverge just like we do in our real world. Also, I appreciate that Connelly changes things up, updates his characters, and keeps things very real and human for me. For example, I confess I came to a point where I felt that Bosch was becoming a little bit of a type, or a caricature: the lone, self-destructive, hard-drinking, isolated, good-hearted, authority-battling, etc. police detective. But just as I recognized this concern, Connelly recognized it too, and made Bosch a fuller, more complex and human character. We get into his personal relationships; or, we get a different character’s perspective for a book or two, and see Bosch through someone else’s eyes than his own. So, I continue to be a real fan.

In Darkness, Terry McCaleb from Blood Work returns for another unofficial investigation, and finds the fingers pointing towards Harry Bosch himself. Again we see Bosch through eyes other than his own, while the majority of Connelly’s novels are seen from Bosch’s perspective. It’s every bit what I expect from Connelly: fast-paced, suspenseful, edge-of-the-seat action with surprises, plot twists, and a touch of very human love, along with glimpses into the depths of human goodness and depravity, and some appreciation of art along the way. (Most often we learn about jazz, Bosch’s passion; here we look at some classic paintings. I love a novel that inspires nonfiction research, as this one did for me.) I would say it’s “typical” Connelly, but don’t be confused by the negative connotation there, one of the same-old. Rather, “typical” Connelly is intended as high praise. I read this book straight through before bed – no need for a bookmark – and stayed up too late consequently, but it was worth it, as always.

All this just has me all the more excited for The Reversal, in which Bosch and Haller team up! I can’t wait. After today, I’m on vacation til next Wednesday the 27th, so don’t expect to hear from me; I’m taking The Reversal on vacay with me if it shows up in time (hope hope!), along with the Fagles translation of Homer’s Odyssey on audio, read by Ian McKellen, for the drive. Good times!

See you back here next week. Thanks for following. Go get some Connelly!

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: mystery |