|
Publisher:
Little, Brown |
Release
Date: May 2004 |
ISBN:
0316155306 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Hardcover |
Amazon |
Genre:
Mystery/Private Investigator |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Lawrence Greenberg |
Reviewer
Notes: Audio
Review |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
|
The
Narrows
Harry
Bosch #10
By Michael Connelly
Michael
Connelly here proves he’s one of the top crime fiction writers
around. In The Narrows, he’s unquestionably at the
top of his game. His superior intelligence is everywhere in evidence—in
superb plotting, assured style and solid characters. The climax
of this terrific thriller is breathtaking and the momentum of the
story leading up to it is pitch perfect. It doesn’t get any
better than this.
Connelly is clever in any
number of ways. One of them is to converge the stories of both his
long-standing series character, Harry Bosch, with that of Rachel
Walling, the female protagonist of two of his more recent novels,
including The Poet. This is a masterful stroke; one of the characters
is a PI who’s shunned by the police; the other, an ostracized
FBI agent assigned to the Dakotas for a couple of years, as out
of the way as it gets in FBI-land. When these two work together
to track down the re-emerged Poet, they understand each other implicitly,
and so their combined efforts mean even more to the reader than
they would otherwise.
Another, possibly even slyer,
conceit that Connelly pulls off is the fusing of reality and fiction.
At first, the reader may think the author is tooting his own horn
to the point of overkill as he more than once alludes to his own
Blood Work, the basis of the film starring Clint Eastwood. How bloated
can this writer’s ego be? But reading further in the novel,
you see Connelly referring to Dean Koontz, Ian Rankin, and George
Pelecanos in smart, sneaky ways, as well as to one of the characters
in The Narrows being present for the interview of notorious serial
killer Ted Bundy—and you realize Connelly is having a lot
of fun mixing it up. What’s real and what isn’t? Could
these things actually happen to you or me? When The Poet, Bob Backus,
sees agent Rachel Walling reading a novel called The Poet (written,
of course, by Connelly), this fusing of fiction and reality reaches
the pinnacle of cleverness. It’s understanding why Connelly
is doing something like this that makes this so much fun.
Backus
has killed again and in so doing, has brought Walling out to a remote
spot in southern California. Through a completely different set
of circumstances, Bosch finds himself in the same place, asked by
McCaleb’s widow to investigate the death of his former colleague,
Terry McCaleb (the main character in Blood Work). Once these two
meet, the story gets going in earnest and there’s non-stop
intensity from there on. Highly recommended and although it’s
only May, I’d be surprised if this did not turn out to be
one of the best thrillers of the year.
Reviews
of other titles in the Bosch Series
The
Last Coyote, Trunk Music,
Angels Flight, No 4, 5, 6 |
|
A Darkness More
Than Night, No 7 |
[review] [audio
review] |
City of Bones,
No 8 |
[review]
[audio
review] |
Lost Light,
No 9 |
[review]
[audio
review] |
The Narrows,
No 10 |
[review]
[audio
review] |
The Closers,
No 11 |
[review]
[audio
review] |
Echo Park,
No 12 |
[review]
[audio
review] |
The Overlook,
No 13 |
[review]
[audio
review] |
The Brass Verdict,
No 14
Bosch/Haller |
[Audio
review] |
9 Dragons,
No 15
|
[Audio
review] |
The Reversal,
No 16
Bosch/Haller |
[review]
[audio
review] |
The Drop,
No 17 |
[review] |
Murder and all
That Jazz
-Bosch Short Story |
[review] |
The Black Box
No 18 |
[audio
review] |
Angle of Investigation |
[audio
review] |
The Burning
Room No 19 |
[review]
[audio review] |
|