Category Archives: Book Review

There are some spoilers ahead. You are warned.

Michael Connelly you disappoint me. I’ve been a huge fan for the past fifteen years. I have read every novel. There is something compelling about your primary protagonist Harry Bosch. And yes, there is a dark side to him. This is not new. He has his demons that go back to Vietnam. That go back to his mother’s murder. He has his mission. “Everybody counts or nobody counts.” I get it.

In recent years, the Bosch novels have exhibited a disturbing trend. Michael Connelly has continually pushed Harry in ways that reflect nothing more than the actions of a corrupt cop; a police officer so driven by his personal sense of justice that the law — the constitution — just does not matter. The ends justify the means. I’ve found myself getting more and more frustrated. I am not going to create a comprehensive list here, but this is not new. No warrant for a search? No problem? Need to get a confession? Threaten the suspect. It has always bothered me. I teach constitutional criminal procedure, and try to drill the need to respect the rule of law into my students. I try to convince my student that the Bill of Rights are just as important as the criminal law. I know this might be somewhat idealistic, but Harry Bosch, no matter his flaws, was always one of the good guys.

The latest Bosch novel, Dark Sacred Night, which isn’t really a Bosch novel per say, but a Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch novel, takes my concern to a whole new level. Ballard was introduced as Connelly’s new misfit detective in last year’s The Late Show. In Dark Sacred Night, Ballard and Bosch team up to solve a 9 year old cold case. I absolutely loved 90 percent of this book. The two characters jelled. There was no underlying tension between the characters like in so many other of his books. The interaction didn’t involve high jingo. No one from LAPD had it in for Bosch. The story was compelling, and interesting.

Then Connelly had to ruin it.

Spoiler alert. Minor (and perhaps major) spoiler follows..

Renee Ballard is interviewing a individual in his apartment. She gets a hunch that he is hiding something. So she does the right thing, and calls a judge asking for a telephonic warrant. The judge denies her request. There just wasn’t probable cause. My first reaction was “yes!” Then I turned the next page. Ballard hangs up the phone, and immediately goes back to the apartment, knocks on the door, and claims she left her flash light in the missing person’s closet when she was in the apartment. The suspect goes to look, and she immediately starts conducting an illegal search.

Oh, but her hunch was right. So all must be ok in the world. No, no it isn’t. She conducted an illegal search. She broke the law. She violated the defendant’s rights. She was lazy and took the easy way out rather than doing more investigative police-work.

Fast forward to the main story when she follows up on a lead, and decides not to wait for a warrant (again), and instead goes off on her own, in the middle of the night, and breaks into a warehouse. She committed a crime — criminal trespass — in order to investigate her hunch.

Then she gets caught, but fear not, Harry is there to save the day. And then tells her to get lost, as she was never there. Alone with the suspect, Bosch takes action n order to get a confession, In doing so, Bosch comes one step short of torturing on the suspect. A coerced confession, in the same league as that done by disgraced Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge, whose CPD goon squad routinely tortured suspects to get confessions. You know, the guy who attached an electrode and a battery to a suspect’s testicle. That will make you talk. Bosch doesn’t go quite that far, but it’s close. For him it is sulphuric acid.

Then after getting his confession, Bosch first lets the parent of the murdered girl know where his daughter’s murder is, so he can exact his own justice — with a chain saw. BUT Harry then has a change of heart, and places an anonymous call to the LAPD, who arrive just in time.

Harry Bosch has become no better than all of his worst antagonists. He is now as corrupt as Former Deputy Chief Irvin Irving . He is no better than Lewis and Clarke of IAD fame. Or his former partner Frankie Sheehan. Harry Bosch has devolved so far, and so low, that he has become no better than the individuals who are usually his prey. Bosch has become a criminal. Bosch and Ballard might be claim to be righteous. And they might believe that “everybody counts or nobody counts” (no, that one liner is not used in Dark Sacred Night). But they both violate the law as a matter of course, and in doing so, become proponents of what can only be considered vigilante justice. And then they agree to work together, “only bending” and “not breaking” the law in the future. Yeah, I’ve seen that before.

Michael Connelly is a great writer. His novels are generally compelling. But he has turned his star protagonist into a criminal. And after several books with similar “bends” in the law, it is clear he is perfectly fine with that. Connelly is free to develop his character however he likes, but I am free to say enough is enough. I have dedicated a lot of time and energy into a character that I first read in 2002 in City of Bones. I’ve read all the books, most twice. Yet, Connelly can’t get a free pass for making us — his fans — think that that Harry came close to the edge — but he didn’t cross it. Yes, yes he did. And so did Renee Ballard.

What makes this worse, is that I loved 90 percent of this book. I thought Bosch was back and there was a bright future for someone in the hey day of his career. Then there was that that other ten percent. That ten percent which makes me question whether it is worth continuing to read Bosch novels. Michael Connelly could, and should do better. His fans deserve better.

We live in a world where police abuse of force is a real problem. We live in a world where the actions of real life cops have significant impact on police-community relations. I am not saying Harry or Renee need to be saints. I am not saying that Connelly shouldn’t portray then as real cops who face the dilemma of how far to go, in accomplishing their tasks. But when we glorify their regular illegalities, we are doing no one any favors. Heck, Connelly doesn’t even have them even question most of their actions. It’s not entertaining anymore. Maybe it is time to retire Harry. And rethink Renee Ballard.

Michael Connelly, your fans deserve better. And really, so does Harry.

I was extremely leery about this book. What?  Another post super-flu end of the world novel?  Really?  How original could that be?   Brad Manuel’s The Last Tribe looked like yet one more in a long procession of books that came before.  I could not have been any more wrong.

Yes, the book brings to mind a lot of other works:  The Passage, Station 11, King’s masterpiece The Stand, I am Legend, World War Z, The Walking Dead, The Dog Stars, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Planet of the Apes, and on and on.  AND yes, I have read many of them.  There is something about the genre that is always interesting.  But when I first saw The Last Tribe I was pretty sure this would just be another take on the same formula. And in the first chapter, I was convinced that this was going to be a book that had zero originality.

I’ll say it again. I  could not have been more wrong.

 

The Last Tribe does not have zombies.  It does not really have many “bad guys.”  There are no evil forces at work.  What it has is perhaps unique to the whole genre.  Humanity.  The book tells the story of a group of survivors, several of whom, quite miraculously, are from the same family.  It tells how they come together, and ultimately create “the last tribe.”  The book has incredibly strong character development.  It has several protagonists, and over 700 pages, you come to cheer for all of them.

 

Brad Manuel has created a world that you do not want to leave.  He has created a world in which humanity triumphs.  A world in which people use knowledge, determination, and sheer will-power to not only survive, but to thrive.  It is a good guys survival story.

 

I don’t want to spoil the story.  I just strongly recommend you buy the book, or the audiobook (Scott Brick, one of the great audio performers of the day narrates it, over 22 hours!).  And then set some time aside, as once you start, you won’t want to put it down.

 

I am just hoping there is a sequel.

All the Missing Girls has everything in the contemporary whodunit novel, and follows many of popular books of recent years, like Gone Girl, and The Girl on the Train (hmmm… a recurring girl theme), but then flips everything.

All the Missing Girls, by Megan Miranda (out in print tomorrow), does one thing completely different.  It tells the story in reverse.  The story takes place over 15 days.  There is a brief preface.  Then It jumps 15 days later.   And each chapter is a day.  In reverse. Each day reveals more of the story, but the problem is you have to tie it all together.  Is this just a gimmick to sell books, or is it a novel plot device that works?

Probably a little bit of both.  I found myself frustrated through much of the book, as I was having t
o store information away, trying to figure out each day’s events. Yet, as it came to a conclusion (and the book does come to a conclusion), it got easier and easier.   But I wanted to go back and re-read the whole book.   Yet, I didn’t do that, because, to be honest, there are too many good books out there to read, and nowhere enough time, and while I enjoyed the book, I didn’t enjoy it so much as to spend another couple days re-reading.

Does this plot device work?  Yes.  Do I want to see it in future books?  Not really.  Will the book be the next Gone Girl?   I doubt it.  But is it worth the time?  Yes, I think so.  All the Missing Girls provides the recreational reader who wants to view the reading experience as a kind of puzzle, with a unique opportunity.

I read an advance copy sent from Simon & Schuster.  The book is out on Amazon and at your friendly bookstore, this week.