The Overlook (Harry Bosch Series)

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As Harry examines the scene, he is surprised by the arrival of F.B.I. agent Rachel Walling. Walling indicates that the victim, Kent, was a medical physicist who was on a list kept by the federal government. She initially refuses to tell Bosch why Kent was on the list or why she is interested in the case, and insists that they should get to Kent's house A.S.A.P. The Overlook has fewer of the contemplative departures in which Bosch considers his history or relationships — the sort of passages that make previous books like long, multidimensional jazz improvisations. This one is an intense riff, and that’s satisfying, too.”

One think I like is the way Connelly confronts the "every Arab is a terrorist" assumption of many post9/1. Some people get very excited about the propect of a new Harry Bosch book ... But it's not surprising. Fifteen years and umpteen books on, Connelly is still pulling in the crowds ... Thrilling rollercoaster? Take it as read * DAILY SPORT * I listened to it, and Canadian actor Len Carriou is just a wonderful reader, perfect for Connelly's stories. A doctor with access to a dangerous radioactive substance is found murdered on the overlook above the Mulholland Dam. Retracing his steps, Harry learns that a large quantity of radioactive cesium was stolen shortly before the doctor’s death. With the cesium in unknown hands, Harry fears the murder could be part of a terrorist plot to poison a major American city.Connelly, once again, has hit a home run. He does it quietly and without any pyrotechnics. He makes it look deceptively easy.” Dr. Stanley Kent killed, shot 2 times in head, in his “rich” Mulholland Drive home. His wife found naked & “hog-tied”. What & Why?

Alicia Kent, the beautiful wife of the murder victim, who was taken hostage in her home by two intruders. She was used by the intruders to pressure Stanley Kent to steal the caesium from the hospital. No one needs to sing Michael Connelly’s praises. The guy is as solid as his lead detective. Connelly plots the story perfectly and brings it home with all the self-confidence and easy storytelling of a master.”

Michael Connelly: I think the story is more complex. I didn’t change the significant aspects of plot and character; the bad guy in the Times version is still the bad guy. But I made the bureaucratic and political obstacles that Harry Bosch faces more complicated. There is also a pretty significant story line added involving a character who was not in the Times version of the story. I also shifted the time that the story takes place. In the Times it took place right before Christmas. Now it takes place right now. This allowed me to make the story more current. Ferras has been growing increasingly uncomfortable with his partner’s methods, but when the two revisit the Kent residence at dawn, Bosch gives Ferras further cause for alarm. An officious FBI agent guarding the house refuses them entry, and, frustrated that he is being shut out from his own investigation, Bosch easily overpowers the agentwhose identification reveals that he is Clifford Maxwelland handcuffs him. Bosch is puzzled by several seemingly unimportant details in the house, including a rectangular discoloration on the wall of the workout room where a poster or calendar might have hung, but does not know what to make of them. As the two detectives leave, Bosch tosses the keys to Maxwell’s cuffs on the floor where the agent will have to crawl to retrieve them. There is no doubt in my mind ... Connelly is brilliant! Even with a purely plot-oriented novel, he has made sure that Bosch loses none of the flavour or depth of character so carefully built up in twelve previous novels. His interaction with Walling is both hot and heated (if you understand the subtle distinction). The jurisdictional squabbling and in-fighting has a definite tinge of realism and, frankly, it is difficult as a reader to sit in judgment in this particular case and take sides. Bosch and Walling, the FBI and the LAPD were all right and wrong at various moments in the novel! As the story opens, Detective Harry Bosch has just been reassigned to the L.A.P.D.'s prestigious Homicide Special Squad. He's sitting up at midnight, waiting for his first call out. When it comes, he's directed to a homicide on an overlook above the city. He arrives to find that a doctor, Stanley Kent, has been murdered execution-style, next to his Porsche, which is has been left with its luggage compartment standing open. The Overlook now races to its conclusion as Bosch and Walling strive to capture Maxwell. However, the renegade agent shoots the one person who could implicate him, his lover Alicia, and then, as Bosch and Walling move in, himself.

Guess what. I liked the story. It was different seeing Harry in a "edge of your seat" thriller. It moved along and kept my interest. Yes once I learned that the story had been originally a serial I could see the obvious "cliffhanger moments". So what? Is it such a bad thing to have a long lived and beloved character in something a little different now and again? I actually enjoyed seeing Harry pull it off in his own unique style and it was refreshing. You know sometimes even in the real world cops find themselves in tense, fast moving situations. So why not a fictional character? Michael Connelly does his token terrorism story. And it would not be true to him to make it a political mess and power struggle among the various organisations that want to show the world and their constituency how great they are at the wheel of a real threat. Among them Harry Bosch with a new partner that just wants to solve a the murder that starts of the whole story. And Harry gets mighty annoyed when the murder is considered less important than the threat of some terrorism. At the beginning of The Overlook, we discover that Detective Harry Bosch is now in Homicide Special, a part of the prestigious Robbery Homicide Division within the LAPD. Harry had been working open-unsolved cases in the last two books, The Closers and Echo Park. Given his motto, that everybody counts or nobody counts, does it really matter what division Harry is in? We get some new faces in this one and of course new with Iggy and some others. We see a reappearance of J. Edgar who once again proves that tv J. Edgar is better than book J. Edgar. It always makes me uncomfortable how Connelly portrays him as lazy and homophobic. Ugh. FBI agent Rachel Walling has dumped Bosch twice, but they have found a way to work together, and they do so in this volumeAnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

The fear of terrorism brings in the FBI and ratchets up the suspense to an almost unbearable point, especially with the twists it takes” Rachel Walling, who was romantically involved with Harry in a number of previous Harry Bosch novels. In this story, while Harry has hopes of re-connecting with Rachel, their relationship is strained, owing to conflicting views on how the investigation should be carried out. What started as the sort of book that made me wonder if Bosch had run his course for me ended in a good 4 star rating. Yes, I want to shake Harry at times and ask him why the hell he can't just "go along to get along" (sic), but I suppose we should all know by now that's never going to happen. And we (I) should just have faith that he is the one we can depend upon to get the job done. Michael Connelly: I try to make these books as realistic as possible without hindering the drama of each story. The events at the end of Echo Park I think would realistically require a major internal investigation to make sure that Harry acted appropriately. So I would say that Harry’s been waiting out an investigation and chomping at the bit to continue his mission. I don’t want to give away anything from Echo Park but it was pretty clear by the end that Harry would need to be assigned a new partner. In The Overlook he is teamed with a young detective he can mentor. I hope Ignacio Ferras is around for at least a few more books. At the victim’s house the wife is found naked and trussed up on the bed, obviously distraught, the situation not helped by the arrival of Walling’s partner, Brenner, and Bosch fights to keep some control over the case…and some elements of the wife's story doesn't sit right with him.This is a fairly fast read; all the action takes place in one part of LA - which Harry mentions a few times. The setting is one I know from reading this series, same for Harry and a few 'regulars,' but there are a lot of new people to spice things up. Eh. This was not my favorite Bosch. After a couple of home-runs with this series, this was definitely a disappointment. About half the length of his usual books, Connelly uses this to just show readers excerpts from his other books. I hit the finish line with this book at 74 percent I think. The remaining was just excerpts. Ignacio "Iggy" Ferras, Bosch's young partner. Iggy wants to play by the book and is seriously disturbed by Bosch's let's-break-the-rules attitude. At one point, he tells Bosch that he cannot work with him and will be requesting a new partner. One thing i did not like was the ending/resolution, which I thought was crazy, preposterous, forgettable.