The Wrong Side of Goodbye

I've loved Harry Bosch since something compelled me to buy a copy of The Black Echo years ago at a local bookstore. Bosch is a fixture in my life. One of my vertebrae even. I was thrilled at the quality of Amazon Prime's Bosch television series. But for some unknown reason, I allowed myself to get a bit behind in reading the books. Probably because Mickey Haller made an appearance, and I'm not a big fan of his. I know-- excuses, excuses. But I knew the books would always be there, and they'd always be good.

For the past few years, I've been conducting a private war with audiobooks. So many readers seem to swear by them, but I'd never found a book narrated by someone who didn't put me to sleep. I don't have trouble with insomnia, so this show more entire "war" has been frustrating-- until I noticed an audiobook copy of The Wrong Side of Goodbye. The price was really good, so I took a look at the small print. Narrated by Titus Welliver... I love that man's voice! I bought the audiobook so fast I think I broke the internet for a second or two.

Listening to this book was being allowed to relax in heaven for a while. Seriously! I haven't felt this good about being read to since I was small enough to crawl into my mother's lap to listen to her read me a story.

Of course, the story is excellent, vintage Connelly. Harry has two cases keeping him busy: his P.I. case for the billionaire, and a case involving a serial rapist called the "Screen Cutter" in the San Fernando Valley. Most writers would think they'd hit the jackpot with just one of those storylines, but Connelly has them both and he handles both brilliantly.

What I love the most about Connelly's storytelling is the personal details he adds. It's the personal that brings the reader's emotions to the fore, that really makes the reader engage with the story and the characters. Why Harry won't eat Vietnamese food. Bob Hope, Connie Stevens, and Neil Armstrong going out to entertain the troops during the Vietnam War. That sculpture at the conclusion of the book...

With this audiobook experience being such a wonderful one, you know what I did, don't you? I have the next Harry Bosch lined up, and I'm looking forward to listening to Titus Welliver's voice telling me another story. I have finally been converted, at least where Harry is concerned. show less

4.5 stars

When you read a series that has been running as long as this one, it’s inevitable you’ll enjoy some more than others. This one is a keeper.

Harry Bosch is “retired”. After being shoved out of the LAPD, he got a P.I. license & also volunteers at the tiny, cash strapped San Fernando police department. Now he has 2 cases that prevent him from checking up on daughter Maddy as much as he’d like.

Whitney Vance is an elderly billionaire whose days are numbered. When he was 18, he fell in love with a Mexican girl who became pregnant. His elitist father kiboshed the relationship & he never saw her again. As he nears the end of his life with no family, Vance begins to wonder what became of the young woman & if he might have an show more heir. What he needs is a good P.I.

In San Fernando, Harry & his colleagues have been searching for a serial rapist. His crimes are unspeakable & there’s no doubt he will strike again . Despite some friction with his captain, Harry gives in to his tendency to colour outside the lines as he races to identify their man. But then another woman is snatched & this time it’s personal.

I could blather on (and probably will). What you need to know is this is a great read. My ultimate compliment? I read it in a day, growling at anyone who invaded my space. Connelly is a master of pacing & I found myself chanting “just one more page, just one more page” until I hit the back cover. The dialogue is lean & characters so well developed that you feel as if you’re in the room with them as events unfold. Both story lines are compelling with more than a few twists to keep you on your toes. But it’s Harry’s search for Vance’s heir that packs an emotional punch. It resonates with Harry for personal reasons & reminds us all of the prejudices that were common in the 1950’s. And when the meaning of the title is revealed, it’s an especially poignant moment.

Enough. Just get it & prepare to do some growling of your own. show less

Wow. I thought this one was really good. Everything clicked. Since I was meh to oh heck no on the last couple of books, it was nice to finally read a really great Bosch book.

In "The Wrong Side of Goodbye" we have Bosch now working as a volunteer for the San Fernando Police Department. Bosch threw a lawsuit at the LAPD when they forcibly retired him and prevented him from getting his full benefits when he came back under DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan). Due to the lawsuit (and the subsequent win) Bosch more than ever is not seen as a favorable person by his former LAPD colleagues. However, he is content more than he has been in years (or like all the books I have read to date) since he is focusing on cold cases, rapes, and show more murders. When Bosch is approached by a former member of the LAPD to meet with a dying billionaire (yeah that's a thing now), Bosch is intrigued enough to go due to the $10,000 he is paid just for going to say hello.

The book focuses on Bosch juggling a serial rapist case for Sen Fernando and then working out if the dying billionaire has left a heir behind. Thankfully Connelly does not tie to the two cases together. That would have been a bridge too far for me. Instead, we get to see Bosch's leg work (and old fashioned at that) and why it still works. He has a new sort of partner that he likes though once again, Bosch doesn't have a clue about her personal life until almost the very end of the book. I was more intrigued with the serial rapist case than the missing heir case since we find out pretty soon the results of the heir case. It turns into something else that really had me thinking though which is why I enjoyed both cases.

We have Bosch being Bosch. He still tries to buck authority. But thank goodness for once we didn't have Bosch trying to square off against a supervisor. I hate it when Connelly tries to justify Bosch's attitude. He was being a petty ass toward someone in this book and it was great that for once that Connelly showed Bosch being in the wrong, and yeah no consequences though Bosch deserved them.

We get appearances by Bosch's half-brother, Mickey Haller. It always cracks me up that he seems way more sleazy in the books than he did in the movie (The Lincoln Lawyer). But in this appearance, he is not wandering around half drunk. He is sharp, on point, and really really savvy. I loved seeing him and Bosch team up again.

We also have Bosch's college age daughter in this one. Still annoying in places, but not out and out aggravating.

I also laughed a bit because Bosch's current age is kind of a joke at this point. He remarks at one point he is the same age of a woman in her 60s he is meeting and I had to wonder what age we had for him in the last book and then just gave up trying to figure it out.

No love interest at all for Bosch in this one and now that I think on it, I don't think he has had a serious one in the last few books.

We just have Bosch, his house in the hills, and his love for his daughter and for the job.

The writing was much crisper in this one too. There is a bit of then Bosch read this and thought that and read this again, but Connelly cut on that way back. I remember the one book where we are reading about how Bosch reads murder books and what certain words mean to him as he reads it. I still want to go and bang my head about that.

There are a few comments here and there that makes me think that Connelly had a crystal ball into the current state of our political affairs and has Bosch make a comment about how terrible it is that this serial rapist seems to be targeting Hispanic women, since many of them are scared to go to the police to report their rapes since they are scared of being deported. Yeah. I maybe took a deep breath and pinched my nose at that point. There is another comment about people building walls that are not going to do a blessed thing too.

The flow was really good and the pressure doesn't let up until the end when you get a resolution about both cases that Bosch is working. show less

The 21st book in the Harry Bosch series, finds Harry no longer working for the LAPD, working as a s private investigator, and volunteering his time with the small San Fernando police department on cold cases (because Harry just can’t give up police work completely). Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The billionaire is nearing the end of his life and is haunted by one regret. When he was young, he had a relationship with a Mexican girl, his great love. But soon after becoming pregnant, she disappeared. Did she have the baby? And if so, what happened to it? Desperate to know whether he has an heir, the dying magnate hires Bosch, the only person he can trust. With such a vast fortune at stake, Harry realizes show more that his mission could be risky not only for himself but for the one he's seeking. At the same time, he opens up a cold case that leads him to tracking a serial rapist who always seems to be one step ahead of Harry. I had not read of any of the Harry Bosch series—though I have seen the series based on this character. My husband loves this series so we took the chance of listening to the book on a recent vacation. Really enjoyed the book—Harry is a great character, loved the supporting characters as well. The plot was well done—with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. 4 out of 5 stars. show less

Wow. I thought this one was really good. Everything clicked. Since I was meh to oh heck no on the last couple of books, it was nice to finally read a really great Bosch book.

In "The Wrong Side of Goodbye" we have Bosch now working as a volunteer for the San Fernando Police Department. Bosch threw a lawsuit at the LAPD when they forcibly retired him and prevented him from getting his full benefits when he came back under DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan). Due to the lawsuit (and the subsequent win) Bosch more than ever is not seen as a favorable person by his former LAPD colleagues. However, he is content more than he has been in years (or like all the books I have read to date) since he is focusing on cold cases, rapes, and show more murders. When Bosch is approached by a former member of the LAPD to meet with a dying billionaire (yeah that's a thing now), Bosch is intrigued enough to go due to the $10,000 he is paid just for going to say hello.

The book focuses on Bosch juggling a serial rapist case for Sen Fernando and then working out if the dying billionaire has left a heir behind. Thankfully Connelly does not tie to the two cases together. That would have been a bridge too far for me. Instead, we get to see Bosch's leg work (and old fashioned at that) and why it still works. He has a new sort of partner that he likes though once again, Bosch doesn't have a clue about her personal life until almost the very end of the book. I was more intrigued with the serial rapist case than the missing heir case since we find out pretty soon the results of the heir case. It turns into something else that really had me thinking though which is why I enjoyed both cases.

We have Bosch being Bosch. He still tries to buck authority. But thank goodness for once we didn't have Bosch trying to square off against a supervisor. I hate it when Connelly tries to justify Bosch's attitude. He was being a petty ass toward someone in this book and it was great that for once that Connelly showed Bosch being in the wrong, and yeah no consequences though Bosch deserved them.

We get appearances by Bosch's half-brother, Mickey Haller. It always cracks me up that he seems way more sleazy in the books than he did in the movie (The Lincoln Lawyer). But in this appearance, he is not wandering around half drunk. He is sharp, on point, and really really savvy. I loved seeing him and Bosch team up again.

We also have Bosch's college age daughter in this one. Still annoying in places, but not out and out aggravating.

I also laughed a bit because Bosch's current age is kind of a joke at this point. He remarks at one point he is the same age of a woman in her 60s he is meeting and I had to wonder what age we had for him in the last book and then just gave up trying to figure it out.

No love interest at all for Bosch in this one and now that I think on it, I don't think he has had a serious one in the last few books.

We just have Bosch, his house in the hills, and his love for his daughter and for the job.

The writing was much crisper in this one too. There is a bit of then Bosch read this and thought that and read this again, but Connelly cut on that way back. I remember the one book where we are reading about how Bosch reads murder books and what certain words mean to him as he reads it. I still want to go and bang my head about that.

There are a few comments here and there that makes me think that Connelly had a crystal ball into the current state of our political affairs and has Bosch make a comment about how terrible it is that this serial rapist seems to be targeting Hispanic women, since many of them are scared to go to the police to report their rapes since they are scared of being deported. Yeah. I maybe took a deep breath and pinched my nose at that point. There is another comment about people building walls that are not going to do a blessed thing too.

The flow was really good and the pressure doesn't let up until the end when you get a resolution about both cases that Bosch is working. show less

I love the Bosch novels and this one is at the top end of quality. There are 2 stories, one where Harry is working as a volunteer police officer (really! and we thought funding was bad in the UK) and the other where he is doing his private detective role. Both plots have twists and turns and it is very enjoyable. Have to be impressed by Connelly's continuous ability to produce great stories.

I wondered where Michael Connelly would take his most famous character, Harry Bosch, now that he has retired from the Los Angeles Police Department, so I was excited to get this new book in the series. Harry is working part-time as a private investigator and he also volunteers as a detective for the budget constricted San Fernando police department, researching cold cases.

He's called to the estate of elderly billionaire, Whitney Vance, who asks him to find out if he has any living heirs. When he was eighteen, Vance's 16-year old girlfriend told him she was pregnant. After a series of threats from his father he rejected her and has always regretted it. Now he wonders if that child could still be alive, and a possible heir to his show more business. At the same time, Harry has found some leads on a cold case involving a serial rapist. It appears that the rapist is escalating, making it important that he be found quickly. One of his hiring conditions was that he could not use any department resources while working his private cases, but we know Harry is just not going to be able to avoid a conflict when he is faced with two serious cases taking up his time.

One of the things I like most about this series is that it remains so fresh after all these years. I think Michael Connelly has done a wonderful job of bringing us believable characters with distinct personalities, including an appearance by Mickey Haller. He's a master storyteller and this is a perfect example of what makes a good police procedural. I listened to the audio, narrated by Titus Welliver, who also plays Harry in the Amazon Original series, Bosch. He is outstanding and makes the story even more enjoyable for me. show less