Ironwood

Michael Connelly's second Catalina mystery, Ironwood, is a pleasure to read. Yes, fans do get an update on Harry Bosch, and they do get to watch Stilwell work with Renée Ballard, but that's merely the icing on the cake. Stilwell is cut from the same cloth as Bosch and Ballard, and his commitment to getting justice for victims means that he often has to find workarounds in an attempt to keep out of hot water with his superiors. I love how the gears in that mind of his are always whirring away.

Ironwood is filled with little tidbits of Catalina Island's past that give the story depth and a true sense of place, but the backbone of this book is the police station and its checkered history. Catalina is where the Los Angeles Police Department show more sends its disgraced officers, officers who've gotten into some kind of trouble but can't be fired. Stilwell is one such officer, although his "disgrace" was his insistence on doing the right thing when his superiors told him otherwise. This habit of the LAPD causes problems because Stilwell is never told why new officers have been sent to him. He certainly could've used more of this kind of intel before conducting the operation which went so horribly wrong.

In Ironwood, we once again see a master at work. Connelly, a master of characterization, plotting, pacing... the whole enchilada. I am definitely looking forward to seeing Detective Sergeant Stilwell butt heads with his superiors again.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) show less

Catalina Island is known as a place of banishment for police officers in
trouble. After Detective Sergeant Stilwell (“Stil”) was sent there, he decided he liked the island, developed a romantic relationship with a local, and is content with being there.

When a confidential informant gives one of his officers a tip about a drug deal, their stakeout goes awry, resulting in the death of the officer and a serious injury to another while Stil is pursuing a fleeing suspect. Despite orders from his commanding officer on the mainland to remain in his substation and refrain from involvement in the case, Stil’s determination to seek justice drives him to take matters into his own hands.

Meanwhile, when an unclaimed backpack turns out to show more belong to a woman who vanished on the island four years ago, Stil works with LAPD’s cold case detective, Renee Ballard, to find a serial killer. All the while, he attends to the various misdeeds on the island, such as graffiti and vandalism at a local vineyard.

This is the second in the #Catalina series by best-selling author Michael Connelly, someone whose books I have enjoyed reading for years. While this would work as a standalone, since it is only the second installment, it’s not too late to go back and read the first one, NightShade, for more background.

This is another of Connelly’s consistently captivating stories. Well-plotted, with memorable characters who leave a lasting impression, this is an engrossing read. The book is a fast-paced page-turner that, as the suspense built, I could not put down. The seamless transition between the larger and smaller cases adds to the overall narrative’s flow and coherence.

Those familiar with Connelly’s works will enjoy the participation of Renee Ballard as well as the cameos by Maddie and Harry Bosch. The island itself emerges as a character in its own right, adding depth and intrigue to the story.

Although both cases are resolved, the conclusion leaves things a bit unsettled, and I look forward to the next installment for resolution.

Thanks to @NetGalley and @LittleBrown for the DRC. show less

Michael Connelly seems to be an unstoppable force of nature. I believe that this is his forty second novel, and although he has continued to publish them with surprising regularity, the quality never sags. Ironwood is the second novel set on the island of Santa Catalina (usually known simply as ‘Catalina’), situated just about thirty miles of the coast of California. It follows on from last year’s Nightshade, and once again follows Detective Stilwell’s investigations. Stilwell is a typical Connelly protagonist, being conscientious at the job, with a genuine wish to see wrongdoers apprehended and punished, but incapable of toadying to ineffectual management figures. He had previously served in LAPD as a homicide detective but had show more been ‘exiled’ to Catalina after crossing the wrong people within the police hierarchy.

The novel opens with Stilwell on a stakeout with a couple of colleagues in the hope of intervening in a major drug smuggling operation. Things go tragically awry, and one of his colleagues is killed. This prompts two investigations – one into the murder itself, and the other an Internal Affairs review of the operation that Stilwell had conducted.

As usual, Connelly keeps the story moving. I always find when I pick up a new book by him that I start reading, and the next thing I know I am already fifty pages in, and completely hooked, and that happened again here. My one small carp would be that having waited so eagerly for his new books to come out, I finish them all too soon. show less

Ironwood by Michael Connelly is an excellent, very highly recommended police procedural/thriller and the second book in the Catalina series following Nightshade. Detective Sergeant Stilwell was sent to be the police substation director on Catalina Island (the island of misfit toys) due to infighting and office politics, but he now enjoys this post and is still in a relationship with Tash, acting harbor master.

When a drug bust operation goes wrong, leaving Deputy Alton Quigley dead and Deputy Ilsa Ramirez hospitalized, the internal inquiry results in Stilwell being benched until he is cleared of responsibility for the operation which was undertaken based on a tip Quigley received. Stil quietly undertakes his own investigation into the show more drug deal gone wrong and identifies the drug courier as Gonzalo Kalas when he is trying to leave the island. Kalas is apprehended and subsequently detained but then, when Stil is out of the substation, ICE agents unexpectedly show up and take Kalas.

During the same time, while cleaning up the substation, Stil finds a key in a backpack that he discovers belonged to Angela Metier, a woman who went missing four years ago, but the backpack was turned in only two months earlier. He follows this lead to the mainland, or Overtown, and LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard. It appears that there may be a serial killer at play. Stil continues his investigations, to pursue both cases. There are also several other minor cases and incidents that Stil has to handle along the way.

Connelly has given us another exceptional, intricate, well-written police procedural with a fast-paced plot which will hold your complete attention throughout the whole novel. It is clear that there is a whole lot going on behind the scenes and Stil is the man to uncover the nefarious connections and clues while logically investigating. As expected, his superiors at the LAPD are constantly keeping watch of him and exerting their authority, however, Stil is very perceptive and intuitive while he follows clues and makes serious connections.

Stilwell is a great, fully realized character. He continues to be tenacious, intelligent, and methodical, while exercising astute investigative instincts. It is a pleasure to follow his handling of all the investigations, large and small, in Ironwood. This second book in the series leaves room for future development and changes in the personal at the Catalina substation. Clearly the ending indicates a future addition to the series and I'm already eagerly awaiting it.

Ironwood is a perfect choice for those who enjoy intelligent police procedurals. It can be read as a standalone novel but will be especially welcomed by those who have read Nightshade. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/05/ironwood.html show less

Ironwood: A Catalina Novel, Michael Connelly, author; Will Damron, narrator
When the book begins, there is a stakeout at an airfield where a plane is expected to arrive for a drug drop. When the small plane lands, a courier arrives and leaves a bag to be picked up by the pilot of the plane, but things go awry. The two volunteer police officers, who were working with Detective Sergeant Steve Stilwell that night, were unexpectedly attacked. One of them, Deputy Alton Quigley, had actually tipped Stilwell off about the drop. He was fatally shot; the other one was critically injured. It seems that someone had been hiding on that plane with a weapon, but why? Stilwell did not witness the attacks because he had taken off after the courier, to show more prevent his escape, but he lost him. The courier, however, was trapped on the island, so how would he get away? Stilwell spotted the courier trying to leave by ferry, and using his contacts, he enabled his capture. This angered Stilwell’s boss who had taken him off the case because of the murder at the airport, the ensuing investigation and the negative publicity. Although the courier was not to be moved from the jail, fake ICE agents picked him up, and he escaped. Eventually, Stilwell comes to believe that the officer murdered at the airfield was the actual target, and the drop was the decoy. He had been set up, but why? It was discovered that the victim and his wife were both unfaithful and involved in a divorce. Stilwell began to follow additional leads about their relationships. When it was discovered that a fragment of the bullet used that fateful night was a kind that came from a certain manufacturer; it was a unique bullet. Stilwell looked into the company and put two and two together to solve the crime. Then, his own life and future were threatened. Stilwell’s boss, Captain Corum, did not want the publicity or the controversy. He ordered him to drop the case. He wanted him to look the other way, let the commotion die down, and to let the suspects go free. It seems that everyone else involved in the investigation had suddenly retired or gone on vacation. What would Stilwell do? Should he allow the case to die, a murderer to go free, and protect his own future? Should he defy the boss and risk it all, Tasch and the life on the island that he loved? Perhaps the next book in the series will answer that question.
There were other investigations going on at the same time as the murder at the airfield. When Stilwell finds the backpack of a woman who had been missing for four years, in the lost and found at the station, he brings the information to the cold case division of the Los Angeles Police Department where he meets Investigator Renee Ballard. They decide to work together. When the body of a missing woman is found on the island of Catalina, with the help of Stilwell’s intuition and sharp eye, they realize that other women have been murdered in the same way. They begin to think that they are looking for a serial killer who may have come to Catalina and is sending out clues. Perhaps he thinks he is so smart that they won’t catch him. Stilwell suspected a Forest Ranger, Kent Middleton, who had recently come to the island. Stilwell and Ballard shared information to solve this crime, but even though they were right and they caught the killer, it had a bittersweet ending.
Stilwell had also been involved in a case involving the former corrupt Mayor of Avalon, Douglas Allen. Before he could give testimony as a witness, however, a plea bargain brought the case to an unhappy end. He was not happy with the result, but law enforcement could be disappointing, at times. Neither he nor the prosecutor believed in plea bargains.
I enjoyed the slow and methodical investigation of the crimes on and off the island of Catalina by Detective Stilwell. He quietly exposed corruption in the police force and in the political arena, as well as pointing out the shortcomings in the business of law enforcement as a whole. Each new development held my interest, and each crime had a successful, if not always satisfactory conclusion. The relationship between Stilwell and his girlfriend Tash Dano was a pleasant distraction and identified them both as honest and sincere characters, with all the right values. She marched to the beat of her own drummer, and he had grown to love her and the life on the mostly quiet island, a place he had once hoped would be temporary. Now he hoped to stay there for life with her. show less

As Ironwood: A Catalina Novel by Michael Connelly begins, it is approximately one year after the events of Nightshade. While it is always preferable to have read the first book in a series first, one could start here as there are minimal references to the past events.

In the aftermath of a police operation gone horribly wrong, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Sergeant Stilwell of the Catalina substation, is in a world of trouble. At least he is alive and relatively uninjured. Not that he cares. One of his deputies is dead. Another is very seriously wounded and may not survive the emergency medical helicopter ride to the mainland.

Making things worse, if that is possible, is the fact that the suspects got away. The show more Department will conduct an extensive investigation. Every decision and action by Detective Sergeant Stilwell will be heavily scrutinized and second guessed.

That process begins with the arrival from the mainland of his immediate boss, Captain Corum, accompanied by members of a team of investigators. After he is questioned by a number of people over a multi hour period where he has to go through everything over and over, detail by detail, Captain Corum finally tells him that he is in the clear, for now. He is grounded to the substation and on the bench. When he is on duty, he is to confine himself to the substation for his shift, and to take care of paperwork, storage concerns, and other issues. He isn’t to involve himself in the investigation of the events out on the tarmac which allowed a drug plane to escape and left one deputy under his command dead and another one near death.

As if being told to stay out of it is going to ever happen. Detective Sergeant Stilwell is used to working around the bosses. Part of the reason he is out on Catalina Island is the fact that the Department sends problematic folks out there for various disciplinary reasons. The posting is supposed to be a punishment. For him, it has grown into a very positive situation for many different reasons. At his heart, he is still law enforcement, and isn’t just going to sit around and do nothing.

He knows he chased a suspect down a hillside even though there is very little proof of that fact. He also has a pretty good idea of what the suspect looked like. That suspect is probably still on the island and holed up waiting for the first ferry of the day. Obviously, staking out the ferry and its passengers is the way to go.

His work leads him to a suspect, an arrest, and then an incident that gets him deeper into trouble. It also leads him into a separate cold case murder investigation, a serial killer, and work with Ballard and her team.

I’m intentionally skimming the surface, if that much, of this read in order to avoid spoilers. Simply put, Ironwood: A Catlina Novel is a might good read from the intense beginning right to the last sentence. Well worth your time.

My digital ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, by way of NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026 show less

Ironwood is the second book in the Catalina series by Michael Connelly and builds on the Nightshade, the first book in the series. Once again as Connelly widens his characters, we do come across Ballard with an honourable mention of Bosch in passing.

Detective Stillwell has excepted, quite happily, his exile from the mainland, even though he is still in the LA County Sheriff’s department. He is based in Avalon and runs the Sheriff’s substation on the island. His deputies, like Stillwell, have all been sent into exile on the island.

Quigley one of his deputies has received a tip from a former CI on the mainland about a shipment that is coming to the island in the dead of night, via the airfield. Stillwell heads up a three-man team, show more leaving one deputy at the station. When the plane lands, Quigley and Ramirez head to the aircraft while Stillwell chases the runner. Stillwell hears shooting and the aircraft taking off, and he races back, to find Quigley dead and Ramirez bleeding out.

A team from the mainland takes on the case, with Stillwell trying to keep his eye on the case, whilst being told to sit it out. While he waits, he sorts out the boxes of lost property when he comes across a backpack of someone who has been missing for over four years. He finds that it is under the cold case team at the LAPD and the lead officer is Ballard.

When Stillwell finds a dead body under an Ironwood tree, the missing persons case becomes a murder. He works alongside Ballard and her team so that they can get to the truth and give the family the answers they so desire. His captain though is not too happy with him and wants to be kept up to date. At the same time, he is having to track down someone who is tagging some of the historic buildings on the island and one of the key businesses is also suffering from vandalism.

Stillwell has got to manage all the politics of the island and the Sheriff’s department to investigate and solve the ongoing crimes on the island. Whether he can manage to walk that fine line might see him either survive or get fired.

This is a fabulous story, which engrosses the read and really is sad when the ride ends, and then leaves with a question mark. show less