A Darkness More Than Night

Terry McCaleb is done with his profiling days - he lives on Catalina island, has a daughter now and he is running fishing tours out from Catalina and he does not want to hear about serial killers anymore. Except that the universe and his old colleagues missed the memo - so he gets asked to just look at a case, almost for old times sake. Which is the last thing you do to a man who used to love his job.

Meanwhile, in LA proper, Harry Bosch is stuck in a courtroom, trying to assist the prosecution win its case against a murderer. The trial is in the news - the accused is a famous movie director, the victim is a wannabe actress and that makes everyone in tinsel town pay attention - one way or another, Hollywood will find a way to thrive on show more that.

The two cases do not seem to have anything in common at the start but then they would not be in the same book if they did not - and before long McCaleb builds a profile that matches Bosch. And with Harry being everyone's favorite in the police department (not), it comes down to the accused himself to try to clear his own name.

It is a tightly plotted novel and the "detective is accused in the crime" trope appears in most detective series sooner or later. This one was done well - using McCaleb made it look less as a hatchet job and more of a real possibility for awhile. The fact that it did not seem to be connected to Bosch's case also helped although if one had read enough novels in the genre, it was obvious that they must intersect somewhere. The appearance of Jack McEvoy and his role in the whole thing reinforced the idea that all of Connelly's series are essentially part of a mega-series and a shared universe and you can expect anyone to pop up in any of the novels.

While the end of the case was expected (even of how we got there was somewhat unorthodox), the end of the novel threw yet another curve ball at the reader. As is often the case, white and black do not exist when people are concerned and even if Bosch was not a killer, he was not entirely innocent either.

Another strong novel in the Bosch mega-series. show less

Another good Harry Bosch book and this time Bosch is accused of murder. Has Bosch finally gone over the edge? Terry McCaleb, ex-FBI profiler, thinks so. He was asked to do a favour for Sheriff's detective Jaye Winston even though he is retired and running a boat charter business. There was a particularly grisly murder on New Year's Day where an alcoholic who was the prime suspect in the murder of a prostitute was himself murdered. Bosch had been talking to the victim in lock-up the night before because he still hopes to convict him of the murder. And that's not all that ties him to the murder. Aspects of the crime seem to have been taken from the artwork of the painter Hieronymus Bosch after whom our Harry (actually Hieronymus) Bosch show more was named. All clues seem to lead to Harry as the perpetrator or is that just what the real perpetrator wants everyone to think? Find out for yourself. show less

This seventh book in Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series was a strange experience for me: first because it is a sort of crossover with some of his other works, given that there is an extended cameo appearance for Jack McEvoy, who I previously met in The Poet, and a co-starring role for Terry McCaleb, retired FBI profiler who first appeared in Blood Work, a book I did not read but whose story I’m familiar with thanks to the 2002 movie, starring Clint Eastwood, which I happened to see some time ago. The other difference with previous Harry Bosch books I’ve read comes from the fact that here the LAPD detective has a less active role than usual and the bulk of the investigative process is left in the hands of McCaleb. Still, this show more odd combination works, creating a suspenseful framework that kept my attention riveted from start to finish, even though - as it happened with the previous books - I was aware of the general narrative threads thanks to the TV series that propelled me toward these novels since last year.

Harry Bosch is heavily involved in the trial of David Storey, a movie director accused of the murder of a young actress he strangled during sex, then taking her body home and staging an apparent suicide. Meanwhile, Detective Winston of the LAPD is dealing with the murder of a lowlife named Edward Gunn, whose strangely ritualistic details have her so baffled that she seeks the advice of Terry McCaleb, once a noted FBI profiler but now retired after a massive heart attack and subsequent transplant. When McCaleb discovers that Bosch had been watching Gunn for some time looking for the evidence of a crime, and that some of the grisly details of the murder link back to the works of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, after whom the detective is named, he becomes convinced that Harry murdered Gunn in an act of deranged vengeance - and he’s determined to get to the bottom of it, as the two narrative threads of the story become dramatically entangled.

As I stated above, this novel has a peculiar flavor if compared with the previous ones, mostly because Harry Bosch here looks more like a guest star and Terry McCaleb is the front and center character, and for once it’s odd to see Harry not taking part in an investigation, although I have to say that the courtroom scenes where he finally enjoys the spotlight are among the best segments of the book: Connelly takes us through the sometimes painstaking details of the judicial process with such a flair that these sections are as engaging and thrilling as action scenes and they actually infuse some vitality in what had been something of a slow start with McCaleb’s part of the story. Moreover, this change in perspective allows us to see another side of Harry Bosch - or maybe the evolution of his personality that started with the previous book: even though he’s still quite determined (or dogged, some would say), he looks more grounded, less prone to stormy outbursts, and instead focuses more closely on getting things done the right way to insure that the guilty face the justice they deserve. He’s still somewhat cynical about the system and the loopholes it offers to offenders, but he looks better inclined than before to stay within the rules to get the desired results.

On the other hand, I was dubious about McCaleb as a character, given that for someone who used to be a successful profiler he seems to fall far too easily for what is clearly a frame-up: even discarding the fact that we readers know intuitively that Bosch could not have murdered Gunn, because that’s not his style, the clues left in Gunn’s murder scene, those references pointing toward Bosch the painter and the punishments for sinners depicted in his works, everything looks contrived and - as detective Winston points out - plainly foolish for Harry to leave such a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to him. But McCaleb is so determined to follow his instinct that he chooses to ignore the obvious: this led me to wonder whether he truly was such a great profiler or if he rather wanted so badly to be once again in the “game” that he preferred to shoehorn the evidence into his choice framework rather than collecting it and then, and only then, assembling the whole picture. Or maybe he wants so badly to reconnect with the past he clearly misses so much, that he’s ready to ignore reason and listen only to that instinct that used to serve him so well once - a that now does not seem to work that well. This single focus that at times looks close to obsession did little to endear his character to me, and even later, when he understands he might have been barking up the proverbial wrong tree, I struggled to change my opinion and to see him in a better light.

Still, the conflict between these two different individuals drives the story just as much as the two narrative threads at its root, evolving into a novel that is compellingly fast-paced, its two halves merging into one another with effortless ease and showing once again the dark side of a city where glamor and glitter hide corruption and darkness more often than not. Showing also how Michael Connelly’s writing and plotting skills kept improving as he moved forward with this series, which to date remains one of my go-to choices when I am in the mood for some engaging thriller. show less

No offense, Mr. Connelly, but I'm not too keen on your other tent-pole characters. Here, Terry McCaleb returns, he who was made famous by Clint's portrayal in the [Blood Work] film. Since being medically retired from the FBI, McCaleb's become a fishing boat captain with an urge to profile in criminal investigations, his old job with the Bureau. When a cop brings him a file, Bosch seems in the frame, and Bosch plays along until the very end when he turns the table on the real baddie. Another thing I didn't like here was the dissimulation and manipulation from Bosch. Sure, here's playing the bad guys like a cheap French horn, but it doesn't fit. Bosch is nothing if not a straight at you kinda guy, and this feels like an attempt by show more Connelly to force some darkness into Bosch. He doesn't need to work at that, the character is already plenty dark. Not my favorite in the series.

3 1/2 bones!!!!
Recommended only for the completist. show less

Mi spiace aver dovuto dare tre stelline a Connelly, che di solito mi piace abbastanza, per un libro che pure è, come sempre, teso e ben scritto, ma il meccanismo questa volta è leggermente inceppato, e solo personaggi di una estrema ingenuità potrebbero credere alla messa in scena che è il cuore del meccanismo narrativo, e i personaggi di Connelly invece non lo sono ...

I wonder how Bosch managed to not bash McCaleb, who had accused him of a crime he didn't commit. He reacted in a way most people wouldn't, by asking McCaleb to find the real murderer and clear him. They ended up saving each other's lives. And this is where the book got more interesting and the two parallel plots came together. Among the two main characters, I like Bosch more. McCaleb is smart but quite unlikeable. He reacted angrily when the case was taken away from him. But he had no right to it in the first place.

~3.5

The gang's all here: during a highly publicised case in which Harry Bosch, troubled detective of the LAPD, is a primary witness, Terry McCaleb starts uncovering some disconcerting facts and Jack McEvoy lurks around in the background, digging up dirt and stirring the mud. Long story short: Terry McCaleb, Harry Bosch and Jack McEvoy all compete to see who's the biggest bastard. I'm not really sure who won.

The plot is entertaining, if improbable, and it was interesting seeing each character from each others' perspectives. The conflicts and interactions between the characters as they pit their wits against each other are well-written, and the moral ambiguities make it difficult to choose sides. However, this doesn't stand out to me as show more one of the top-notch books in the--well, actually, in any of the three--series.

Out of the three characters here, I think Bosch is my favorite. McEvoy has only a cameo role, and I somehow have real difficulty warming to the self-assured and self-righteous McCaleb. Bosch, as a character, is rich and complex, and remains a strong draw for me throughout the series. I love the fact that he constantly sees his mistakes and evaluates his own error. However, I strongly dislike the fact that his character never develops and remains static throughout. Time and time again, Bosch sees how his self-righteous ruthless independence, his cowboy justice, can do irreparable harm to others. Yet he never changes. It is difficult to even comprehend how a man apparently so aware of his failures can continue to make the same mistakes time and time again.

The other element I find problematic is the side characters. No matter which series you're in, Connelly never develops a coterie of loyal sidekicks for the character. In fact, I'm rather sure that the probability of a character betrayal increases exponentially each time the character appears. Connelly tends to never leave his characters in healthy platonic relationships; they might have one all-consuming and hopeful-looking romantic relationship on the table, but it's guaranteed to dissolve by the next book. Bosch's love interests, in particular, never seem to make it through more than a single book before they are discarded and the next one is pulled off the assembly line. It all goes to create an odd, unsettling, and isolating feeling: you can never trust the side characters, because the next book, they'll probably end up as the murderers, or possibly just the murderees. As someone who identifies mainly with side characters, I think it gives the books an unstable feeling, a lack of solidity that other long-running series develop.

Connelly spent about 12 years on the crime beat, so his description of the police world is thorough, accurate, and natural. It's one of the highlights of the books for me. At the same time, every single book I've read contains incredible corruption within the police department, yet Internal Affairs and similar are vilified. Defence attorneys are also portrayed as immoral and sleazy. This seems hypocritical to me. If the police system is truly so decadent, then there must be ways to watch the watchers. It always leaves me wondering what on earth IAD did to Connelly during his writing career.

What keeps bringing me back to these books is the underlying depth. In an interview, Connelly commented that he writes books to try to tease out answers to the questions and problems that plague his own spirit. Again and again, Connelly tackles Nietzsche'a question of how the hunter of monsters can himself become that which he fights. There are no satisfying, complete answers to these questions, merely conflicting answers to their various facets. Yet at the same time, one would hope that a character who struggles with these issues, and who seems to come to some peace or enlightenment at the end of each book, would be able to progress. Instead, in each subsequent book, we find Bosch and McCaleb and McEvoy exactly where we found them. Despite all this, I think Connelly's books, especially the early Bosch books, are well worth reading. His exploration of these topics leave me ruminating on my own beliefs, prejudices, and choices. Overall, these deeper topics lend Connelly's books a power and depth that is rare in the noir genre.

*the overview comments were ripped and partially expanded from one of my other reviews of the Bosch books. show less