The Narrows (2004)

It just doesn't work when you dilute Bosch with weaker characters. At least McCaleb's gone. Good riddance. ( )

Loved this book!! This was one of my favorites thus far in the Harry Bosch series! I have read the newer books and now going back to read the earlier ones. FBI agent Rachel Walling is involved again as the Poet (serial killer)resurfaces. He is out to track her down once again.

At the same time Former Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too--from the widow of an old friend. Her husband's death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI...and squarely in the path of the Poet, who will lead them on a wicked ride out of the heat, through the narrows of evil, and into a darkness all his own. ( )

Getting addicted to Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch is the best mystery/crime character since Travis McGee, IMO. ( )

this was the first book in the Bosch series where I felt somewhat lost due to reading the books in series order vs. publication order. I hadn't read the Poet and therefore didn't know Backus or Walling. I did know McCaleb though and was sad to see the way his story came to a resolution. The related case was an interesting read and I liked the overlap between Civilian Bosch and the FBI. And Maddie, can't not love Maddie and Eleanor even though I know the end for the latter is near. ( )

Harry Bosch (his actual first name is Hieronymous, like the famous painter) is a former LA homicide detective who sometimes works as a private investigator. The widow of a retired FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb, has asked him to look into her husband's death which was seemingly a failure of his transplanted heart. However, Terry's blood levels of the anti-rejection drugs he took faithfully up until his death are nil. The widow, and Harry, suspect someone murdered him. So Harry starts looking into the cases Terry was working on before his death (Terry kept doing profiling despite being retired). His investigation leads him into the middle of a current serial killer investigation going on in the desert between LA and Las Vegas. The serial killer is a former FBI agent nicknamed The Poet who was thought to have been killed years before. He forwarded information to the FBI to make sure they would find the bodies and involve the agent who was his supposed killer, Rachel Walling. Together, Bosch and Walling hope to finally bring The Poet to justice.

I think some of Connelly's other works have been more suspenseful. Bosch is more laid back (although that is relative) and his relationships with others seem less intense. A few characters were developed for a while and then are dropped. I was never totally consumed with interest in this book but that doesn't mean I could have stopped reading it before the ending. ( )