Void Moon

One of my favourite films is Charley Varrick, directed in 1973 by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, in which the title character and three associates mount a raid on a bank in a small New Mexico town. They think that they have planned the escapade well, down to every last detail, and expect to net around $20,000. Unfortunately, the raid does not go smoothly, and two of the gang, including Charley Varrick’s wife, are killed. Charley and the final member of the gang, the hapless Harmon, manage to escape and hole up in a trailer park a few miles away. When they finally get around to counting the swag, they find that they have actually got away with over $750,000. They are even more perplexed when the bulletins on local television show more put the sum stolen at around $18,000. Harmon is overjoyed but Charley is immediately concerned, suspecting that they have inadvertently stumbled upon a Mafia laundering operation. This proves to be the case, and the paid find themselves hunted down by a contract killer, sent not just to recover the money but also to lay down a lesson to deter anyone else from following suit in the future.

This novel has many similarities. Cassie Black is working for a Porsche dealership in LA, having been released from prison on parole. She had been inside for her part in a series of audacious burglaries in Las Vegas in which she and her late partner Max had identified successful high stakes gamblers at the large casinos and then broken into their hotel rooms to steal their winnings. Now she is out and trying to go straight, but still dreaming of one last big job that could set her up for life. Max’s half-brother Leo contacts her, thinking that he may have just such a job for her. Cassie havers but takes the job on, only to find herself in the same position as Charley Varrick, having netted a huge amount more than anticipated, and worrying to whom it really belongs.

This was the first of Michael Connelly’s books to feature a female protagonist and also the first in which the central character is a criminal rather than working for law enforcement. It is written with his customary tautness – just as gripping as ever, with a fine attention to detail that stops short of being intrusive or tedious. Cassie Black is an engaging and immensely plausible character. Like all of Connelly’s characters, she has her flaws, too, which simply lends to the credibility of the story.

Very entertaining, and immediately gripping. show less

I'll admit, I am a Michael Connelly fan and am at the point with him, that if he wrote a phone book - I'd read it. He is a master in this genre; from the first paragraph I'm beguiled and swept overboard into the familiar home of mermaids, completely immersed in someone else's world. I detest Las Vegas, gambling offends me and magic tricks are near the top of things that produce catatonia AND all of it is Void Moon. Yes, I recommend the book; the story is captivating, the characters feel right, no-one is superhuman, everyone is loaded with flaws and he kept me wondering almost to the end. He understood who Cassie Black really was and pulled her through a bowl of spaghetti to reach her destiny. Good read.

A standalone novel featuring Cassie Black, an ex con, who has chosen to go back to her old business of making lots of money, fast, in Vegas. She also hopes for the possibility of recovering her daughter Jodie, who was born in prison, from her adoptive parents. Connelly’s detailed description of Cassie’s methods is outstanding, not dry-as-dust procedures manual. A fast-moving satisfying thriller.

"Void Moon" is one of the best "Vegas heist gone south" thrillers you'll ever read. Ex-con Cassie Black needs one last big score to start a new life. An old friend arranges a job, and it goes horribly wrong. Connelly does a great job of describing technical details without sounding like he's copying them from a textbook. The characters, including the psychopathic hit man, are fully realized. "Void Moon" has several secrets it hints it and reveals at the perfect moments. I read one of Connelly's Harry Bosch books a long time ago, and didn't think much of it. I think I'll try again.

Connelly's standalone crime thriller stands up pretty well over time. Cassie Black is only 10 months into a 2-year parole but she's already bored with her job selling expensive cars. She needs the adrenaline of a well-planned heist and, even more, she needs the money. But the "mark" turns out to be more than she bargained for and triggers events that endanger not only her plans, but her life. The only flaw in this page-turner is Connelly's pedantic description of the preparation and execution of crimes. His criminal tradecraft contains no flair or glamour and reads more like an instruction manual. But his plotting is in excellent form as Cassie and the psychopath searching for her outwit and outmaneuver each other. The characters are show more given some depth by the gradual revelation of their emotional motivations and the ending is appropriately cinematic. show less

I read this novel as a stand-alone and as I read the first three pages I was intensely immersed in the love story of Cassie and Max and immersed in the details of the ritual between them. I had never heard of a Void Moon so I was quite intrigued by the title, wondering what a Void Moon is and if it fit into the ritual and/or what other meaning would be revealed.

I was mesmerized by Cassie's planning and so wanted her to achieve the dream of going "to the place where the desert is ocean."

I'm so glad I had luxurious hours of reading available as I didn't want to put the book down sometimes reading pages as quickly as possible and sometimes reading slowly so I could assimilate the meticulous actions by Cassie in the penthouse of a casino show more hotel room. WoW!

I'll remember Cassie Black. Hope you take the time to read about her too! But, perhaps this is a novel to read at home or on the beach and not in a hotel room. show less

This is a standalone title, not one of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, and it's an out-and-out suspenser rather than a mystery or a psychological thriller. Years ago Cassie Black acted in collaboration with her lover Max Freeling to rob Vegas casinos, until one terrible night when they were caught and Max was killed. Now on probation after serving her time in jail, Cassie dreams of the day she'll be able to reclaim -- or steal -- her and Max's daughter Jodie from the child's adoptive parents and make a new life for them both somewhere far away. To this end she allows herself to be persuaded to take on the customary "one last job" . . . and of course it goes awry, bringing her back into the sights of the casino-employed show more private-investigator-cum-wetwork-operator responsible for Max's death, the sociopathic Jack Karch. Karch in effect goes on a sanctioned killing spree to eliminate all those involved in Cassie's latest heist and recover the dough, yet he too is being doublecrossed -- as he eventually discovers.

This is a real humdinger of a thriller which had me reading later than intended a couple of nights and, during the intervening day, sneaking quick reads when I was supposed to be doing other, more important things. To be honest, the plotting seems to fall apart a bit -- to rely too much on the implausible -- during the final stages, when it has to engineer the mechanics of Cassie getting into a hotel suite to rescue Jodie therefrom, but by that point in the book the momentum of my reading was at such a feverishly high level that I didn't really care. show less