City of Bones

Rating:
Summary: THEM BONES, THEM BONES
Review: MICHAEL'S DONE IT AGAIN, LOVE YET ANOTHER BOSCHE MYSTERY. CERTAINLY A PAGE TURNER CAN'T HARDLY WAIT UNTIL A NEW RELEASE.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly good, but ending is a little but of a let-down
Review: 1) Starts out great: intriguing murder case

2) Book has a terrific character arc for the protaganist (continuing character Harry Bosch)

3) Excellent view of the inner workings of LAPD, real grit, great atmosphere

BUT:

4) I found the solution to the murder to be very routine and lacked any really twists that would have made it really exciting.
I know that's not real life, and Bosch is supposed to be based on real-life, but for such an intriguing beginning, the ending was a let-down.

For the record, I prefer the non-Bosch novels "Blood Work" and "Chasing The Dime." So factor that into your opinions.

Howver, I anxiously await reading the new Bosch book "Lost Light" to see what happens to him.

Rating:
Summary: Page Turner
Review: Great story, especially if you like Michael Connelly and Harry Bosch in particular. You won't be disappointed if you like this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: This book is one of Connelly's best and is more along the lines of Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, etc. The characters are well developed and the storyline is intelligent and fast-paced. I liked this book better than Void Moon, Black Ice or any of his science fiction genre efforts for those reasons. If you already like Connelly's stuff, you will really enjoy this one. If you're looking at him for the first time, it's similar to the "Prey" series by John Sandford. Connelly keeps you in suspense as to the identity of the villain until the end, whereas Sandford shares the chase from the villain's perspective and you know who did it all along.

Rating:
Summary: Still a great read
Review: Bosch has been with us for quite awhile and he is still a great character. This book is fantastic and reads quickly. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Harry, We Hardly Knew 'Ye
Review: In deference to Michael Connelly's brilliant -- and prior -- Harry Bosch novels, Connelly's "City of Bones" receives a courtesy three stars. Alas, that is the only courtesy we can give this very disappointing novel. There is much of a relatively minor nature that is wrong with this book. Brasher's shooting, for example: never explained, and mourned by Harry for...gee, a few hours. The suggestion that there is more to the "leak" than we know...it comes to nothing. The fact that Dr. Guyot keeps written records of every patient he has ever treated (even in retirement): zip/zero/nada. Then there are the extraneous scenes: Bosch with his former lover, the ME; Bosch with Brasher's father; Bosch with the departmental "shrink." Long ago, Chekov suggested that the writer not describe a gun unless that gun would eventually go off. Connelly ignores that advice, to his, and the novel's, disadvantage. Not to mention that the "confession" is clearly bogus (do we expect a bona fide confession with over one hundred pages left in the novel?).

But, as egregious as these faults are, they pale in comparison to the fundamental problem with this novel: this is not Harry Bosch. Harry, we hardly knew 'ye: what has become of the morally ambiguous, shades of gray, tormented Bosch? The character in "City of Bones" has Harry's name and nothing else. Would our beloved Bosch so readily enter into a relationship with Brasher? Would Harry glide through an entire novel with virtually no second thoughts (until a very unconvincing ending?)? Who is this guy?

Connelly is perhaps writing too quickly (it's not often that an author has two hardcovers on the market at the same time, and not often that most authors (Dean Koontz excepted) have already published the next sequel. But perhaps it's just that Connelly, like Bosch, has become a shadow of his former self. Success -- well deserved in Connelly's case -- drains not only the author's energy but the author's work.

Reading the excerpts from "Lost Light," I am somewhat encouraged. If Harry is now to become a de facto Private Investigator, narrated in the first person, then Connelly is moving toward what he has always admired and always striven for: a modern day Philip Marlowe. There may be hope yet. But Michael, write slower, and work harder.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite the best, but certainly a strong entry!
Review: When some bones are discovered - by a man walking his dog on an L.A. hillside - in a shallow grave, Harry Bosch really doesn't know what to expect from the case. Shortly after, the bones are proved to be human, and sent of for forensic examination. This examination reveals that these bones belonged to a young boy, and have lain buried on that hillside for over 20 years. And, they are also found to detail a horrific tale of abuse and violence visited on the young boy. Repulsed once again by witnessing yet another of society's lows, Bosch vows that this victim, unlike many others, will find justice and not be forgotten.

This is a very welcome return for Harry Bosch, one of the best series characters being written about today (along with Rankin's Rebus and Deaver's Rhyme.) City of Bones is a great success. It boasts a strong, if unremarkable, cast and an interesting and incredibly well paced plot. The writing is polished and taut, and the result is probably the most tightly plotted Bosch novel of the entire series.

And the ending, which may seem out of character to some readers, certainly promises an exciting new direction for the series, and demonstrates once again Connelly's great skill at keeping his work constantly fresh.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best From One of the Best
Review: Michael Connelly is one of the best mystery writers now writing, and City of Bones is one of his best mysteries. It opens with the discovery of bones from a long-forgetten death and speeds us through a contemporary view of modern SOuthern California. This work is remarkable. Read it today.

Rating:
Summary: So Long, Harry
Review: I've read, and mostly enjoyed, all the Harry Bosch novels. But with this one, Connelly has worn out his welcome.

HB is the classic "hard boiled dick", the detective that deals with the seamier side of life, that deals with people at their worst. You can tell a lot of interesting stories with this kind of protagonist, which is why there are so many hard boiled dick stories.

But all the "mean streets" stuff is just a premise. It's not an end in itself. Alas, that's the part Connelley is more and more fascinated with. The titles just keep getting more and more portentious, the story gets more and more nasty and meaningless. In the end, what's the point? You just have a depressive guy running through the streets yelling "Redemption! Redemption!"

What finally did it for me was the excerpt from the next Harry Bosch at the end of the paperback edition. This one will be narrated by Harry himself, in full self-absorbtion mode. No thank you!

I picture Harry running into my current genre favorite, John Sandford's Lucas Davenport. Like Harry, Lucas is a mean streets guy. (Of course, the streets of Minneapolis aren't nearly as mean as those of L.A.) Lucas would certainly say to Harry, "Get a life, dude!"

Rating:
Summary: One of his best yet
Review: After reading all of Michael Connelly's books I have to say that City of Bones is one of, if not the best novel he has written. Over the years Connelly's writing has improved with each book, and his plots have always been excellent. If you have not read any of the other Harry Bosch novels don't feel you are cheating yourself by reading City of Bones first. This could be a stand alone novel, it is that good. Also I just heard COB has been nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel of the year, I think it will win!