The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
by Michael Connelly
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Book Reviews of The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
Book Review: Harry Bosch is a relentless bulldog
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a big fan of Michael Connelly's novels and do believe I've read all the Harry Bosch thrillers. The phone rings at midnight. Harry is awake. He's waiting. I like way Connelly puts us on the case immediately. Not a lot of messing around. The writing is bare bones, spare, with no unnecessary scenery or dialog. As a reader I get the feeling that Connelly knows the ins and outs of the LAPD. He's got the Police Procedural down. He's the best at that, but what I really love is the writer's characterization.
When a murder comes in with any sort of political, celebrity or media attachment, a case that is particularly time consuming and threatens to stay active like a hobby, the precinct will take it initially, but it will be soon shuttled over to Homicide Special. This is Harry's first call out since his transfer from Cold Cases to his new outfit, Homicide Special. This one is anything but routine, and contains a threat to National Security and so has attracted the FBI, and who should be the agent but his old flame, Rachel Walling (Echo Park) who tries to take over his case. Is Bosch going to let that happen? What do you think?
"The Overlook" while more compact than other Connelly novels, still has that Harry Bosch, nothing-but-the-truth attitude, that don't-bother-me-with-that-supervision crap, that we love from our guy. Harry Bosch is a relentless bulldog, and even though we are screaming at the page, "No, Harry, play by the rules this time!" Harry will always be Harry. Meet his new partner/mentee Ignacio Ferras who tries in vain to keep the 30-year veteran of the department from recklessly taking them both down. By now, with a dozen Harry Bosch novels under my belt, I realize that my boy is going to pull it off. Somehow.
"The Overlook" has all the direction/misdirection, the red herrings, all the elements needed to keep us guessing. This one is particular good on that count, so when Harry's at the scene and gets that instinctual feeling that he's missing something, you better believe that what he has missed, he will eventually be figured out, and it'll come back later and clear itself up.
A great read. Highly recommended.
Book Review: The Overlook-Michael Connelly
Summary: 5 Stars
"The music helped Bosch smooth out his thoughts. He realized the case was shifting. The feds, at least, were chasing the missing cesium instead of the killers. There was a subtle difference there that Bosch thought was important. He knew that he needed to keep his focus on the overlook and not lose sight at any time of the fact that this was a murder investigation."
The Overlook, by Michael Connelly, is a mystery/ thriller novel that tells the story of a homicidal detective in L.A named Harry Bosch. Bosch is challenged with a case where physicist, Stanley Kent is murdered at Mulholland Drive, near the overlook. Harry comes to realize that the killer intends to obtain cesium, a radioactive nuclear material, from this physicist, in order to scheme some sort of plot. According to Kent's wife, who seemed strangely suspicious, the men seemed to be speaking some sort of Arabic language she couldn't comprehend. Bosch clashes heads with LAPD and the FBI, seeing this case as a possible "terrorist threat." Bosch also happens to team-up with former-lover Rachel Walling, to capture the alleged terrorist/killer whom could reap havoc among many cities in the United States with nuclear material he possesses.
This review is from: The Overlook (Paperback) If you are one of those people who like to read novels about enticing mystery murder cases, this book is for you. This book is one of Connelly's less complex novels, but interests the reader more than the others due to its intriguing plot and unique reason for one's murder. I really enjoyed this conspiracy-driven book and was disappointed when it came to the end. This book is very similar to Connelly's other novels in the way that they are based around murders, but one key difference unseen in every book but The Overlook, was the way that Bosch can show much composure, making the case seem deceptively easy. If you want a fairly short, attention-grabbing novel, The Overlook, is just right for you! I would give this a solid 5 out of 5 stars. -Drew Schneider (Langley High School)
The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
Book Review: An Expanded Serial That Clearly Telegraphs Its End
Summary: 3 Stars
Unless you are devoted to reading every word that Michael Connelly ever wrote, you can skip this book.
The story that The Overlook is based on was serialized in the New York Times. If you have read that serialization, I doubt if you will feel rewarded by reading this padded out version.
Harry Bosch is in a new unit and has a new partner. But catching a murder in a rich neighborhood in the middle of the night soon attracts the attention of the FBI and more alphabet agencies than you know the names of. Why are they interested? It seems like some terrorists could be about to make a nuclear bomb. Harry soon is spending more time fighting off the Feds than he is on investigating. As a result, he's soon missing obvious clues by not having checked out what's going on thoroughly enough.
The whole set-up is dropped on you in the first few pages as a serial will do to get you hooked into wanting to continue. Missing radioactive materials will grip anyone in New York. You may not find the threat to be so chilling if you live outside the Big Apple and the paranoia that grips the government in Washington.
The plot seems to develop much too fast throughout. I like authors to tease me along until much later in the book than The Outlook does.
I was also disappointed that the plot clearly points to what the ultimate conclusion is. Those clues when buried in a serial don't stick out so much because you forget them by the next day. Sit down and read them at one time (as I did on a plane flight), and they point irresistibly away from what the main investigation is presuming. As a result, the book's ending was totally predictable.
I found another problem with the book. The guilty parties make a ridiculously stupid mistake in how they handle the radioactive material. These aren't hop heads. Without that mistake, the mystery wouldn't have been resolved in the way it was. It looks like Michael Connelly took an illegal short-cut here that damaged his story. Too bad. Without that short-cut and the too-obvious clues, this plot had potential.
Speed kills (even for writers).
Book Review: Commentary on today's crime fighting
Summary: 4 Stars
The Overlook is the 13th story in the Bosch series. In this one we are treated to a regular hard-boiled murder mystery being solved by a dedicated cop who does not mind doing things not exactly by the book while also getting a loaded social commentary.
The mystery is that a physicist that handles nuclear materials is murdered in execution style and a whole lot of nuclear material (Cesium) is stolen. The threads and hints strewn all around the case point to this being an emerging terrorist attack on Los Angeles and so the FBI, and many other federal agencies jump in to get involved. Speak about internecine warfare! The FBI involvement also kicks in a special unit of the LAPD that is more of a slaptsick comedy outfit than a real police force, and also one that is more akin to the FBI in wanting to keep all the glory for itself rather than think the case through and approach things logically.
Bosch keeps thinking that he sees a murder mystery and wants to handle this as a standard homicide and all this additional attention creates many distractions and obstacles to the case's solution.
Bosch is also reunited with his love interest in the FBI - Rachel Walling - but it is never clear if they will work together, or at cross purposes. There is enough lying and deceit between the two of them that you wonder if they'll ever get back together again as a couple.
Bosch is also training a rookie cop in his ways and some of the fun of this book is watching the rookie watch Bosch and draw conclusions that are different than what Bosch wants him to get.
The action is very fast-paced and the whole story is resolved in a matter of 13 hours. The way the case breaks is somewhat hoky, but logical - although I suspect that if I researched it, I would find the science behind it as being wrong, or at least accelerated.
This is a fun read that takes you away from the day to day cares and is great beach or airplane material!
Book Review: Swift Paced and Credible
Summary: 4 Stars
The plot of this book and many of its details have been well-described by other reviewers. I will not repeat their efforts. Instead I will merely say why I liked the book.
Four things strongly appealed to me in the book. First, the entire action of the book takes place over about twelve hours from Bosch's first call out until the conclusion, so the plot is tight. Second, the plot is also credible and so are Bosch's observations and actions within it. Third, Connelly in this story returns Bosch to his cop roots. Here he is again very much a local LA cop, determined to see that an awful crime in his city is not swept under the rug because a bunch of outside hotshots think that bigger issues are at stake. Harry never loses sight of the fact that a brutal murder has happened on his home turf, and nothing interferes with his relentless pursuit of that crime.
Finally, Harry's skills as a detective are very much on display here. His observations at crime scenes are acute and his ability to evaluate what he sees is outstanding. The same is true of his observations of suspects and witnesses. In short, we see again the original Harry Bosch: Tough, astute, unafraid and committed to his city rather than to career or self. This is the Harry who caught the reader's eye in the early books.
Yes, the plot is a bit overloaded with extraneous stuff (especially Harry's mooning over Rachel). Yes, the resolution is a bit forced. But overall the story is crisp and far more credible than Connelly's more recent Bosch outing, "9 Dragons."