BOOK REVIEW:--- The Narrows by Michael Connelly
Seizing on the metaphor of The Narrows, a waterway that drains mountain streams into the great river of Los Angeles and on into the ocean, Michael Connelly adds closure to the story begun in the Poet. Normally, The Narrows are a shallow flow of water, until the rains come, and then, in the downpour, The Narrows become deadly and quick a killer just like the poet himself, once an FBI aganet who was highly respected, whose deep waters his tle coldest and most calculating of murderers, both brilliant and brutal.
The story starts when Rachel Walling, who was The Poet's protégé in the FBI, recalled from FBI exile by a piece of evidence that made it clear that The Poet was still actively killing and that he wanted a confrontation with Walling, who was the only agent to come even close to putting him down. The second key figure of the case is Harry Bosch, one of Connelly's regular characters. Bosch has retired from the LAPD, and for the past year has been trying to come to grips with the discovery that a broken relationship has made him a father.
Bosch is the wildcard in the story. Bosch was a friend Terry McCaleb, a retired FBI profiler who died from the apparent failure of his transplanted heart. But an autopsy revealed that someone had messed with McCaleb's medications and that death from natural cause was not an option. Bosch discovers a connection to The Poet, and, near a boat in the middle of a desert, the detective butts heats with the FBI and makes an unexpected friend of Rachel Walling. And thus begins a story which is half thriller and half a testament to the glories of detection.
Connelly is one of those prose writers who can write a tight, action oriented narrative balanced with solid detail and, just when you think you know what to expect, he will dash off a bit of wordsmithing that will embed a scene in your mind forever. There are writers like Crais and Chandler who can reach more dizzying heights, but Connelly has a style and consistency that puts him in the same league. The story is both a mystery and the tale of people who have come close to being twisted by the force that threatens to prey on them. For we all are only moments from The Narrows ourselves.It has 404 pages.I will give it 4/5.
The story starts when Rachel Walling, who was The Poet's protégé in the FBI, recalled from FBI exile by a piece of evidence that made it clear that The Poet was still actively killing and that he wanted a confrontation with Walling, who was the only agent to come even close to putting him down. The second key figure of the case is Harry Bosch, one of Connelly's regular characters. Bosch has retired from the LAPD, and for the past year has been trying to come to grips with the discovery that a broken relationship has made him a father.
Bosch is the wildcard in the story. Bosch was a friend Terry McCaleb, a retired FBI profiler who died from the apparent failure of his transplanted heart. But an autopsy revealed that someone had messed with McCaleb's medications and that death from natural cause was not an option. Bosch discovers a connection to The Poet, and, near a boat in the middle of a desert, the detective butts heats with the FBI and makes an unexpected friend of Rachel Walling. And thus begins a story which is half thriller and half a testament to the glories of detection.
Connelly is one of those prose writers who can write a tight, action oriented narrative balanced with solid detail and, just when you think you know what to expect, he will dash off a bit of wordsmithing that will embed a scene in your mind forever. There are writers like Crais and Chandler who can reach more dizzying heights, but Connelly has a style and consistency that puts him in the same league. The story is both a mystery and the tale of people who have come close to being twisted by the force that threatens to prey on them. For we all are only moments from The Narrows ourselves.It has 404 pages.I will give it 4/5.
posted by xiphoid at 7:30 PM
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