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A body has been found on the overlook near Mulholland Drive. The victim, identified as Dr. Stanley Kent, has two bullet holes in the back of his head from what looks like an execution-style shooting. LAPD detective Harry Bosch is called out to investigate. It is the case he has been waiting for, his first since being recruited to the city's Homicide Special squad.
As soon as Bosch begins retracing Dr. Kent's steps, contradictions emerge. While Kent doesn't seem to have had ties to organized crime, he did have access to dangerous radioactive substances from just about every hospital in Los Angeles County. What begins as a routine homicide investigation opens up before Bosch into something much larger, more dangerous — and much more urgent.
Breaking in a new rookie partner and chasing his first fresh case in years, Bosch is soon in conflict not just with the LAPD brass but also with FBI hotshots who are convinced that the case is too important for the likes of the LAPD. Harry's onetime lover Rachel Walling is among the federal agents frantically working the case, making Bosch's job all the more complicated. Guarding one slim advantage, he relentlessly follows his own instincts, hoping they are still true enough to solve the crime — and to save all of Los Angeles from a deadly hazard.
Review:
"Bestseller Connelly's dazzling 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006's Echo Park) reunites Bosch with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling. Bosch must break in a new partner, rookie Iggy Ferras, when they're called to look into the execution of physicist Stanley Kent on a Mulholland Drive overlook. When a special FBI unit, headed by Walling, arrives and tries to usurp his case, claiming it's a matter of national security, Bosch refuses to back down. Walling's focus on the potential theft of radioactive material from the hospital where Kent was lending his expertise to cancer treatment and her unwillingness to share information only make Bosch more determined to solve the case. This is a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly's previous novels, but he spares no punches when it comes to complexity and suspense. The scramble to investigate threats to national security, justified or otherwise, is a timely subject and one on which Connelly puts a brilliant new spin." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"'Bestseller Connelly's dazzling 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006's Echo Park) reunites Bosch with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling. Bosch must break in a new partner, rookie Iggy Ferras, when they're called to look into the execution of physicist Stanley Kent on a Mulholland Drive overlook. When a special FBI unit, headed by Walling, arrives and tries to usurp his case, claiming it's a matter of national security, Bosch refuses to back down. Walling's focus on the potential theft of radioactive material from the hospital where Kent was lending his expertise to cancer treatment and her unwillingness to share information only make Bosch more determined to solve the case. This is a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly's previous novels, but he spares no punches when it comes to complexity and suspense. The scramble to investigate threats to national security, justified or otherwise, is a timely subject and one on which Connelly puts a brilliant new spin.' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)"
Review:
"Tick-tick. Tick-tick. Tick-tick. Ka-thump. The inexorable stopwatch framework of Fox's '24' ticks away on every page of Michael Connelly's 'The Overlook,' the latest installment of his long-running series featuring LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. This work was serialized last year in the Sunday New York Times Magazine and expanded by Connelly into book form. Only slightly longer... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) than half the length of his previous Bosch novels, and with its action compressed into a 12-hour time frame, it's all hyped-up, jittery action, with a suspenseful story but little of the complexity and humanity that are Connelly's trademarks. How '24' is it? Connelly even starts the book at midnight. Bosch is at home, listening to his beloved jazz recordings, when he receives a call from his supervisor on the homicide squad. A man has been shot execution-style on a cliff overlooking the Mulholland Dam, and the Hollywood division is busier than usual that night with three other murder cases. Bosch's old partner, Kiz Rider, has been transferred to a desk job after a near-fatal encounter (her fate was left open-ended at the end of 'Echo Park,' the previous Bosch adventure), so now he's teamed with Ignacio Ferras, who represents a new, more youthful face of the LAPD: a young minority dad who commutes from one of the limitless Southern California suburbs. (Ferras' home is far enough away to put Bosch on his own for much of the tale.) But it's Bosch's sometime lover, FBI Agent Rachel Walling, who provides the bulk of the professional — and a touch of romantic — tension. Turf wars in the police department are a constant in Connelly's writing, and none is more charged with procedural testosterone than the one between the LAPD and the FBI. In this case, though, Bosch doesn't have much choice about federal involvement; the dead man on the overlook was a doctor, and before he was shot, he had withdrawn a quantity of highly radioactive cesium from a gynecological-cancer laboratory. Naturally, the cesium is missing — and Bosch is soon contending not only with the FBI, but also with the Department of Homeland Security. (Was that 'Allah' that the assassin shouted just before he pulled the trigger?) Tick-tick. Tick-tick. Tick-tick. Connelly sends his aging cop hero pinballing all over L.A. County, from the Mulholland overlook to the victim's home nearby, from a women's clinic at the northern tip of the San Fernando Valley back down to LAPD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. (And it's only 5 a.m.) The clues begin to mount up: The doctor's wife is found nude, trussed up with the plastic ties she uses to secure her rosebushes, and a Canadian drifter camped outside Madonna's former house, hoping to see the star, seems to have inadvertently witnessed the killing. The serial origins of 'The Overlook' are obvious at each chapter's end, but the book is strongest when Connelly stops jet-propelling his characters from crime scene to crime scene and spares a few sentences to let them breathe — especially Bosch, who is a Jack Webb cop in a Paris Hilton world. When Ferras hacks into a victim's BlackBerry, looking for clues, Connelly observes that Bosch 'didn't understand why people were always typing feverishly on their phones. He was sure it was some sort of warning, a sign of the decline of civilization or humanity, but he couldn't put his finger on the right explanation for what he felt.' Connelly never loses his talent for direction and misdirection; the baddies leave a trail of red herrings, and so does Connelly, who manages in the book's fourth quarter to call into question the meaning of everything that has gone before. (One egregious misstep, though: the LAPD, the FBI and a team of paramedics aren't all likely to have mistaken grape juice stains for bruises.) Character development and terse realism, overlaid with a sophisticated sense of melancholy and age, have been the appeal of the Bosch novels. But there's not much room for character study and even less for realism in a story about a 60-ish cop swashbuckling around Los Angeles County at 90 miles an hour, fighting off FBI meddlers as he tries to save the world. Connelly is still one of the genre's best storytellers, and 'The Overlook' is nothing if not miniseries-ready, but bone-weary Harry Bosch just isn't '24's' square-jawed Jack Bauer, who manages to dispatch international evil while MacGyvering himself out of certain death every week. Connelly needs to leave the flashy tick-ticks to the kids; Bosch is a stronger character when he's not trying to save the world, but only his little piece of it." Reviewed by Kevin Allman, a frequent mystery reviewer, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group) (hide most of this review)
Review:
"If Bosch is our detective, Connelly is our laureate, proving again that popular fiction at its best, as in a crafty little entertainment like The Overlook, is also literature." Los Angeles Times
Review:
"Connelly, once again, has hit a home run. He does it quietly and without any pyrotechnics. He makes it look deceptively easy." Denver Post
Review:
"[Connelly's] an economic writer with an arch sense of humor, a quick-sketch master, and his eye is on the plot all the way, making this a fast read and a hard book to put down if you're a murder-mystery fan." Oregonian
Review:
"[M]aintains the author's trademarks of superior plotting, solid story telling and fascinating character studies....The Overlook moves at a brisk pace as Connelly puts the main emphasis on plot." South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Review:
"The plotline doesn't keep the mystery suspended, and worse, by page 92, I had figured out one of the criminals and the murderer's motivation. This has never happened to me before with a Connelly book." Chicago Sun-Times
Review:
"Connelly, a descendant of Raymond Chandler...is not just a police procedurist. He's a writer's writer who has created one of the most interesting, respected characters in modern fiction in Bosch....The Overlook will keep you on the edge of the precipice to the last page." San Antonio Express-News
Synopsis:
From bestselling author Connelly comes this electrifying new Harry Bosch novel. In his first case since he left the LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit for the Homicide Special squad, Bosch is called out to investigate a murder that may have chilling consequences for national security.
Synopsis:
Near Mulholland Drive, Dr. Stanley Kent is found shot twice in the back of the head. It's the case LAPD detective Harry Bosch has been waiting for, his first since being recruited to the Homicide Special Squad. When he discovers that Kent had access to dangerous radioactive substances, what begins as a routine investigation becomes something darker, more deadly, and frighteningly urgent. Bosch is soon in conflict with not only his superiors but the FBI, which thinks the case is too important for just a cop. Complicating his job even more is the presence of Agent Rachel Walling, his onetime lover. Now guarding one slim advantage, Bosch relentlessly follows his own instincts, hoping they are still sharp enough to find the truth--and a killer who can annihilate an entire city.
Channing, February 13, 2008 (view all comments by Channing)
The rebellious and outrageous Harry Bosch is at it again, this time trailing radioactive substances that could be used in a terrorist attack. He finds himself working with FBI Agent Rachael Walling, with all of the old conflicts resurfacing. And it appears that everyone who should be helping him is getting in his way. This is a must read for those following Bosch's career.
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Product details
240 pages
Little Brown and Company -
English9780316018951
Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Bestseller Connelly's dazzling 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006's Echo Park) reunites Bosch with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling. Bosch must break in a new partner, rookie Iggy Ferras, when they're called to look into the execution of physicist Stanley Kent on a Mulholland Drive overlook. When a special FBI unit, headed by Walling, arrives and tries to usurp his case, claiming it's a matter of national security, Bosch refuses to back down. Walling's focus on the potential theft of radioactive material from the hospital where Kent was lending his expertise to cancer treatment and her unwillingness to share information only make Bosch more determined to solve the case. This is a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly's previous novels, but he spares no punches when it comes to complexity and suspense. The scramble to investigate threats to national security, justified or otherwise, is a timely subject and one on which Connelly puts a brilliant new spin." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"'Bestseller Connelly's dazzling 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006's Echo Park) reunites Bosch with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling. Bosch must break in a new partner, rookie Iggy Ferras, when they're called to look into the execution of physicist Stanley Kent on a Mulholland Drive overlook. When a special FBI unit, headed by Walling, arrives and tries to usurp his case, claiming it's a matter of national security, Bosch refuses to back down. Walling's focus on the potential theft of radioactive material from the hospital where Kent was lending his expertise to cancer treatment and her unwillingness to share information only make Bosch more determined to solve the case. This is a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly's previous novels, but he spares no punches when it comes to complexity and suspense. The scramble to investigate threats to national security, justified or otherwise, is a timely subject and one on which Connelly puts a brilliant new spin.' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)"
"Review"
by Los Angeles Times,
"If Bosch is our detective, Connelly is our laureate, proving again that popular fiction at its best, as in a crafty little entertainment like The Overlook, is also literature."
"Review"
by Denver Post,
"Connelly, once again, has hit a home run. He does it quietly and without any pyrotechnics. He makes it look deceptively easy."
"Review"
by Oregonian,
"[Connelly's] an economic writer with an arch sense of humor, a quick-sketch master, and his eye is on the plot all the way, making this a fast read and a hard book to put down if you're a murder-mystery fan."
"Review"
by South Florida Sun-Sentinel,
"[M]aintains the author's trademarks of superior plotting, solid story telling and fascinating character studies....The Overlook moves at a brisk pace as Connelly puts the main emphasis on plot."
"Review"
by Chicago Sun-Times,
"The plotline doesn't keep the mystery suspended, and worse, by page 92, I had figured out one of the criminals and the murderer's motivation. This has never happened to me before with a Connelly book."
"Review"
by San Antonio Express-News,
"Connelly, a descendant of Raymond Chandler...is not just a police procedurist. He's a writer's writer who has created one of the most interesting, respected characters in modern fiction in Bosch....The Overlook will keep you on the edge of the precipice to the last page."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
From bestselling author Connelly comes this electrifying new Harry Bosch novel. In his first case since he left the LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit for the Homicide Special squad, Bosch is called out to investigate a murder that may have chilling consequences for national security.
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
Near Mulholland Drive, Dr. Stanley Kent is found shot twice in the back of the head. It's the case LAPD detective Harry Bosch has been waiting for, his first since being recruited to the Homicide Special Squad. When he discovers that Kent had access to dangerous radioactive substances, what begins as a routine investigation becomes something darker, more deadly, and frighteningly urgent. Bosch is soon in conflict with not only his superiors but the FBI, which thinks the case is too important for just a cop. Complicating his job even more is the presence of Agent Rachel Walling, his onetime lover. Now guarding one slim advantage, Bosch relentlessly follows his own instincts, hoping they are still sharp enough to find the truth--and a killer who can annihilate an entire city.
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