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Lost
Light
by Michael Connelly
Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
2003
I never liked hard-boiled fiction
until I was stranded at an airport one day with several hours before
I could board my next flight. For lack of anything else to do I
happened upon the paperback shelf and grabbed A Darkness More
than Night by Michael Connelly, choosing it over others (by
writers such as Stuart Woods) based on the description included on
the back cover. The story, in which both of Connelly's best-known
characters, Terry McCaleb and Harry Bosch work together to solve a
confusing serial-killer case, was good, certainly worthy of my time,
and had also saved me from boredom. But the work also introduced me
to one of the most intriguing fictional characters of the
crime-story/detective genre, Detective Hieronymous Bosch.
Since then I have read every book
by Connelly (I've been flying a lot lately) and have found his
narratives to be vibrant, his descriptions of Los Angeles and his
characters to be entertaining, and have most enjoyed the
intertextuality of his works. Connelly's characters frequently
allude to and even quote lines from mystery novels by two of the
most important writers of the genre, its inventor, Poe, and its
master of LA crime fiction, Raymond Chandler. The very title A
Darkness More than Night is a line taken from Chandler's own
answer to the popularity of hard-boiled fiction. I also enjoy the
references to jazz and to art. Detective Bosch's namesake was the
medieval European painter whose haunting works such as the Garden
of Earthly Delights expose and ridicule the folly of humanity.
Much like the painter, Bosch himself, a 20-some-year veteran of
Hollywood Homicide has observed the consequences of each of the
seven deadly sins as he solves his cases. His background, the
difficulties he's encountered both in Vietnam and in Los Angeles, as
well as the personal losses he's suffered have hardened him, leaving
him questioning his own purpose of being.
At the end of the previous
installment, City of Bones,
Bosch "pulled the pin," retiring from the force shortly
after being informed that he had earned what he had thought he
wanted since his fictional debut, his promotion (and return) to
Robbery-Homicide Division in Los Angeles. Bosch had served in RHD
before but was demoted when he fatally shot an unarmed serial killer
who had reached under a pillow not for a weapon but for a hairpiece.
Though he shot the right man, the very image-conscious and
reputation-scarred, post-Rodney King LAPD had blacklisted him since
he had been hit with civil suits and Internal Affairs investigations
and faced general distrust on the part of his coworkers and
superiors. Rather than return to the eye of the hurricane, Bosch
leaves the force with no real plan other than perhaps taking a stab
at finding happiness, which leaves his readers wondering what he is
to do next.
Lost
Light picks up eight months after Bosch has left the force
and adds several new dimensions to the story. The most obvious and
effective one is that Bosch becomes his own narrator. In all
previous novels Bosch is filtered through an omniscient narrator but
now we see a more vibrant character, one whose thoughts belie the
outward image and whose own fears, philosophies, strategies and
dreams are communicated more clearly. While Connelly adds this new
dimension, he subtracts much of the "cop" dimension,
replacing it instead with Bosch's "private
investigator-like" instincts. Bosch's former partners, Rider
and Edgar have only small appearances in Bosch's life, as does
anything to do with the LAPD. As a retiree, Bosch is taking on new
projects, such as learning to play jazz saxophone, visiting old
friends and trying to solve a "cold" case of his that
disturbed him before it was reassigned to RHD, where it remains
unsolved since the two investigators in charge of the case were shot
down in a bar robbery shortly after it was put in their lap. The
unsolved homicide continues to haunt Bosch and he determines that he
must solve the murder on his own. His attempts to do so are met with
several obstacles such as the fact that the murder happened four
years ago and is believed linked to another case the FBI is actively
pursuing, using their newly-acquired power since 9/11 to search and
seize any and all information (and/or persons) that may threaten the
national security. Bosch must rely on his experience and his
inventiveness in order to solve a complex case involving very
dangerous men on both sides of the law. As he struggles with the
case he also reopens his feelings regarding his ex-wife, Eleanor
Wish, who makes her living playing poker in Vegas and though she
appears interested in him once more she has not tried to contact
Harry in three years and in Bosch's mind clearly is keeping secrets
from him. The predicaments in which our detective finds himself and
his true discovery of what he wants to do with the rest of his life
make for an edge-of-the-seat read.
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