The Overlook (Harry Bosch) | Michael Connelly

The Overlook (Harry Bosch) | Michael Connelly | Not so bad

books:

The Overlook (Harr...

	The Overlook (Harry Bosch) Michael Connelly Vision, 2008 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 192 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

Readable but a bit flat

I am a huge Harry Bosch fan but I found that this book was too short and as it had been originally aimed for a serial audience, the flaws of that format shone through in this book.

Everything seemed to be too rushed and light. The basis of the storyline (terrorism) just doesn't seem to be a strong suit of Michael Connelly's and it makes this book appear a Michael Crichton wanna-be.

Besides my reservations, it is a readable novel.

Not so bad

Other reviewers seem to be disappointed devotees of Connelly and his detective. This is my first acquaintance with them so I do not have the adverse comparisons to make . It is a short, fast moving detective story, and I for one did not anticipate the ending. If you want an easy, exciting read for your flight or vacation I can recommend it as a topical crime thriller. It will entertain but not stretch the mind.

for more information click here

Good, but not his best

Connelly is a master at not telegraphing where he is going and actually injecting some genuine "whodunnit" in his "whodunnits." Unfortunately, he was not able to completely escape the constraints that the NYT magazine placed on him when he originally authored this story as a serialized 16-chapter version for their periodical. This one just doesn't quite have the cadence and sense of being propelled that are characteristic of Connelly's other novels.

Don't get me wrong - it's worth reading - but it just isn't one of his best. It's also a bit shorter than usual - I polished this one off in a single evening.

Classic Connelly is to tell us whoddunit about three-fourths of the way through the book, and then provide an unexpected twist in the last few chapters. It's a sort of double crescendo that Connelly fans know and love. We don't get much of that here. It's a fun read, but without that tried and true recipe that Connelly so masterfully employs in most of his other books. Here, we encounter an older, but only slightly more mellow Harry Bosch as he unexpectedly meets up with his old flame, Rachael Walling of the FBI, at the crime scene. Bosch is back with the LAPD as a homicide detective and together he and Walling form an uneasy alliance to pursue first an execution-style death, and then some missing radioactive material that is connected to the victim.

While a decent read, it was a bit like watching a widescreen movie on my 4:3 aspect ratio TV. It can be made to work, but you know it wasn't intended originally for that medium.

I'm hopeful his next effort will be better, because it won't likely be encumbered by the same constraints. Connelly succeeds here, but it is in spite of the original medium he was writing for, not because of it.

for more information click here