[.ca] The Overlook: A Novel. 5 CDs (ISBN 1600240003)

A "hot" Harry Bosch thriller!:
Having begun life as a 16 part serial for the New York Times, "The Overlook" has a dramatically different flavour than the preceding 12 novels in the continuing, exciting Harry Bosch canon with which Connelly has thrilled his legion of fans. Less grim and foreboding, less atmospheric, less prone to the philosophical meandering that we've come to expect from the angst-ridden backcountry of Bosch's psyche, "The Overlook" is much more of a plot driven novel - a shorter, snappier, purely action oriented police procedural but no less successful and enjoyable for the differences! Dr Stanley Kent, a medical bio-physicist who had access to radioactive materials used in the treatment of cancers at hospitals throughout LA, has been found murdered - executed, in fact, with two bullets in the back of the head - on a Mulholland Drive overlook. Bosch, assigned to the murder with his new partner, Iggy Ferras, immediately begins to bump heads with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, called in on the case as a result of the potential terrorist involvement with the assassination. The case is mere minutes old and Kent's body has barely begun to cool when Bosch discovers that the crime also involves the theft of a case of potentially deadly radioactive Cesium-137. That the FBI agent assigned to the case is Rachel Walling, Bosch's love interest who we met in Connelly's last novel "Echo Park" complicates matters immensely but certainly doesn't prevent the inevitable inter-organizational war over case jurisdiction. Bosch, true to the mantra "Everybody counts or nobody counts" which we first heard in "The Last Coyote", focuses on people and is intent on finding Kent's murderers. The FBI, not too surprisingly, treats the murder as incidental and is intent on treating the theft of the Cesium as a threat to national security. There is no doubt in my mind ... Connelly is brilliant! Even with a purely plot-oriented novel, he has made sure that Bosch loses none of the flavour or depth of character so carefully built up in twelve previous novels. His interaction with Walling is both hot and heated (if you understand the subtle distinction). The jurisdictional squabbling and in-fighting has a definite tinge of realism and, frankly, it is difficult as a reader to sit in judgment in this particular case and take sides. Bosch and Walling, the FBI and the LAPD were all right and wrong at various moments in the novel! And what can one say about the ending? There is no way that any reader is going to see this fancy twist coming! If you're a Bosch fan, you're gonna love this one! If you haven't read any of Bosch's previous novels, don't start here ... go back and read four or five of the earlier novels (try to pick them up in chronological order - start with "The Black Echo") so you can get that underlying feel for the character first. Then come back and enjoy this one with the rest of us. Highly recommended! Paul Weiss

Same old Harry Bosch:
A doctor with access to a dangerous radioactive substance is found murdered on the overlook above the Mulholland Dam. LAPD detective Harry Bosch is sent on what appears to be a routine investigation. Onsite, things escalate when it is discovered that vials of cerium are missing and now are in unknown hands. When the murder is suspected to be part of a terrorist plot to poison a major American city, Special FBI Agent Walling declares the matter to be of National Security. Bosch thinks otherwise and refuses to take a back seat to the investigation. Finding himself in a race against time and the FBI, he draws on his own instincts and experience to find a rapid conclusion. This novel is short you can finish reading it in a few hours. Connelly races through the 24 hour plot quickly, leading to a predictable ending, giving the reader lots of twists and surprises along the way. The author exploits Bosch's depth of character, LAPD procedures and local flavour that he carefully created in previous novels. The writing felt a bit rushed, predictable but engaging and entertaining, leaving me a little disappointed.

Think of it as an introduction for readers new to the series:
The Overlook is an easy read. It has a vicious contemporary plot. The whole bad-guys-stealing-nuclear-stuff-and-making-a-dirty-bomb thread is a current scare in society and Mr. Connelly makes good use of it. His "Bosch vs. 'The System'" plays very well here. What I found a little diverting as a fan of the series is his constant back-storying of a lot of the characters (including the protagonist), although it will help anyone who wants to get a fresh jump into the series without having to start at the first novels. Although this is a shorter novel than Mr. Connelly usually produces (almost half the length), it is still an excellent showcase for his storytelling ability. I'd recommend this book.

SHORT BUT SWEET!:
This is the 13th in Connelly's Harry Bosch Series and the quality has not wavered. This time out past lover Special agent Rachel Walling is back in Harry's life, and Bosch also has to break in a new partner a character by the name of Iggy Ferras. Physicist Stanley Kent has been murdered at a Mulholland Drive lookout. It is a professional hit. Then Walling arrives on the scene to try and take the case from Bosch in the name of national security, sparks fly! Kent worked at a hospital where some radioactive material has been stolen. She won't share and either will Harry! This is a fun fast read, my one complaint is that it is a very short book, and it ended way too fast. What is there though is excellent! A complex look at threats to National security and how we as a nation must deal with them, all wrapped up in a great suspense story!

An Expanded Serial That Clearly Telegraphs Its End:
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).