Harry Bosch #10; the sequel to The Poet. Michael Connelly delivers, as usual. He brings together Harry Bosch and Rachel Walling (disgraced FBI agent from The Poet.) Harry is a PI with none of the authority of the police department or the FBI. Rachel was sent to North Dakota, and then South Dakota, after the Backus debacle in The Poet. These are not desirable posts for a FBI agent! Harry and Rachel don't exactly trust each other, but they need each other to figure out how to finally take down Backus permanently. Backus has continued to murder people - both within the US and outside. Backus keeps bringing Rachel into it, although the FBI would like to keep her at a distance. Harry is brought in by Graciela, Terry McCaleb's wife, after Terry is found dead on his boat. She wants Harry to investigate Terry's death. Harry has to rely on Buddy, Terry's partner, for assistance, but he certainly doesn't trust him.
Connelly is excellent at weaving stories together. You never really know when events and people are going to start intersecting. These characters are all very intelligent and they don't always share what they know and/or think with each other because each of them have their own agenda. It makes for interesting reading. The one comment I'm going to make about this book though is that Connelly writes to an intelligent reader, but there were three to four times in this book that he "spelled out" something quite obvious that I didn't think needed to be. Maybe if I hadn't just read The Poet it wouldn't have been so obvious. So, there's that.
Harry is managing to co-parent Maddie with Eleanor Wish, although they don't really get along that well. Eleanor continues to play poker as her profession, which she does late at night. Maddie is left home with the nanny. Harry is allowed to visit at any time, and usually chooses after Eleanor has gone to work. Good choice. I continue to not be a fan of Eleanor, and now Harry is tied to her forever. Oh well. Eleanor refuses to move to LA and Harry refuses to move to Las Vegas, so that's part of the conflict.
This story is definitely a battle of wits. Who can outsmart the other kind of thing. Backus has been killing for so long - and has led people around for so long (8 years and counting) - that he is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Thank goodness Harry steps in to help out the FBI!
Wendy's Rating: ****
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