Review by DAPHNE LEE
CITY OF BONES
By Michael Connelly
Publisher: Orion, 448 pages
(ISBN: 978-0446611619)
IN THE early hours of New Year's Day, detective Harry Bosch is asked to look into the discovery of what appears to be the arm bone of a child. Bosch is sceptical. However, further investigation not only confirms that the bone is a child's; it unearths more bones, scattered in a shallow grave near a residential area. What's more, the remains, which appear to have been interred for at least 20 years, bear the marks of long-term physical abuse.Bosch is assigned the case and attacks it with his usual sense of doom. This guy has a past – as fans of Connelly's other books about the Los Angeles Police Department veteran know – and it shows. In this instance, the taciturn cop is reminded of his own, troubled childhood – Bosch was an orphan, spent his adolescence in a series of foster homes and knows just how unfriendly life can be to an unwanted child. His latest investigation hits close to home, and the search for the killer of the abused boy seems like an opportunity to heal old wounds and settle personal scores.
For all the angst of its central character, City Of Bones views its subject matter with a cold objectivity befitting the genre. In the character of Bosch, the line between problematic cop and no-nonsense lawman is a thin and blurry one, but even a maverick with a nose for trouble is subject to rules of conduct and departmental red tape.
For those who enjoy the technical side of police work, Connelly's previous experience as a crime beat journalist for the Los Angeles Times enables him to deliver accurate details of criminal investigation procedure and protocol, as well as portray, with gritty realism, the intricacies of inter-department politics and its ability to help or hinder the handling of a case.
Nonetheless, Connelly's main strength is to give official policy a human face and he does this by creating characters that are strongly drawn, skilfully fleshed out individuals who are, believably, thinking, feeling parts of the system and not just its fictional puppets.
Connelly's body of work will appeal to anyone who enjoys true-crime non-fiction and also appreciates the beauty of multi-faceted characters that would hold their own in stories totally unrelated to the ones they were actually written for.
City Of Bones features several fascinating creations, notably Julia Brasher, Bosch's enigmatic new love-interest; Paul Guyot, the lonely retired doctor whose dog found the buried bone; and Nicholas Trent, the murder suspect whose unsavoury history leads, unexpectedly, to the salvation of others.
These characters help keep the story moving; they capture the reader's interest and imagination so that you race through the book not only to discover the identity of the killer, but also to learn more about the others involved in the case. Even if you are the sort who likes maximum action and minimum reflection, you will find the writing consistently taut and fast-paced, with short chapters, snappy, realistically-phrased conversations, and to-the-point descriptive passages.
There are times when Connelly lets you into Bosch's mind, but you are more often looking over his shoulder as he makes his moves, advances and retreats, trips up or gets thrown a loop. By and large, Bosch is one step ahead of the reader. Nevertheless, the conclusion, case-wise, isn't exactly a huge surprise, and neither is the decision Bosch makes at the book's end.
If you've been following his career over eight or so titles, you'll agree it's a natural progression that makes perfect sense. But if this is your first Bosch novel, well at least you have seven others to look forward (or backward) to.
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