With each book in this series we learn a little bit more about Harry Bosch. And the more I know about him, the more I like him. Not because he's a nice guy, but because he's a good guy.
The Concrete Blonde, book three in the Harry Bosch series, once again gives us plots within plots, intrigue, action, and wonderful writing. I might even go so far as to say beautiful writing, at times.
We're already familiar with The Dollmaker, a serial killer that Harry killed while attempting to arrest. As the book starts, we get the details of what happened, and this answers a few questions that have been raised in previous books about exactly what did happen. I was afraid at first that the third book wasn't going to be the third book chronologically, but luckily that's not the case. We just see that scene so we can be sure of what happened, then we jump to the present day.
In previous books I haven't had a clue about who the killer was, but in this book, I did kind of have the killer in mind as a possibility before Harry did. I came up with three possibilities early on, and Harry ended up checking into all three, so at least I guessed things fairly accurately. But the point is that I wasn't sure of anything until the reveal. So, once again, Michael Connelly kept me guessing right up until Harry figured it out. That's four books in a row by this author where I haven't known the ending until it was time to know. You have to understand that I was reading my grandmother's Agatha Christie books when I was in the second grade. I'm really good at figuring out whodunit way before an author is ready for us to know. Kudos to Michael Connelly for writing books that I can't figure out ahead of time.
Here is the blurb for The Concrete Blonde:
They called him the Dollmaker...
The serial killer who stalked Los Angeles and left a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. With a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thought he had ended the city's nightmare.
Now, the dead man's widow is suing Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man — an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature.
Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It's a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go — the darkness of his own heart.
With The Concrete Blonde, Edgar Award-winning author Michael Connelly has hit a whole new level in his career, creating a breathtaking thriller that thrusts you into a blistering courtroom battle — and a desperate search for a sadistic killer.
The serial killer who stalked Los Angeles and left a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. With a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thought he had ended the city's nightmare.
Now, the dead man's widow is suing Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man — an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature.
Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It's a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go — the darkness of his own heart.
With The Concrete Blonde, Edgar Award-winning author Michael Connelly has hit a whole new level in his career, creating a breathtaking thriller that thrusts you into a blistering courtroom battle — and a desperate search for a sadistic killer.
As the blurb says, much of this book takes place in a court room. Honestly, I could have done without some of the courtroom drama, but by the end of the book I understood why it was necessary. Mostly.
I believe that up until the events in this book, Harry has gotten along in life quite well by just ignoring his baggage. He is the man he's decided he is, and (other than insomnia) he doesn't let his childhood or his war experience interfere with that. And to be honest, I really respect that about him. But I'm guessing that he's about to be forced to deal with his own history, and that the next book is going to delve into that. I like Harry, and I don't want to see him in pain. Part of me says, "He's fine, don't make him dig all that pain up and deal with it", but then part of me knows that if he's going to grow then he probably needs to look at that part of his life and realize that his gruff exterior is to keep people at a distance. Where they can't hurt you.
At any rate, some of the events of this book are setting us up for the next book, I believe.
I'm going to give The Concrete Blonde a 10 of 10, and the series remains a 10 of 10 as well.
Book Rating, The Concrete Blonde: 10 of 10
Series Rating, Harry Bosch: 10 of 10
1. The Black Echo
(1992)2. The Black Ice (Harry Bosch)
(1993)3. The Concrete Blonde
(1994)4. The Last Coyote
(1995)5. Trunk Music
(1997)6. Angels Flight
(1999)7. A Darkness More Than Night
(2001)8. City of Bones
(2002)9. Lost Light
(2003)10 The Narrows
(2004)11. The Closers
(2005)12. Echo Park
(2006)13. The Overlook
(2007)14. The Brass Verdict
(2008)15. Nine Dragons
(Coming October 2009)
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