The Overlook
by Michael Connelly
Published by Little Brown
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Reviewed by Jeff Foster
As everyone in Los Angeles sleeps, except of course Harry Bosch, a body is found off Mulholland Drive in a secluded unofficial park known as "The Overlook." Who gets the call? Our favorite insomniac and LAPD rogue, Detective Bosch.
After the Echo Park situation and the resulting investigation, Bosch is now off the closed file squad and is working Homicide Special. He's got a new Lieutenant and a new partner, a cautious thirty-something, Cuban-American, named Ignacio Ferras.
The scene at the overlook is curios. Very little evidence, save the body and its effects. Bosch begins to gets his "feelings' about this one right away. Something isn't right, but he just can't place it. He's working this through his mind when he is notified that the FBI arrived and wants to come into his crime scene. The agent is actually Rachel Walling from the FBI's Tactical Investigation Unit, and at the sight of Walling his heart jumps and falls--he still has some feelings for her after Echo Park.
It turns out that the victim is on an FBI watch list, thus Walling's presence. Bosch has had enough experience with Walling and the FBI to know this isn't going to be a good day.
The Overlook has some well-planned and thought-out twists and in classic Connelly fashion, we are led down one path of the investigation only to be hurled into the weeds when Bosch puts the clues together in a different way.
Through the investigation Connelly leads the reader through a fast-paced thriller. The book was originally written as a series for the New York Times, and although he has pumped it up from the three thousand words a chapter required by the newspaper, the story just doesn't have the same grit and guts that the followers of Harry Bosch series have learned to expect. Don't get me wrong--this story is one of the best. It takes place in a twelve-hour period and reads like a half episode of TV's "24." Its pace will suck you in and keep you hooked through to the end.
Armchair Interviews Says: This is a quick shot in the arm for those that need a Harry Bosch fix.
Author Web site: ="http://www.michaelconnelly.com