City of Bones (Harry Bosch)
by Michael Connelly
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael ConnellyReader: Len Cariou
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Published: 2002-05
ISBN: 1586212028
Number of pages: 6
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Book Reviews of City of Bones (Harry Bosch)
Book Review: Slow-Moving and Anti-Climactic
Summary: 2 Stars
This is the first Michael Connelly book I have read. I bought it because I had heard very good reviews about his books in general. As an avid reader of crime and detective novels I was initially excited to read this. However, in the end, I found City of Bones to be pretty disappointing.
I will not go into the details of the story's plot as I do not wish to spoil the book for those who are yet to read it, but I will say a little bit about the overall quality of the novel.
The pace of the plot is slow. The story seems to meander endlessly as it follows Detective Harry Bosch while he investigates various leads in his case. Normally, I would not find this problematic, as it is a realistic process in a detective's investigation, however, nothing very interesting happens during this process. The scenarios Connelly sets up offer very little in the way of suspense. Similarly such moments are few and far between. I can't help but feel I spent a majority of my time reading about Bosch filling out paperwork and traveling between different offices and departments within the LAPD. As I read 'Bones' I often found myself waiting...and waiting for something to happen. It never did.
The characters Bosch encounters throughout his investigation seem rather one dimensional and forgettable. Having just finished the book, I remember little about Bosch's love interest in the story. While Connelly may have attempted to develop her character to some extent, he ultimately failed. In the end, I didn't actually care what happened to her one way or another. Other major and minor characters in the book are also poorly developed. Bosch's partner Edgar is over-simplified to the point where it's almost comical, and the potential murder suspects leave very little of an impression, all coming off as rather innocuous.
The murder victim, who we, as readers, should care about if we are to follow a 400 page plus investigation, is given a very superficial examination. His life is covered in only the most minor detail, the situation surrounding his murder is never given its proper explanation, and we are left knowing little about him or why we should care about his death.
This was the first novel I read in Connelly's 'Bosch' series. I was expecting Detective Bosch to be a colorful character with a unique perspective and some interesting insights regarding life and police work (considering a series has been written around him). However, I walk away from City of Bones with very little feeling for detective Bosch. His character was like cardboard and my image of him as a person is very unclear. Moments where Connelly had the opportunity to develop the personal side of Bosch were often squandered in exchange for a flat and uninvolved explanation.
Like I have said, the book moves slowly. As the story's climax finally approaches you may find yourself waiting for everything to 'come together' at last...and it does, although in a way that is not satisfying or clever, or suspenseful. I was annoyed with this part of the book the most. SPOILER ALERT! The murderer of the victim is killed before he even has a chance to describe the situation surrounding the murder. So we, as readers, never get to hear it. Furthermore, the murderer is a minor and undeveloped character the reader has given little in the way of thought or concern. His reason for killing the victim is too simple to be satisfying. And because of his immediate death, we never are offered his perspective on what happened. And finally, the answer to the victim's murder just seems to come out of the blue to the point it is insulting to the reader and the time invested in reading the story up to this point. If Connelly was attempting to convey this sense of emptiness to the reader, as something that real-life detectives often feel, then he succeeded in his efforts. However, if he was attempting to create an engrossing and suspense-driven novel that would satisfy the reader, he did not.
Summary of City of Bones (Harry Bosch)
When the bones of a 12-year-old boy are found scattered in the Hollywood Hills, Harry Bosch is drawn into a case that brings up the darkest memories from his own haunted past. The bones have been buried for years, but the cold case doesn't deter Bosch. Unearthing hidden stories, he finds the child's identity and reconstructs his fractured life, determined that he not be forgotten.At the same time, a new love affair with a female cop begins to blossom for Bosch-until a stunningly blown mission leaves Bosch in more trouble that ever before in his turbulent career. The investigation races to a shocking conclusion and leaves Bosch on the brink of an unimaginable decision-one that will leave readers hungrily awaiting Michael Connelly's next masterpiece.
Since his first appearance in 1992's Edgar-winning The Black Echo, Detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch has joined Dennis Lehane's Patrick and Angie, George Pelecanos's Derek Strange, and Greg Rucka's Atticus Kodiak in the pantheon of new-school hard-boiled detectives. Rather than giving Bosch a clever gimmick (like Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme, who is a quadriplegic), Michael Connelly embraces the noir archetype: Bosch, an L.A. homicide detective, is a chain-smoking loner who refuses to play by his superiors' rules. Although he has quit smoking, Harry's still the same tightlipped outsider, taking each crime as a personal affront as he tries to cleanse his beloved city of the darkness he sees engulfing it.
In City of Bones, Connelly's eighth Bosch title, Bosch and his well-dressed partner, Jerry Edgar, are working to identify a child's skeleton, buried for 20 years in the forest off Hollywood's Wonderland Drive, and to bring the killer to belated justice. For Bosch this is more than just another homicide, as the mystery child, beaten and abandoned, comes to represent much of what he sees as evil in his city. Add in a tragic love affair with a fellow cop, complications from overzealous media, and the growing feeling that he's fighting a losing battle about which no one cares, and the usually stoic Bosch is pushed to his limits. This isn't the strongest plot Connelly has concocted for Bosch, but it leads to an ending the whole series has been building toward. The conclusion may not shock longtime fans, but it will leave them wondering where the series will go from here. --Benjamin Reese
Connelly, Michael Books
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