The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
by Michael Connelly
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael ConnellyEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-01
ISBN: 0446401307
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Vision
Book Reviews of The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
Book Review: Harry Bosch Suffered for Your Sins
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm amazed and puzzled by the number of critical and tepid reviews this latest Harry Bosch novel has received here. Perhaps it isn't as good as the previous books in the series, but since I didn't know we were expected to keep score, I enjoyed it when I read it as it was serialized in the New Yawk Time Magazine and again when it appeared as a novelette. I suspect that the nay-sayers were merely not in the proper mood, because none of their critiques are very cogent.
Certainly there are many faults and weaknesses that one could cite in Michael Connelly's writing. He is occasionally prone to lapse into purple prose - "A Darkness More Than Night"? [i]Woah! Duuude! You talkin' dark, huh?[/i] And the first sentence of this novel is the modern equivalent of "'Twas a dark and stormy night!"
Furthermore, that whole maniac-serial-killer-plot vogue really peaked in the '80s, when every movie and every paperback was about a serial killer - as well as Serial Killer toothpaste and Serial Killer breakfast cereal. (It was a killer cereal!) So much so, that it must've seemed to those living in the civilized nations that every city in the USA had at least ten head of serial killers running around loose wreaking mayhem on Americans, and they were glad to be living in the relative safety of Bosnia. By the time Michael Connelly began writing about his serial killers, the whole device had become shopworn and hackneyed.
Harry Bosch is, of course, Michael Connelly's most popular character, but in retrospect, the entire series is just [b]Michael Connelly writing the same novel over and over again![/b] They're all basically the same book because
1.) Harry Bosch has always just returned to duty after having been (wounded/suspended/prematurely retired/ held in abeyance while Michael Connelly's agents negotiated the movie rights).
2.) Before he can get rolling on the case, however, he is always confronted by his nemesis, (Captain/Deputy Chief/ former Chief) Irving Irving, who menaces Bosch with the threat, "You are going down this time, Detective! We are the Higher-Ups, and we, the evil Higher-Ups, are intent only on making things impossible for detectives!" The concept of the dastardly and meddlesome superiors in the chain of command - as well as the maverick cop - has likewise been done to death and became threadbare with the Dirty Harry movies.
3.) Unlike your grandmother, Bosch is still too stupid to use a simple search engine.
4.) In each novel, Bosch unexpectedly meets his old flame, beautiful (former/active) FBI agent (Eleanor Wish/Rachel Walling), and they promptly end up in (her/his) bed. Alas, the romance never works out, and by the end of the novel they once again go their separate ways, leaving Bosch, the loner, alone again, naturally. (Sigh!)
5.) Confounded in his efforts to apprehend the suspect, Bosch consults a psychic profiler, who - as with real-life profilers - spouts so much psycho-babble and dime-store analysis (that the female was stabbed 143 times with genital mutilation is cited as evidence of "hostility toward women" - diagnosis: it's because the killer couldn't get a date to the prom), but this episode seldom offers any service in finding the real killer.
6.) On page (323 to 405) of each novel, the case takes an unexpected (90'/180') turn when it is revealed that the (pervert/slime-ball) Bosch has been chasing is in fact NOT the killer. Instead, it's always an inside job, and the culprit turns out to be a character who has been appearing on the periphery of the story all along. It always turns out that the (reporter/wife/dirty cop/dirty FBI agent) done it!
7.) The threat from the sinister Higher-Ups is realized, and Bosch is taken off the case. Disobedient as always, Bosch puts his career in jeopardy and strikes out on his own, and in doing so gets even (Edgar's/Rider's) disapproval.
8.) In his perilous chase after the (reporter/wife/dirty cop/dirty FBI agent) murderer, Bosch must crawl through a tunnel or hole (something Freudian going on there) while the insider-villain is shooting at him, and this brings back traumatic memories of his similar experience while serving in Vietnam.
9.) Bosch wins the gun battle, but now there's one more unexpected twist to be revealed - another peripheral character, the (reporter/wife/dirty cop/dirty FBI agent) is in on it too, and Bosch has to take (him/her) down as well, although this is done without gunplay.
10.) All the Higher-Ups are ungrateful that Bosch has stopped the serial killer, and they yet wish to persecute him, but by some lucky detail, he is allowed to keep his job.
I suppose others could add to this list of similarities in all the novels, but follow that recipe, and you could write your own Harry Bosch thriller! It'd help, though, if you had the marvelous talent of Michael Connelly. None of the above should be taken as a dismissal or disparagement of these books, because not only have I read this novel/novella twice, I have reread every one of Michael Connelly's novels (the record being four times for "Angels Flight") - always at one sitting, not because the books are "impossible to put down," but why would anyone want to put one down? What writer offers more reading pleasure than Michael Connelly? Perhaps finer novels have been written, but there is no other writer who has shown such consistent merit. More than anyone else, he's the Great American Novelist.
Ignore the clichés and formula! Michael Connelly has a superb ear for dialogue - equal to that of Elmore Leonard. Whatever their creative plots, other writers (e.g., Patricia Cornwell) produce stilted dialogue that you could never imagine having been spoken. There are also clever turns such as in this novel where Harry Bosch says, "That's exactly what I wanted to hear." (The set-up having been placed two pages earlier.)
And in Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly has sculpted the perfect American hero - the one man who fights for everyman, who fights for the forgotten man. Need I tell you that the whodunit facet of these books is of no significance? What's important here is the existential dilemma - one man versus an unjust and uncaring universe. What paladin can rescue us from the evil and woe of our poor circumstances? It is certainly not our masters and chiefs who have for centuries kept the spoils for themselves and worsened our helpless situation, and nowhere is this more evident than in the epitome of the pits, Los Angeles - where millions of primates are confined to struggle in a battle royale. We're all looking for someone to set things right - this idealist who can get things done, no matter what his risk.
Americans (who get less vacation time than anyone) all hate their bosses. They hate the culture of conformity and hierarchy they have built but are powerless or too timid to rebel against. Therefore, they must resist vicariously through Harry Bosch, who can withstand the pressure and who has the courage to defy the bosses. He's a liberal and a libertarian, a rogue and a knight. Harry Bosch is not America's Sherlock Holmes, he's America's saint, America's redeemer - born not of virgin, but of whore. (Michael Connelly has divulged that the character is an amalgam of three separate, but equal, detectives he has known.) Internal affairs has crucified Harry Bosch over and over, but he always rises up from the dead to resume the battle against the forces of darkness.
(Sorry for the exaggerated rave, but I just finished reading "Echo Park" for the third time, and I'm frenetic with enthusiasm.)
Summary of The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
In his first case since he left the LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit for the prestigious Homicide Special squad, Harry Bosch is called out to investigate a murder that may have chilling consequences for national security. A doctor with access to a dangerous radioactive substance is found murdered in the trunk of his car. Retracing his steps, Harry learns that a large quantity of radioactive cesium was stolen shortly before the doctor's death. With the cesium in unknown hands, Harry fears the murder could be part of a terrorist plot to poison a major American city.Soon, Bosch is in a race against time, not only against the culprits, but also against the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI (in the form of Harry's one-time lover Rachel Walling), who are convinced that this case is too important for the likes of the LAPD. It is Bosch's job to prove all of them wrong.
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