Customer Reviews

The Narrows

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Most Michael Connelly fans will remember FBI profiler and heart transplant survivor Terry McCabe, from the book Blood Work (and some may have seen the movie of the same name starring Clint Eastwood), as well as L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch (The Closers, Trunk Music, etc.) currently retired from the department and working as a P.I.. Then of course there is Robert Backus, villain extraordinaire with a penchant for the poetry of Edgar Alan Poe, who horrified us with his dirty deeds in The Poet.

In The Narrows, Connelly brings together all the characters from these previous novels and adds another, FBI agent Rachel Walling, to the mix as she and Bosch attempt to determine whether the death of Terry McCabe is "by natural causes" as reported on his death certificate or, as his wife suspects, was in fact a deviously planned and executed murder.

Connelly is famous for his character driven plots and of course the world weary Harry Bosch is the driving force in this investigation. Connelly does however deviate from his previous works by delivering the story from the perspective of three characters rather than just one. Throughout, he completely involves the reader by leading us into the labyrinth, throwing us a curve here and there, and slowly feeding us clues that culminate with a solution to the mystery.

Although, in my humble opinion, not the best book Connelly has ever written, it is a solid mystery/thriller that is head and shoulders above a lot of the material currently rolling off the presses at some publishing houses.

Looking for proof that Michael Connelly is the best mystery novelist today? The Narrows is evidence enough. On a very simple level, this is a mystery novel about a serial killer, "The Poet," and at least 14 murders attributed to him in this current wave of mayhem. It's also about a complex ex-LAPD homicide detective, Harry Bosch, and a frustrated FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit reject agent, Rachel Walling. The characters are complex, conflicted, believable, and stretched beyond what is expected but not beyond the potential of each soul. Even the two major locations, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, are drawn with such intensity and multi-faceted power that they almost become characters in themselves. The plot is intricate, surprising, and challenging -- but ultimately so finely composed and exquisitely executed that even the final shock in the last few pages, while completely unsuspected, still resonates with complete authenticity and credibility. And underneath everthing beats the heart of Michael Connelly's mission: to describe the deadly dance between good and evil, a dance that comes within a hair's breadth of consuming both, but ends with hope. The book opens with the powerful intensity of the threat of evil: "I knew that my life's mission would always take me to the places where evil waits, to the places where the truth that I might find would be an ugly and horrible thing. And still I went without pause. And still I went, not being ready for the moment when evil would come from its waiting place. When it would grab at me like an animal and take me down into the black water." And it ends with the dawn of hope: "I looked out at the city and thought it was beautiful. The rain had cleaned the sky out and I could see all the way to the San Gabriels and the snow-covered peaks beyond. The air seemed to be as clean and pure as the air breathed by the Gabrielenos and the padres so many years before. I saw what they had seen in the place. It was the kind of day you felt you could build a future on." And in between is the best fiction anywhere.

Michael Connelly's 14th book - his 10th to feature Harry Bosch - is the book he once swore he'd never write : the sequel to "The Poet". For it, he's assembled an all-star cast. Bosch, a former member of the LAPD and now a card carrying PI - is joined by FBI Agent Rachel Walling. Walling was one of the central characters of "The Poet" and - at the time - was based at BSS in Quantico. However, shortly after the events of that book, she was "demoted" to North Dakota. Terry and Graciela McCaleb and Buddy Lockridge - who all made their first appearances in "Blood Work" - also have parts to play. Of the three, Terry's is the smallest, but certainly the most significant. Cassie Black, the central character of "Void Moon", also makes an appearance - if you know where to look. And then, obviously, there's the Poet.

Bosch now divides his time between LA and Vegas, where he rents a small one room efficiency to be near his daughter. Things aren't going well between Harry and his ex-wife, Eleanor Wish - who makes her living at the city's poker tables. Harry's first appearance in the book sees him talking to Terry McCaleb's widow. Graciela. Terry was a former FBI Agent, and had previously worked a couple of cases with Harry. His first appearance was in the 'solo' novel "Blood Work". This was only Connelly's second book not to feature Bosch, and was later made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood. Terry has recently died of a heart attack while on a fishing trip, after having received a heart transplant a number of years earlier. Graciela, however, believes the heart attack was caused because someone interfered with his medication - essentially meaning he was murdered. Graciela wants Bosch to look into it, an assignment he is happy to accept. He starts by looking through some case files Terry kept on his boat - one of then deals with the Poet.

Meanwhile, Rachel Walling receives a phone call from a former colleague at the FBI in Quantico. A package has arrived there, through the post, addressed to her - despite the fact that it's been a number of years since she worked there. It contains a Global Positioning System (GPS) reader, with one way-point marked : the Mojave desert, just inside California. A fingerprint on its battery confirms that the Poet sent the package, and a number of bodies have subsequently been found at the location marked by the way-point. Walling, due to her links to the case, is summoned to the field-office in Vegas to assist the investigation.

With two main characters, Connelly tells the story in two distinct ways. The sections featuring Bosch are written from his point of view ("Without a word, he reached down and grabbed two fists full of my jacket"). However, the sections that focus on other characters are written about them ("Rachel was at the second row of tables, sitting by herself"). While I did enjoy the book - much more so than "Lost Light" - I felt the pace only really picked up when Bosch and Walling started working together. I was also surprised and disappointed that Connelly killed Terry McCaleb off. The Poet seems less of a threat in this book, though this is possibly because his identity has already been established. My advice ? If you're a fan of Michael Connelly, and you've read most of his books, you'll certainly enjoy this one. However, this is far from the best place to start if you've never read anything by him. I'd definitely recommend reading at least "The Poet" before this one - and as many of the other Bosch books as possible !

everything was so familiar..the characters..the settings..the cases and crimes and of course Hieronymous Bosch, former detective in the LAPD. This author-driven novel of mystery and suspense is the best of the best. I would not have believed that Connelly could bring together so many of his characters and cases and blend them as smoothly as chocolate pudding. He certainly makes the reading tasty and leaves the reader hungry for more.

Meeting Backus again, the villain from his best-seller THE POET, was thrilling and chilling as Bosch and Rachel Walling, exiled FBI agent, track down this cunning thought-dead serial killer. Backus has re-surfaced, his newest victim a close friend of Bosch who worked with him on many cases.

Connelly has Bosch circling from the left and Rachel Walling circling from the right...both on a collision course that meets at a burial site in the Nevada desert and ends in the Narrows of the Los Angeles River.

A comfortable lounger, a rainy day and Michael Connelly's THE NARROWS will lead you down a path of unbridled suspense and mystery, however you might want to read it in bright sunlight surrounded by friends and family if you are feint of heart.

Now that Bosch is back, we hope that Michael will sate our hunger for him in another novel...very soon. I must add that Connelly's adherence to police and FBI protocol is amazing in that it is ever-present and precise yet so well incorporated as to not overwhelm the reader. Thank you for another great one Michael. I hesitate to say this is your best because you keep making them better and better...this is the best so far and I eagerly await the next.

Some years ago, I read a pair of novels by Michael Connelly, back when pretty much no one knew who he was. The Black Ice and Black Echo were pretty good detective novels, but they were also pretty formulaic. The character was the typical slob loner, obsessed with catching bad guys and unable to form a meaningful relationship with a woman unless she was in the department and the relationship itself was work-related. I've followed Connelly's career from there, and worked my way through his books as they've come out (with the exception of Lost Light, which I have but haven't read yet). He's grown tremendously as a writer, adding layers to his characters, his prose style, and his plots. Several of those plots (notably Blood Work, the Poet, Angel's Flight, and the Concrete Blonde) are standouts in detective fiction, so cleverly written that the mystery's just wonderful, and adds layers to the story.

Here, the plot is more straightforward. Terry McCaleb, the protagonist of Blood Work, has been killed. Though he and Harry Bosch (Connelly's main character in most of his books) didn't really get along well in life, McCaleb's widow, Graciela, is concerned that his killing wasn't the heart attack it seems, and asks Harry to look into it. Meanwhile, Rachel Walling, the heroine of The Poet, is called out of exile from South Dakota. The FBI HQ in Quantico has recieved a strange package, addressed to her, which leads them to a stretch of desert on the road between LA and Las Vegas, where they discover ten bodies buried in the ground, and strange indications that it might be the same Poet. Their stories merge partway through the book.

This is one of the most satisfying books I've read in recent years. I will admit that Connelly's choice to jump between first person narration (with Bosch doing the talking) and third person (mostly following Rachel) was a bit jarring at first, but I got used to it. There are most of the Connelly touches: an enigmatic character who just fades in and out in one scene, but will be recognizable to Connelly fans as Cassie Black, the thief heroine of Void Moon, and of course Connelly's almost encyclopedic knowledge of Southern California. He even gets things like the place to hold a large retirement party right.

I like Michael Connelly, and I especially liked this book. I would highly recommend it, though people who haven't read other of his books might want to look into a few others, first.

I haven't read a lot of Michael Connelly's stuff, so I wasn't sure what to expect from his latest Harry Bosch novel, The Narrows. After reading the book, I think I may be going back to catch up on his earlier work. This was a good novel.

Bosch is asked to investigate the death of his ex-partner by the widow. The partner had a heart transplant, and he ended up dying of heart failure while running a fishing charter in open waters. The widow finds that his medication had been switched, and that's why his heart gave out. Bosch's investigation dovetails into an FBI investigation into a serial killer known as the Poet. The Poet was an FBI guru who was actually killing the people on the case he was leading. Agent Rachael Walling, his protégée, thought that she killed him in an earlier showdown. But he apparently survived, is killing again, and has called her specifically into the final stages of the investigation. Walling and Bosch, both "outcasts" from the FBI's viewpoint, end up teaming to find the Poet, figure out his next move, and confront him.

This is a nice mystery with a touch of darkness to it. There are a number of subthreads going on that would have probably made more sense had I read earlier novels in the series. While that might have made the novel a bit better for me, it didn't get in the way of enjoying the book on its own merits. As I mentioned above, I will probably end up putting Connelly on my "catch-up" list.

THE NARROWS continues the story of THE POET, a very exciting book which Connelly wrote several years ago.

This story brings back Harry Bosch formerly of the LAPD and FBI Agent Rachel Walling. The two work together to find out if recent murders were committed by the man known as The Poet. It also brings back some of the characters from BLOOD WORK another Connelly novel. BLOOD WORK was made into a film with Clint Eastwood in the part of FBI Agent Terry McCaleb.

THE NARROWS is a fast paced story and worth reading, especially if you've read the previous books.

As absorbing and satisfying as ever, Connelly's 10th Harry Bosch thriller finds the former LA homicide cop investigating the death of another Connelly series character, Terry McCaleb. Terry ("Blood Work"), a former FBI agent and heart-transplant patient, died of a heart attack while on his boat, an apparently natural death.

But his wife calls Harry when she discovers that powdered shark cartilage was substituted for Terry's essential heart medication. Terry had never stopped working murder cases and Harry, looking for his killer, soon homes in on one file in particular - six missing men - which has the hallmarks of a serial killing.

Meanwhile FBI agent Rachel Walling ("The Poet"), assigned to the boonies since the debacle of that serial killer case, gets a long-dreaded call. Robert Backus, the Poet killer and former FBI bigwig - he was her and Terry McCaleb's old mentor at the FBI - has resurfaced, in the form of a GPS unit sent to Rachel at her old office. Following the GPS coordinates, the FBI is turning up bodies in the desert.

Harry and the FBI collide when Harry, piecing together the clues in Terry's file, happens on the FBI's desert dig. Naturally the FBI has no intention of sharing, but Harry connects with Rachel, and warily, egos and agendas clashing, they pool resources. The action picks up as they track Backus to a desert brothel enclave, a grisly murder scene, and his next victim.

Harry's narration drives most of the story, but point of view shifts to Rachel and Backus, keeping us informed from all angles. Subplots include Harry's growing relationship with his 5-year-old daughter, a tentative romance with Rachel, and a possible return to the LAPD.

The investigation is smart and forensically intriguing, and the characters are prickly and complex, while Backus is truly scary, in an underplayed fashion. Connelly, a master, remains at the top of his game.

I have not been disappointed with any of the Harry Bosch mysteries written by Michael Connelly, but The Narrows was not without some problems. Overall, I'd give it three and a half stars out of five. Part of the problem is that Connelly takes a non-Bosch mystery, The Poet, and continues the story as part of his Bosch series in The Narrows.

Terry McCaleb was a retired FBI agent running a fishing charter boat when he dropped dead of heart failure. Having had a heart transplant, this did not raise suspicions. But when his wife (a nurse) had his medications analyzed after his death, she found that they were tampered with. McCaleb's wife hires Harry Bosch to investigate his death. Bosch, formerly a LAPD homicide detective, is now retired and working as a PI. McCaleb worked in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Department, creating personality profiles of suspects. Many unsolved cases haunted the agent, and he continued to investigate them after he retired.

When Bosch combs through McCaleb's computer and written files, he discovers evidence that a serial killer that was presumed dead is actually alive and back at work. Unfortunately, the killer is a former Behavioral Sciences agent, Robert Backus. Bosch ends up teaming with FBI agent Rachel Walling (of The Poet). Backus mentored Walling and he seems to be targeting her. The serial killer always seems to be one step ahead of the investigators, and Bosch is always one step ahead of the FBI. Bosch is pretty sharp when it comes to figuring out the criminal mind, but he also has help from his "silent partner," the notes of Terry McCaleb.

Unfortunately, I did not read The Poet first. Since The Poet is not listed as a Bosch mystery, I didn't realize The Narrows is actually a sequel. Also, Connelly seems to have gotten a little goofy with Bosch's personal life (I don't want to give away any details). He's certainly much different than in earlier novels.

Still, Connelly is an accomplished writer. Some of his visual imagery is superb. In describing the natural disasters (floods, fires, landslides) that plague Los Angeles, he writes "Living in LA sometimes felt like you were riding shotgun with the devil to the apocalypse." He also understands the psyche of the FBI. Bosch describes it as being an arrogant institution that "cares too much about its reputation and it carries too much weight in politics." Yet he also recognizes it as "the most thorough, well-equipped and relentless law enforcement agency in the world."

I am a big Connelly fan, but will take more care to read his books in order.

THE NARROWS revisits Connelly's earlier books, THE POET and BLOOD WORK incorporating the characters of both into this story, but the main focus of the story is The Poet who ten years earlier committed a gruesome series of killings. Thought to be dead, we now find out that Robert Backus AKA The Poet is alive. Rachel Walling is the one credited with not only shooting The Poet, but also with major screw-ups in the case was her banished to the North Dakota office. She sees her chance to get back into the FBI's good graces when she called back into the new manhunt for Backus.

Former LAPD detective, Harry Bosch, is asked by the widow of Terry McCaleb (protagonist in BLOODWORK) to look into her husband's death. Backus emerges as the prime suspect in Bosch's case. Bosch and Walling reluctantly decide the work together when their cases intersect.

Connelly successfully intertwines the plots of the two earlier works into a suspenseful and gripping new thriller. I would recommend reading THE POET first since many of the characters are from that book. Characters from BLOODWORK are less integrated into this story so it is not really essential to know that story before the current one. We are also shown another side to Bosch's personality while he copes with being a father to a child he barely knows. Michael Connelly's characters continue to evolve with each installment of the series.