A Darkness More Than Night (Harry Bosch)

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The storyline follows Terry McCaleb, with Harry Bosch popping in and out of the action. An ex-FBI profiler, Terry used to be as angry as Harry; but then he received a new heart and now his family life with Graciela and their daughter CiCi has softened his raw edges. This has served to make him more cautious, given him pause and a chance to reflect on life's mysteries. As the case unfolds in court, L. A. County Sheriff's detective Jaye Winston seeks out Terry McCaleb, looking for help on a case that has dead-ended. McCaleb, who was forced to retire after having a heart transplant, is now living quietly, running a charter fishing boat, and carving out a life with his new wife, their daughter, and his adopted son. But he hasn't lost the drive and the curiosity that once made him a leading FBI profiler.

Lead Police Detective: Harry hasn't been on the witness stand for a while, so this is our first chance in several years to hear him explain in so many words what his job is and where it fits in the ranks. As of this novel, he is a Detective 3rd grade, which he explains is equivalent to Detective Sergeant, but that's a rank the LAPD does not use; one step up would be Detective Lieutenant. Also, he specifies that he is the lead detective of a three-detective team at Hollywood division's homicide squad, with some supervisory responsibilities over other officers. Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) . A darkness more than night - BoschThis, friends, is not a profile. I'm no expert, but I've seen many seasons of Criminal Minds, and therefore I am an expert, and a profile should be formed around the traits that a killer may likely possess to have committed the crime at hand, and should be used to help narrow down a suspect pool. It should NOT be a bunch of disparate thoughts and observations and out-of-context comments centered on and used against a single person who all-too-conveniently fits the theory that you're trying to square-peg-round-hole together.

Tropes present in this work:

What Have I Done: Bosch gets a strong dose of this after McCaleb confronts him and leaves. He gets over it. In the meantime, Harry Bosch is the main witness at the murder trial of David Storey, a Hollywood director accused of murdering a young woman. In court Harry describes the evidence against Storey AND says that - when no one else was around - Storey admitted he killed the girl and boasted he'd get away with it. It was interesting to read about how in the past the bureau and to an extent the police department were divided into two groups when officers chose to join a church to impress their deputy chief, a lay preacher, in the hopes of increasing their odds of promotion, or just receive better assignments. "It was like the saints and the sinners - two distinct groups. The born again and the born against." You get two character focuses in one in this story. It really serves you well to have read Blood Work first to get a good sense of Terry McCaleb. I believe it made a difference in my enjoyment. While this is the 7th book in the Harry Bosch series, it's the 8th in that universe and the second in the Terry McCaleb series.

Although this book is labeled a “Bosch” book, that is not completely true. It has dual protagonists. This time out Harry shares the stage with Terry McCaleb, ex-FBI profiler, and the lead character in Connelly’s previous book, “Blood Work”. Terry and Graciela Rivers, whose sister provided him with his heart replacement, have married. They have a baby daughter, Cielo, and Terry runs a fishing charter off Catalina island. McCaleb, for the first time in all his experiences as an investigator, has a murder suspect come to him to help clear his name. Had McCaleb truly missed something, or was this "the last manipulation of a desperate man?"

Connolly has to be the best writer of courtroom scenes (I’d be happy for any other recommendations)? Whenever Bosch or Haller are in the courtroom I could literally read from start to finish. The tension and excitement are really ramped up and that is exactly what happens here. All the courtroom scenes make up for the slow start in this one. To avoid a spoiler I’m going to be vague here. I didn’t see the logic of why McCaleb thought Gunn’s murderer was X. The murder scene was made to look like a painting that many people owned copies of or had seen. So why did he suspect one of these people as a murderer? My immediate reaction was this could be a set up or a frame, but McCaleb didn’t consider that. The reason I like this series is because McCaleb and Bosch are smarter than I am, but that wasn’t happening here. McCaleb’s conclusion as to X being a suspect should have been better justified.

I especially enjoyed the interactions between Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb. It would have been easy for Connelly to make them a super-team, working together like Batman and Superman to rid Los Angeles of evil psycho serial killers. They could have been the best of partners. However, Connelly truly understands what drives and motivates these two characters, including the inner-strengths that drive them to deal with the darkness of chasing killers and weaknesses that keep them from being real team players. Bosch and McCaleb are independent spirits, who by nature, must work alone to do what they do best. It is what creates great conflict between them and Connelly knows just how best to bring them together, using their differing personal philosophies to drive conflict between their methodologies and approaches. Beginning with the last 90's novel ( Angels Flight) in which we are introduced to Bosch's latest romantic interest, Eleanor Wish, with whom Bosch is to have a daughter this mellowing process takes root. Connelly is absolutely right to introduce this notable character shift in Bosch from this book forward because as I can attest to in my own personal life: when you see your child born, a fundamental shift takes place in a man. For me, I was reborn from a devilish bachelor into a man who now bore the responsibility of an innocent life. It completely turned around my life for the better. And so it is with Harry Bosch. It is the presence of his daughter that transforms him from Heironymous to Harry. Bosch admits to having trouble quitting smoking, which he was initially fairly successful at in Angels Flight until his Cigarette of Anxiety. While I haven't read the first book in Connelly's Terry McCaleb series, I've seen the Clint Eastwood movie; I'm not sure if this prior knowledge of McCaleb's character and his past did in any way heighten my enjoyment of A Darkness More Than Night, but I'm kind of glad I did know what I did (a tip, there, maybe?).Harry is assisting the prosecution in a high-profile Hollywood murder trial. A movie director, David Storey, is charged with murdering a young actress and trying to make it look like an accident. Harry was the lead detective and made the arrest. Storey boasted to Harry that he was God and couldn't be touched. Michael Connelly 's latest novel is the thriller his readers have been waiting for. Sleek and sharp and fast-paced, it also brings together, Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb, two of his most vividly depicted heroes, in a life-or-death conflict. Michael Connelly has created a range of memorable cops and robbers, any one who could sustain a series ... This book is ingenious, original and - with every beat of its procedural heart - authentic ( LITERARY REVIEW) I really thought that Terry's supposed insight into Bosch was weak as anything. Also I didn't like the whole thing really being about Bosch going into the judge and jury. The POV of Terry of Bosch had Bosch just being really close to going around the bend. And also these guys (Bosch and McCaleb) has to be freaking clairvoyant to be able to figure out how the criminal trial case was tied up into the murder of Gunn. There was way too many plot holes with the whole book. Having emerged onto the fictional world after a career as a journalist, culminating with his job as crime reporter for the LA times, and admitting to becoming interested in writing fiction as a result of reading Raymond Chandler early on in his journalistic career, Michael Connelly has since involved himself in several collaborations: notable the television series Level 9, and as co-writer with Val McDermid's Wire In the Blood series (and that spawned the wildly popular grim, noir BBC television series of the same name). If you're into Noir than this TV series is a must see.

Connelly is on sure footing in A Darkness More Than Night, much more so than he was in his last novel, the stand-alone Void Moon . His stance is surer, perhaps because his storyline follows the classic conventions and because he observes the rituals with greater diligence. Connelly allows Bosch and McCaleb to regard each other critically in ways that sharpen the reader’s perception of them…” As Terry’s investigation into Bosch builds into an elaborate situation using historical art and ritualistic murder, uncovered clues seem to mysteriously overlap in strange ways with Bosch’s own movie director court case. As another surprising revelation unfolds, the two cases begin to pull McCaleb and Bosch into each other’s crosshairs in a dangerous game of cat and mouse and life and death. Saying Too Much: How Bosch accidentally reveals that he knew who killed Gunn and let the Storey conspiracy happen. An intricate plot, rich characterization and deft dialogue play out our medieval moralities in modern dress…”

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch crosses paths with FBI profiler Terry McCaleb while investigating the murder of a Hollywood actress. The ending of the novel is a surprise, but works with Connelly trying to balance the light and the dark as the theme of the book and the last part of the book is absolutely great. The most interesting personal turn comes at the end when Bosch discovers that he has a four year old daughter which his ex-wife never told him about. Read the book if you want to know what happened with the case. It’s worth a read! Although both are Connelly's creations, Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb are kept distinct and different by the author. We clearly see the effect that other people make in each man's perspective on life. In a parallel and of course interconnected investigation, McCaleb is led to believe that Bosch may be guilty (again, no surprise that the MC tec is not really the culprit--as the main character culprit never is, yawn). A Darkness More Than Night has a final resolution that is as sharp and clean as a guillotine's cut, which has not always been the case in Connelly's previous works. The Poet, for instance, suffered from an extra tagged-on ending that diminished the novel's impact. But the final moments of A Darkness More Than Night are both bittersweet and solidly constructed.