“A Darkness More than Night” by Michael Connelly – The Tables have Turned

A Darkness More than Night by Michael Connelly (Book cover)
As many of you know, Harry Bosch is without a doubt Michael Connelly’s most-prized creation, being a detective who cracked some of the world’s most intricate and complex plots, which makes it that much more interesting when in A Darkness More than Night, Harry finds himself under investigation by formerly-retired FBI agent, Terry McCaleb (who he operated with in Blood Work).

Why exactly is Harry Bosch being investigated? According to McCaleb, who is far from being a slouch at his job, Harry is the one who best fits the psychological profile of the murderer, who by the way, already slaughtered a number of victims in a very ritualistic manner.

Those of you who know a thing or two about actual police work will probably have to work a bit harder than the rest to suspend their disbelief (psychological profiles only help to catch a criminal in very rare and extreme cases, and as such aren’t taken very seriously most of the time), but I assure you that in the end, it is all worth it.

The first impression the book left on me was how Harry Bosch was forced to see what things look like from the other side of the fence… for once, he became like one of the many suspects he chased throughout the years.

As a matter of fact, it felt as if Connelly put so much attention into that part of the story that he kind of forgot to weave a long, complex and majestic web of intrigue. In other words, this is one of those cases of the chase being much more thrilling than the catch.

Nevertheless, the story and its actors remain quite interesting, especially since Connelly creates multiple plotlines and masterfully converges them together in the end.

A Darkness More than Night by Michael Connelly (Book cover)
Though you may be able to predict some of the twists to come if you are an avid murder mystery reader, you will still be able to appreciate the closure such a denouement provides.

All in all, though this may not be one of Connelly’s finest works, it remains a noteworthy experiment, one any fan of the author or murder mysteries ought to give a shot on a rainy Sunday afternoon.


Michael Connelly (Author)

Michael Connelly


Personal site

Michael Connelly is perhaps one of the most popular modern writers, starting has career when he discovered Raymond Chandler’s writings at his university.

To support himself, he worked at the local newspaper while specializing in crime, which shows in virtually all of his works touching on criminal subjects, such as The Black Box and The Lincoln Lawyer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

“The Locked Door” by Freida McFadden – Roots of a Lost Innocence

Image
  Freida McFadden has been quietly writing some exciting and original thrillers in her spare time from being a practicing physician, and The Locked Door is one of her latest offering in the genre.  It tells the story of Nora, a surgeon and daughter of a serial killer now in jail, who sees her life assaulted from the dark as someone begins to recreate her father's work with the exact same signature.
Read more

“The Lost Colony” by A.G. Riddle – A New Home Among the Stars

Image
A.G. Riddle's Long Winter Trilogy Series is one many of us will remember for the amazing story it brings of humanity's last stand against an overwhelming enemy in times of hopelessness. In The Lost Colony , the third book in the series, we follow James and Emma on their own respective struggles as humanity tries to settle itself on a new planet with an unseen danger none could have foreseen.
Read more

“Winter World” by A.G. Riddle – Ice Age from the Void

Image
A.G. Riddle is a true literary explorer seeking to push humanity to its limits and beyond, setting them on a desperate collision course with something beyond its understanding in Winter World . With a sudden ice age dawning on humanity entire swathes of land become uninhabitable and people begin dropping like flies, with anarchy reigning supreme. Looking to the stars for a miraculous solution, the remnants of humanity find a massive mysterious object floating near Mars ...whatever it is, our civilization's hopes of survival rest entirely in its hands.
Read more

“The Girl on the Stairs” by Barry Ernest – The Small Thorn you Can’t Ignore

Image
Girl on the Stairs , by Barry Ernest and with a foreword written by David Lifton, is an exploration of one specific aspect of the JFK assassination. More precisely, it looks into what a little girl by the name of Victoria Adams saw on that day while standing in the staircase of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald was supposedly making his escape.  Actually, it is more about what she didn’t see than what she did see. Victoria was on the staircase Oswald supposedly used, at the exact same time he supposedly used it. If he were to be there, even the little girl she was, Victoria would have noticed a nervous man quickly running down the stairs. However, she says that on that day, she was alone there, with nobody to be found, especially Oswald.
Read more

“Three Comrades” by Erich Maria Remarque – The Other Side of the Barricade

Image
The two World Wars have been documented, discussed and depicted from virtually every perspective imaginable, ranging from small children caught in a crossfire all the way the leaders of each country. However, it seems that here is a startlingly small amount of attention dedicated to the small hiatus period between the two wars, a time during which many changes came to pass in Germany in a very short amount of time.
Read more