Monday, November 26, 2007

Book 56 of 52 -- Michael Connelly's The Black Ice



Book 56 is the second of the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly.

Released in 1993, this novel features Harry Bosch as the freewheeling police detective who is at odds with his superiors and always working his own agenda.

Although this book is part of a long-running series it stands on its own quite well.

You do not need to read it any order along with the other Bosch novels Connelly has written.

As in his other novels, Connelly excels in devising a complex plot in Black Ice that unfolds gradually.

He depicts Bosch as someone who tirelessly follows leads and seeks to piece together the slightest clue, which Connelly drops into the story little by little.

At one point in this novel I thought that the author was making it too easy.

However, there is a plot twist that surprised me. The author's trick is that it was easy to read the clues as pointing to the conclusion I expected, not to where the clues actually led.

The only drawback to Black Ice is that the plot veers into almost unbelievable territory with sections involving paramilitary operations.

While the plot was interesting, it did seem a little ''over the top'' at one point and I had doubts that an LA police officer could get away with some of the antics that Bosch pulled.

Overall I enjoyed reading Black Ice a great deal, and think it was a great second novel in the series that now stretches to thirteen books.

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