Title: The Drop
Author: MichaelConnelly
Review: I got started with Connelly after reading the Lincoln Lawyer when the movie came out; great book by the way. So this past year I have been reading his backlist consisting of intertwining characters over 25 books. The main character through the majority of the works, including The Drop, has been Harry Bosch, grizzled detective in the LAPD.
The Drop refers to the LAPD notification that Harry only has so many years before he will be forced out in retirement, which is distressing to us the reader, because what will we do for our LA crime fix then? What you need the history for is to understand that Harry has upset a few people over the years mainly because he goes after the truth regardless where the chips may fall. There isn’t any compromise, at least on his part. Consequently there is a lot of politics going on behind the scenes on whether he should be forced out sooner.
Everything comes to a head when his nemesis’ son turns up dead, and he requests Harry specifically to investigate. He asks for Harry for the one reason he hates him; either everyone counts or nobody counts. That is, Harry will investigate this death until the truth is known, regardless of what that truth is, regardless who the victim is, or whose son he is, regardless of his personal preferences.
It is that motto which is put to the test, everybody counts or nobody counts. This book makes me reflect on my own values. Hopefully I am never in the life or death situations of Harry Bosch, but I do know I am confronted by challenges to my character everyday of my life. It is a battle we must all face to become a congruent, honest person; to become someone who matters to the others in our life. This book is as good as any case study about human character I ever read in college, and a lot more entertaining too.
Do yourself a favor and start reading one of modern day’s greatest detectives. If the book totals intimidate you then pick up the Lincoln Lawyer (now a four book series in the same universe) to get the taste. You will be mainlining the Bosch soon after.
Thanks to T Stevens for this review.
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co.
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 388
ISBN: 978-0-316-06941-0
Quick Review: 4.5 Stars out of 5.
Why I Read it: After reading The Lincoln Lawyer (because of the movie) I decided to read Connelly’s entire backlist and with The Drop I am officially caught up.
Where I Obtained the Book: My local library
Synopsis: Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two.
DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab's DNA cases currently in court.
Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving's son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch's longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation.
Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly has followed that up with 18 more novels.
Connelly's books have been translated in 35 languages and have 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), and Premio Bancarella Award (Italy).
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael was one of the creators, writers, and consulting producers of Level 9, a TV show about a task force fighting cyber crime, that ran on UPN in the Fall of 2000.
Michael lives with his family in Florida.
Other Reviews:
Other Reviews:
FYI:
No comments:
Post a Comment