Dark Sacred Night

Finishing this book made me remember why I tend to wait until a series is finished before I start reading it. I'm too impatient!  The next book won't be out until later this year and I am counting down the days until I can get my hands on it.

I spent all of last year devouring all of the books in the Harry Bosch universe by Michael Connelly. For those of you who don't know, Harry Bosch is a hard-boiled LA homicide detective whose character-defining mantra is "everybody counts or nobody counts." He's great at being a detective, but bad at politics so he's just about always in trouble with the LAPD, or whomever he is working for in each book (it varies as time goes by).

Last week I finally got my hands on Dark Sacred Night, the 31st Bosch-universe book and quite possible my favorite to date. Book 29, The Late Show, introduced a new character, Renee Ballard, who I will admit I wan't too sure about at first. Connelly does this every so often  - he writes a non-Bosch book still set in the same universe, with overlapping characters. Ballard wasn't my favorite in her standalone book, but her presence in Dark Sacred Night was welcome and understandable. And as the case unfolded, she grew on me.

Bosch is getting old. There's just no way around that. By my calculations, he's getting close to 70 years old and that means he is soon going to have to fully retire or... well, I'd rather not think about it. So it makes sense that Connelly is bringing in this new partner for Bosch to mentor and who can take over when he's gone. Ballard is the first partner I think we've ever seen Bosch work with that feels like an equal. She's a loner with baggage, just like Harry, and she's a hell of a detective, too.

I won't get into the plot details of Dark Sacred Night. Suffice it to say that it's your typical twisty Bosch case with lots of intricate details to obsess over and lots of drama to keep you reading long past your bedtime.

If you haven't already read any of the Bosch books, do yourself a favor and check them out. And once you're fully sucked in, take a look at the Amazon show Bosch that's based on the character and books. It's one of the better book-to-screen adaptations I've seen. Details get changed, of course, but it really captures the feel of the books and the character of Bosch.