The Overlook

Starred review from April 2, 2007
Bestseller Connelly's dazzling 13th Harry Bosch novel (after 2006's Echo Park
) reunites Bosch with his former flame, FBI agent Rachel Walling. Bosch must break in a new partner, rookie Iggy Ferras, when they're called to look into the execution of physicist Stanley Kent on a Mulholland Drive overlook. When a special FBI unit, headed by Walling, arrives and tries to usurp his case, claiming it's a matter of national security, Bosch refuses to back down. Walling's focus on the potential theft of radioactive material from the hospital where Kent was lending his expertise to cancer treatment and her unwillingness to share information only make Bosch more determined to solve the case. This is a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly's previous novels, but he spares no punches when it comes to complexity and suspense. The scramble to investigate threats to national security, justified or otherwise, is a timely subject and one on which Connelly puts a brilliant new spin.

Starred review from June 25, 2007
Reviewers were somewhat abrupt about perennial bestseller Connelly’s 13th Harry Bosch novel: “a quick read, almost half the length of Connelly’s previous novels,” said one; “a tasty hors d’oeuvre” quipped another. How smart and fortunate for listeners that Hachette Audio has turned to veteran Connelly reader Len Cariou for some added weight. Cariou catches all the strength and sadness behind Bosch’s minimal dialogue and is also perfect as Harry’s LAPD colleagues, female and male. He is especially good at bringing to frightening life the real villains: the federal investigators, headed by a former Bosch lover, FBI agent Rachel Walling. The Feds are trying to take over the case of a body found on an overlook near Mulholland Drive—a doctor who turns out to have had access to radioactive materials stored at hospitals throughout L.A. All praise to Hachette for getting Cariou to help us through it. The production boasts original music by Frank Morgan. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 2).