A Darkness More Than Night (Harry Bosch)

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Chaste Hero: Bosch tells Kiz he's not interested in meeting someone new because he's leaving the door open for Divorce Is Temporary. Moot because the "someone new" in question is Jaye Winston, who's actually just investigating Bosch. As soon as he hears who it is, he puts two and two together. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Bosch, meahwhile, is the lead detective in a high-profile murder trial involving Hollywood film director David Storey, who is accused of murdering a young actress. When he finds out about Terry McCaleb's investigation, he soon sniffs out that he is the target of a frame job meant to benefit Storey. Connelly is on sure footing in A Darkness More Than Night, much more so than he was in his last novel, the stand-alone Void Moon . His stance is surer, perhaps because his storyline follows the classic conventions and because he observes the rituals with greater diligence. A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT ... has the authentic Connelly touches - crisp dialogue, masterly pacing and his familiar preoccupation with the battle against evil - and it makes gripping reading ( DAILY TELEGRAPH)

Orgy of Evidence: McCaleb initially thinks it's a sign of a frame, but his profiler's instincts take over and he comes to think Bosch has all the markings of a Killer Cop. It's a frame.

BookBrowse Review

This 9th book in the 'Bosch Universe' pairs two popular Michael Connelly characters: Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb. The book can be read as a standalone. A Darkness More Than Night has a final resolution that is as sharp and clean as a guillotine's cut, which has not always been the case in Connelly's previous works. The Poet, for instance, suffered from an extra tagged-on ending that diminished the novel's impact. But the final moments of A Darkness More Than Night are both bittersweet and solidly constructed.

A discourse follows on what motivates homicide detectives: "For some it would seem as almost a game to prove they were better, smarter, more cunning than their quarry. Others saw themselves as being speakers for the dead. There was a sacred bond cast between victim and cop that formed at the crime scene and could not be severed." Connelly pits his latest series hero, FBI agent Terry McCaleb ( Blood Work, 1998), against his veteran series op, LAPD detective Harry Bosch ( Angels Flight, 1999, etc.), in this extraordinary excursion into good, evil, and the labyrinth of human motives. Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Downplayed, since we aren't told Gunn's name when we see him in the prologue, and it isn't made clear until some time after we learn he died that that was him in the prologue. These books are typically humorless, (and not all that quotable--not a lot of lyrical writing in it). But as if hearing from his critics, we see a guy named Rorschach (also a character in Alan Moore’s classic apocalyptic crime series, Watchmen. (That’s meant to make you smile, folks). McCaleb finds in the evidence some religious iconography, which leads him to name the case “Holy Shit,” which is a term cops use for such crimes in the LAPD. Ha ha? But hey, at least Connelly is trying!The murder trial story was mostly being done through trial testimony. This resulted in a “telling” feel rather than “showing.” So it wasn’t the best way to hear a story, but it was ok. I viewed this as a supporting story to the McCabe investigation.

Profiling is hard. I say this as an expert. WRITING a compelling story about profiling is probably just as hard, because not only do you have to get into the killer's head and understand motivations that may be incomprehensible (not that this was, at ALL. Sheesh, so transparent.), but then you have to weave that into a compelling and suspenseful narrative with believable characters and plot and pacing and dialogue and everything.God's work was never done. When a killer was out there using His name as part of the imprint of his crime there often meant there would be more crime. It was said in the bureau profiling offices that God's killers never stopped of their own volition. They had to be stopped." The killer leaves a deliberate clue to his identity: he writes in Latin (no less) the phrase "Cave Cave Dus Videt" for the homicide detectives to find on the tape he used to bind his victim's mouth. Bosch is up as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of David Storey. Storey is charged with murdering his lover and making it look like a suicide. According to Bosch, Storey confesses, but also says Bosch won't be able to prove it. So the book flip flops between Terry's investigation of Bosch, and Bosch's testimony in court. McCaleb follows the clues and discovers the crime trail he is following crosses the crime path of LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. "Years earlier McCaleb had worked with Bosch on a case, an investigation he still often thought about. Bosch had been abrasive and secretive at times, but still a good cop with excellent investigative skills, intuition and instincts. They had actually bonded in some way over the emotional turmoil the case had caused them both."

I'm going to do you all a favor and copy Turdy McGee's profile of Bosch (which should be a red flag, because he's shouldn't be profiling a PERSON in the first place), in its entirety, so you can understand how expert he is at this: Lead Police Detective: Harry hasn't been on the witness stand for a while, so this is our first chance in several years to hear him explain in so many words what his job is and where it fits in the ranks. As of this novel, he is a Detective 3rd grade, which he explains is equivalent to Detective Sergeant, but that's a rank the LAPD does not use; one step up would be Detective Lieutenant. Also, he specifies that he is the lead detective of a three-detective team at Hollywood division's homicide squad, with some supervisory responsibilities over other officers.

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In a sense this book has 2 storylines both are about Harry Bosch, and you get to know more about him, his history as quite a few books together. And Harry remains a fascinating character.