TOP 5 BOOKS REVIEWED IN 2018

With a new year upon us and a new crop of books waiting to be enjoyed, it behooves us as readers and critics to pause for a moment to consider the pleasures bestowed upon us by the big dog publishers in 2018.

As a book critic for the New York Journal of Books, I reviewed a grand total of 40 titles last year; a nice round number. Some were bestselling duds (Chicago, City of Endless Night, Pandemic) but some were very good. And some were terrific. So ... what were the five best books I had the pleasure of reviewing in 2018?

5. Cave of Bones, by Anne Hillerman (April 3; Harper Collins)
Navaho Tribal Police officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers a lava cave with human bones while searching for a missing girl in the El Malpais badlands. Anne Hillerman's tight, clean writing style does justice to the characters and setting we know and love so much.
(Read the review.)

4. In a House of Lies, by Ian Rankin (Dec. 29; Little, Brown)
Rankin brings us another high-quality police procedural set in Scotland, as an old missing person case becomes a homicide investigation that threatens to expose possible past wrongdoing by retired detective John Rebus.
(Read the review.)

3. The Sandman, by Lars Kepler (March 6; Knopf)
When a young man is found wandering across a train bridge on a cold night, police discover that he and his sister have been missing for 13 years. By far, the best Joona Linna crime novel to date by the Swedish husband-and-wife team writing as Lars Kepler. An absolute page turner.
(Read the review.)

2. Dark Sacred Night, by Michael Connelly (Oct. 29; Little, Brown) The heavyweight champion of police procedurals delivers another knockout as Det. Renee Ballard teams up with Harry Bosch on a cold case in which a teenage girl was brutally murdered and left in a dumpster. Well written, as always, and an effective pairing.
(Read the review.)

1. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara (Feb. 26; Harper Collins) Heartfelt, gripping true crime by the late blogger and journalist who devoted so much of her adult life to the pursuit of the notorious Golden State Killer, aka East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker, who was (allegedly) finally captured this year. An incredible tribute to a remarkable woman who passed away too soon.
(Read the review.)

Honorable mentions:

• The Boy, by Tami Hoag (Dec. 31; Dutton) (read the review);
• The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey (Jan. 8; Soho Crime) (read the review).

Best wishes to all avid readers out there, and high hopes for a rich crop of books to enjoy in 2019!

The Burning Room: Michael Connelly's Latest Bosch Novel

Fans of Michael Connelly's LA detective Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch can look forward to the latest Bosch novel, The Burning Room, which will be released on November 3. For those who are keeping track, this is Connelly's nineteenth Bosch novel.

The detective is working in the Open-Unsolved Unit of the LAPD, and tackles a unique cold case in which the victim, who has a bullet lodged in his spine from a shooting nine years earlier, dies of complications from this almost-decade-old attack.

Bosch and his new rookie partner Detective Lucia Soto must solve the case despite the fact that the evidence is virtually non-existent.


Sounds like vintage Connelly (and Bosch).


For an excerpt from the novel, please click here. 

The Gods of Guilt

Fans of Michael Connelly will be pleased to know that his latest novel will be available on November 21 in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand and on December 2 in the US and Canada. The Gods of Guilt features the character Mickey Haller, known as the "Lincoln Lawyer".

Readers who are familiar with Connelly's Bosch novels will immediately recognize the themes of guilt, redemption, reconciliation with one's past, and the death of a prostitute: one of society's most vulnerable. In The Gods of Guilt, Haller's former client has been murdered: a woman he thought he had rescued from prostitution. Haller learns that she had gone back into the trade prior to her death and rather than rescuing her, he may have put her in harm's way.

To read an excerpt from the novel and see a video of the author discussing it, please visit Connelly's website at http://www.michaelconnelly.com/.

Twenty Years of Michael Connelly

If you're a Michael Connelly fan, you may have noticed the symmetry in his latest novel, The Black Box.  The novel is based on the re-investigation of a twenty-year-old cold case: it has been twenty years since Connelly first introduced Harry Bosch in The Black Echo.  As Connelly noted in an interview in the Huffington Press, Bosch appeals to us as a character because"[h]e's a good guy trying to do a good job under very difficult circumstances. And isn't that what we all do in our lives? He doesn't suffer fools lightly. He has a distrust of authority and these are things that I think most of us have."

In his distrust of authority he may remind us of Lee Child's protagonist Jack Reacher, but that's where the similarity ends.  Reacher is not known for his introspection or self-doubt, but rather for his body count.  However, both authors share a straightforward, engaging style of writing that continues the hard-boiled detective tradition of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross McDonald, whom Connelly cites as his main influences.

Connelly has written twenty-five novels in total, of which the majority feature Bosch as the protagonist.  He  has also developed other protagonists, including a reporter (Jack McEvoy), an FBI agent (Terry McCaleb), and attorney Mickey Haller, who was successfully played by Matthew McConaughey in the film version of The Lincoln Lawyer.

The Huffington article mentions that a television series may be in the works featuring Harry Bosch.  Please refer to the original article at  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-sterling/michael-connelly-pleasing_b_2340275.html for Connelly's thoughts on who could best portray Bosch.  (And thankfully it's not Tom Cruise.)

For a review of The Black Box and an interview with Connelly, check out the Globe and Mail at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/michael-connellys-latest-keeps-crime-writers-streak-alive/article5839925/.  You can also watch Connelly's interview with Travis Smiley on PBS at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/michael-connelly/.