I still remember the day in the early '90s when I stumbled upon Michael Connelly one afternoon as he prepared to do a reading in a Houston bookstore. I had no idea who Michael Connelly even was, but I felt bad for him because only two people, other than him and three or four store employees, were in the building. And I wasn't there because I knew Mr. Connelly would be there. So, even though I was in a hurry to get a jump on rush hour traffic, I decided to sit down and listen to what the man had to say. It would make a better story, I suppose, if I could tell you that I knew a winner as soon as I saw one, and that I immediately bought a couple of Harry Bosch novels to take home with me that day. But the truth of the matter is that I went home without an author-signed Harry Bosch novel, and didn't even read my first one for another few years.
Flash forward to Resurrection Walk, the latest "Lincoln Lawyer" book to pair up Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch, and it's a whole different story. My notes indicate that I finally figured out just how good the Harry Bosch books are in 1997, when I read a couple of them back-to-back, and I've been reading them steadily ever since. Harry Bosch has even become my all-time favorite fictional detective by accomplishing something that I thought would be impossible: knocking James Lee Burke's fictional Dave Robicheaux from that number-one spot.
By my count, Resurrection Walk is the thirty-eighth Michael Connelly novel, and most of the books have either featured only Harry Bosch or have featured him in conjunction with younger series anchors such as Mickey Haller and Renée Ballard. Surprisingly - and I probably should not be surprised at all - this thirty-eighth novel proves that Connelly's storytelling talent shines as brightly today as it ever has.
Let's face it. Harry is a little too far over the hill now still to be doing some of the stuff he once did as a street detective for the LAPD. But because Harry is Harry, he might be the last one to figure that out, so he's keeping himself in the game these days by helping Mickey Haller (his half-brother) "pull the needle from the haystack." In this instance, the "haystack" is prison, and the "needle" is someone locked up because they have been wrongfully convicted of murder. Harry vets their story, and then Mickey tries to free them.
"...nothing could ever beat the resurrection walk - when the manacles come off and the last metal doors slide open like the gates of heaven, and a man or a woman declared innocent walks into the waiting arms of family, resurrected in life and in the law."
Cindi Sanz could be one of those needles Bosch and Haller are looking for. She has been in Chino Prison for over five years, convicted of the killing of her sheriff deputy ex-husband in a fit of rage when he was two hours late returning their son one Sunday evening. After a face-to-face meeting with Sanz, both Bosch and Haller are enough convinced of the woman's innocence for Haller to take her case. But there are people out there who don't want the Sanz case re-opened, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen. The bad guys are not always where you expect to find them, and it will take everything Bosch and Haller have if Cindi Sanz is ever going to take her "resurrection walk."
Resurrection Walk is first-rate courtroom drama, but longtime fans of the Bosch and Haller books are going to enjoy this one as much for how it moves the Bosch and Haller characters along as they will for all of Connelly's consistently superb storytelling skills. And just as the last Harry Bosch novel ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, readers here will be left wondering exactly what Mickey Haller is hinting as he begins his own personal resurrection walk at the very end of Resurrection Walk. I highly recommend this one, especially for longtime Harry Bosh and/or Mickey Haller fans.
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| Michael Connelly jacket photo |
Tom has watched Bosch on Prime. Should he read the books in order?
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely increase his attachment to the character, Nan, because Bosch pretty much ages one year between books and goes through all the emotional changes involved with losing a wife and trying to stay close to his daughter, etc. That's the best thing about this series, I think.
DeleteThanks, Sam.
DeleteSo, Tom just took out the first book! You would have loved being there. There were two librarians who both love MC's work. One of them told Tom he was lucky because he has so many ahead of him. And my library in my small town (2000 maybe) has every single book!! Oh, and one of the librarians said that her brother in law teaches in Maine and had Connelly's granddaughter in his class last year, I think, and he came to the classroom on Grandparents' Day.
DeleteYour library sounds amazing, Nan. I always enjoy talking with librarians who enjoy their work and are still enthusiastic about books and reading that they enjoy talking about it with library patrons. I love that Connelly showed up for Grandparents Day that way - and that the teacher knew who he was.
DeleteI hope Tom enjoys the books as much as I have. As I remember them, it took me a while to get into the character, and I thought the books got much better after the first one or two. But that might not be the case for Tom because he's already seen the television shows based on the books, and he knows what kind of man Harry Bosch is already. I think the TV series Bosch and the literary Bosch are very consistently the same character, so that will get Tom off to kind of a jump start with the books.
I'm looking forward to this, although you are right that Harry can't go on keeping on indefinitely! That's why it was smart for him to introduce Renee Ballard.
ReplyDeleteI am temporarily forgetting the case but isn't there still a big cold case that Harry never solved? My sister and I discussed this once. I sometimes wonder if Connelly has written it and is saving it to be published after his death like Agatha Christie and Poirot.
Are you maybe thinking about the cold case involving his mother's death? It would be fun if Connelly were purposely to leave something behind for publication after his death. That's an interesting thought.
DeleteI didn't think at first that I would much like the Renee Ballard character but she's really grown on me and I enjoy the way Ballard and Bosch have found a way to work together despite Bosch's outsider status.
I am so far behind in the Bosch series and I still haven't read any of the Mickey Haller books. But the positive thing is I have a good number of the books on my shelves and I have the first Mickey Haller book. So, maybe this year I will make some progress.
ReplyDeleteConsider yourself lucky, Tracy. It can be a very good thing to come to a series late in the game or to fall way behind because you have a treasure chest of great novels to read at your own pace someday. I had that happen a couple of times, and really enjoyed being able to binge-read the books.
DeleteI can't wait to read this one! I love both Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller. (And I bet you wish you'd gotten Connelly's autograph that day in the bookstore, huh?) :D
ReplyDeleteI do wish I had taken home a couple of the books, Lark. I regretted not doing it after I finally started in on the series and realized just how good the books are. I think you'll really like this one.
DeleteIt's cool that you met the man himself ... Connelly back in the day. Wow and to think now he's 38 novels in ... and still good.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't feel as if it's been all that long ago, really. That's kind of scary in itself. lol
DeleteThe very first event Connelly ever did was here in Scottsdale at The Poisoned Pen. Wish I'd been there! I was in another bookstore when I came across The Concrete Blonde. I took it home and read it and then went back to the bookstore to get the first two in the series. I was hooked.
ReplyDeleteSame for me, Cathy. The Concrete Blond was the first of his books that I read, too. Then the race was on.
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