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Title: Exciting but flawed -
Review: Connelly is among the best of the contemporary, gritty hard-boiled school. Maybe even the best. For me, this was a very taut, well-paced thriller. The procedural element was excellent. I would give the book a 5 except for two things. First was the Brasher sub-plot, which I thought was going to be great, but ending up feeling psychologically invalid. What happens might have been made believable, but perhaps Connelly was afraid it wouldn't be surprising enough. Instead, I was angry. Secondly - the end failed. It might have pure emotional dynamite. Perhaps if the Brasher situation had been more believable, I'd have believed Bosch's final choice. But again, I just felt set up, that it was done for effect rather than emotionally inevitable for the character. Nonetheless, mystery writers of this caliber are difficult to come by, so the book still ranks high for what it does do well.
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