City of Bones (Harry Bosch Series #8) Book

EXCERPT: The old lady changed her mind about dying but by then it had been too late. She dug her fingers into the paint and plaster of the nearby wall until most of her fingernails had broken off. Then she had gone for the neck, scrabbling to push the bloodied fingertips up and under the cord. She broke four toes kicking at the walls. She had tried so hard, shown such a desperate will to live, that it made Harry Bosch wonder what had happened before. Where was that determination and will and why had it deserted her until after she had put the extension cord noose around her neck and kicked over the chair? Why had it hidden from her?

These were not official questions that would be raised in his death report. But they were the things Bosch couldn't avoid thinking about as he sat in his car outside the Splendid Age Retirement Home on Sunset Boulevard east of the Hollywood Freeway. It was 4:20 p.m. on the first day of the year. Bosch had drawn holiday call out duty.

The day more than half over and that duty consisted of two suicide runs ' one a gunshot, the other the hanging. Both victims were women. In both cases there was evidence of depression and desperation. Isolation. New Year's Day was always a big day for suicides. While most people greeted the day with a sense of hope and renewal, there were those who saw it as a good day to die, some ' like the old lady ' not realizing their mistake until it was too late.

THE BLURB: Detective Harry Bosch tears open a 20-year-old murder case - with an explosive ending that leave all Bosch fans hungrily awaiting the next instalment.
When the bones of a twelve-year-old boy are found scattered in the Hollywood Hills, Harry Bosch is drawn into a case that brings up the darkest memories from his own haunted past. The bones have been buried for years, but the cold case doesn't deter Bosch. Unearthing hidden stories, he finds the child's identity and reconstructs his fractured life, determined that he not be forgotten.

At the same time, a new love affair with a female cop begins to blossom for Bosch - until a stunningly blown mission leaves him in more trouble than ever before in his turbulent career. The investigation races to a shocking conclusion and leaves Bosch on the brink of an unimaginable decision.

MY THOUGHTS: Being a parent is the hardest job in the world, and the relationships between family members the most complex. It is these relationships that form the basis of City of Bones.

Michael Connelly never disappoints. The quality of his writing is consistently high, the pace of the plot fast, but never frantic. Connelly loves, and is master of, the plot twist. I know it is coming, but still he manages to take me by surprise. No matter how hard I try to work out what it is going to be, I have never yet managed to correctly predict it in its entirety.

Bosch continues to grow as a character, both professionally and personally. In City of Bones, Connelly leaves Bosch at a crossroads in his life.

Supporting characters are also well fleshed out. They are not always people we like, but all have relevant parts to play in the plot. Connelly's plots are never simple, but neither are they so complex that they become confusing. He lays red herrings with great skill, and in City of Bones I found myself, as I so often do with his books, picking the completely wrong person as the killer. Perhaps it's just as well I'm not a detective!

I listened to City of Bones by Michael Connelly, narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez, via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com