Print:2001 (Thorndike Press; pp. 608; ISBN 9780786228201); Audio: 9/1/2009 (Hachette Audio; 13 hours, 4 min.); Film: Not that I’m aware of.
Series: Harry Bosch 7; Terry McCaleb 2
Main characters:
Terrell (Terry) McCaleb=Retired FBI Profiler
Jaye Winston=Sheriff’s Deputy
Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch=LAPD Homicide Detective
Jack McEvoy=Journalist
SUMMARY:
Sheriff’s Deputy Jaye Winston is coming up empty with her investigation of a Murder and seeks out retired FBI Profiler, Terry McCaleb, in hopes he will break from his new-found family bliss with his wife Graciela (formerly, Rivers), her nephew Raymond, and their new baby, Cielo Azur, long enough to set Jaye on a fresh and promising path toward finding the depraved killer. Resistant yet compelled, much to the disdain and disappointment of his new wife, Terry follows overlooked clues and finds them leading in a direction he’d rather not go.
AUTHOR:
Michael Connelly (7/21/56). According to Wikipedia, Connelly is the bestselling author of 31 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 60 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 foreign languages.
NARRATOR:
This novel is narrated by Richard Davidson (unabridged version). I suppose it is just that I’ve become accustomed to Dick Hill’s narration, and maybe somewhat due to Harry’s role in this particular plot, but this narrator, for me, portrays Bosch to gruffly. I get a completely different picture in my head of Bosch—one who is older and gruffer than I’m accustomed to. Richard must do a few accents here that I can’t comment on because I am not familiar enough with their origins, but I will say that his pronunciation of Spanish names or words leaves something to be desired, which seems unfortunate, being that there must be a large Latino fan base for Michael Connelly (Los Angeles residents enjoy novels about their home town). For example, Graciela is being pronounced, Grassiela. Cabrillo is made to rhyme with Armadillo (I suppose in Spanish those words might indeed rhyme, but I mean the double l is not made to sound like y in his pronunciation). In chapter 22 there is a long sequence of Bosch dialog that compelled me to look for a different narrator. I found a version read by Michael Beck (abridged) which I preferred, but I sometimes struggled to hear the end of sentences—like Michael runs out of breath before he gets to the end of a sentence. In the end, as I hadn’t noticed this was an abridged edition, I had to return to Richard as I hate missing half of the story with abridged editions.

GENRE: Murder Mystery
ACTION: No
LGBT FRIENDLY: Neutral
VIOLENCE: Yes
POLITICS: Neutral
LOCATIONS: Los Angeles
SUBJECTS: Murder, Religious Art, Vietnam War, Private investigation, Police, Profiling

FUN REFERENCES:
A “Welcome Back Thelma” banner is noticed by Corazon and Bosch, referencing back to the Parole agent, Thelma, who got shot in Connelly’s Cassie Black novel, “Void Moon”.
DEMOGRAPHICS The main characters are middle-aged adults. Characters are primarily Caucasian.
EVALUATION:
It was interesting learning about the art of Hieronymus Bosch with the reference to the Getty Museum thrown in, a favorite haunt of mine. Despite some annoyance about the narration, I enjoyed this novel. It’s still worthwhile to get the audio version, as I just don’t have time to sit down and read to the exclusion of all else. I save what little time I have for that for older, usually non-fiction books that are unavailable in audio. So I thank Richard and Michael both!
SAMPLE QUOTATION:
“' . . . Terry, all I need from you is one day at the most. One night, even. Tonight. You sit down, read the book, look at the tape and then call me in the morning, tell me what you see. Maybe it's nothing or at least nothing that's new. But maybe you'll see something we've missed or you'll get an idea we haven't come up with yet. That's all I'm asking. I don't think it's a lot.'
McCaleb looked away from the incoming boat and turned so his back leaned against the rail.
'It doesn't seem like a lot to you because you're in the life. I'm not. I'm out of it, Jaye. Even going back into it for a day is going to change things. I moved out here to start over and to forget all the stuff I was good at. To get good at being something else. At being a father and a husband, for starters.'”
RATING: As usual with Connelly’s novels, I gave this book 4 stars because I felt it was well written and kept my interest.
( )

Sto leggendo in ordine cronologico i romanzi che vedono protagonista il detective Harry Bosch, cercando di dimenticare i pessimi episodi dell'omonima serie televisiva che in realtà hanno fatto un frullato delle varie trame.
Qui siamo in mezzo ad una complessa indagine e a un processo in corso, in entrambe le situazioni Bosch ne è al centro, insieme al poliziotto in pensione Terry Mc Caleb.
Alta tensione in ogni capitolo e finale abbastanza plausibile. ( )

One of the better Bosch books--leaves you guessing. ( )

In this crossover book of Harry Bosch (Book 7) and the Terry McClain series (Book 2), A Darkness More Than Night is Michael Conley at his best.

With a crime that rocks Hollywood — a hot shot director is accused of murdering a starlet during a sexual encounter — this is a storyline that the Prime series has used as a blueprint for a series…with many changes.

With both old and new nemeses, Bosch is constantly fghting against the criminal element as well as the upper echelon of the police department. Someone always has it in for him. But this time he's in the sights for the crime of murder as a suspect himself.

The perfect thing about Bosch is he cares about the crime and the victim. Career politics doesn’t enter in his mindset, that puts him at odds with the “Brass” as well as the perps. He only cares about solving crimes and the victims. That makes him an epic hero on an epic journey.

Recommend?
I recommend this book to everyone who loves the series on television and with a love of police procedurals. There is enough backstory in the novel so that you do not have to read the books before, but it's helpful.

This review appeared on my website.

Disclaimer
I received via the OverDrive/Libby app from the Harris County Library system. It was read as a Kindle eBook. ( )

I had mixed feelings on this one. The plot was good, but I just didn't like either Bosch or McCaleb by the end of it. Just a little too dark. ( )