Connelly’s ‘Overlook’ improves in book version

“The Overlook”

by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, 225 pages, $21.99)

Los Angeles homicide detective Harry Bosch was sitting alone in the dark, listening to a jazz recording, when he got the call. A body with two in the head – execution style – had just been found at an overlook off Mulholland Drive.

At first glance, it looked like a mob hit, but it took only minutes for that theory to unravel. The victim: Dr. Stanley Kent. No priors. No apparent enemies. No connections to organized crime. His profession: medical physicist, responsible for supplying area hospitals with radioactive isotopes used in treating cancer and other diseases.

The body was face down in the gravel a few yards from his car. In the trunk was a lead-lined box used to carry radioactive material. It was empty. Harry was puzzling out the implications when an old friend, FBI agent Rachel Walling, arrived at the scene to take the case away from him. The box had held enough material to make a dirty bomb, making the case too important for the FBI to entrust it to the local yokels.

But, as readers of Michael Connelly’s other Bosch best-sellers know, he’s not the kind to roll over for the FBI.

That’s the premise of “The Overlook,” the 13th book in Connelly’s Bosch series and his 18th novel overall.

The book originally appeared as a 16-part serial in The New York Times Magazine, but for the hardcover version, Connelly has improved the story, adding complications and enriching the detail.

It’s a good one compared to the average police procedural, but it doesn’t measure up to the standard Connelly has set with exceptional Bosch novels including “The Last Coyote” (1995) and “City of Bones” (2002). For one thing, the surprise ending is something you probably will see coming from 50 pages away.

Still, Connelly’s unadorned prose is as crisp and vivid as ever:

“The animal’s eyes caught the headlights and glowed brightly. It then turned and sauntered slowly across the street, disappearing into the brush. It was in no hurry to get out of the way, almost daring Bosch to do something. It reminded him of his days on patrol when he saw the same challenge in the eyes of most of the young men he encountered on the street.”

The true appeal of the book, however, is following Bosch as he continues to grow older and wiser while retaining his fierce passion for justice.