AudioMysteries.Net

Title: The Overlook
Author:  Michael Connelly
Reader: Len Cariou
Audiobook 2008
Unabridged
Length: 7 hours

Ears: 4

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This short novel is based on a magazine story that the author decided to turn into a full-length novel.

Taking place after Echo Park and before The Brass Verdict, Harry Bosch is still feeling the repercussions of the less-than-optimal ending of the Echo Park case.

Now he is assigned what seems to be a random case of violence when a body is found on the side of Mulholland Drive far above Hollywood. The case quickly becomes something much more sinister with national security implications.  At the crime scene Bosch runs into FBI Agent Rachel Walling, now assigned to a terroist task force after her involvment in the Echo Park case.

Bosch and Walling quickly try to take control of the situation.  Niether trusts the other to cooperate based on previous bad-blood between the LAPD and FBI.  What ensues is an intricate plot that leads to the wife of the victim, the LAPD Chief of Police while Harry's new partner learns to adapt to the Bosch style of investigation.  The key to the case seems to be as Bosch has put it - "this case never leaves a single map page."

In my review of The Brass Verdict, I lamented that the reader didn't have Bosch's weary and angry tone down.  Len Cariou reads this selection, and as in the past, he gets if right!  This is Connelly and Bosch at their best. While the story is shorter than recent Connelly titles - it packs everything you expect.

4 Ears out of 5

Reviewed on 6/12/09 by Robert W. Karp