LOST LIGHT

Michael Connelly

Orion £17.99 hbk Rel: Apr 2003

Reviewed by Bob Cartwright

Is there any other author who could compete with Robert Crais, when in Elvis Cole mode?

Answer. Yes, it’s Michael Connelly when in Harry Bosch mode. And yes, Connelly might well have imbibed freely whatever it is Crais is on. Or might it be the other way round, with Crais ordering in crates of whatever it is Connelly is on? When you read the pair of them in full flight, they are so brilliantly alike as to be almost interchangeable. And in The Last Detective and Lost Light it is possible to detect the strong degree of regard each author has for the other. Or rather is it the regard each character has for the other?

It’s not exactly novel for an author striding two or more character series to have the characters cross paths in particular texts. But it is pretty unusual for one author to let his primary character cross the path of the primary character of another author. Yet that is what happens in The Last Detective, when Crais allows Elvis Cole to briefly acknowledge Harry Bosch. So what happens a couple of months later? Connelly lets Harry Bosch meet Elvis Cole, albeit as they pass in the night. Nice touch that.

But, on to Lost Light, the latest of the excellent series of Harry Bosch mysteries. It follows a brief interlude in which the author gave us Chasing the Dime, which I enjoyed even though a good few Connelly fans didn’t. Still there’s no doubt that Connelly is always at his best with Harry Bosch. Harry has now turned in his badge, but his desire to solve the unsolved is no less diminished. On his retirement form LAPD he takes with him a number of case files of murders which had remained unsolved. One such case was the murder of a 24 year old studio production worker, Angella Benton. Harry led the early investigation of her death, only to see the case transferred later to another LAPD agency when it appears her murder is linked to the robbery of $2 million dollars from the studio at which the girl worked, a robbery which Harry also witnessed. The two detectives who take over the investigation of the girl’s murder and the robbery didn’t get much further with it before they were both shot during a shoot-up in a bar, leaving one of them dead and the other a paraplegic. And is there a link between their shooting and the disappearance of an FBI agent who had apparently turned up a significant clue about the missing $2 million?

Harry’s interest in the case is rekindled when he is invited by the boss of the film studio to find out who killed the Angella Benton. But it’s soon made very clear to Harry that there are certain people in the LAPD hierarchy who are none too happy to have the investigation reopened, a sentiment which also extends to the FBI. Never one to bow to authority when he believes it to be wrong, Harry persists with the enquiry, opening up a veritable can of worms with Middle Eastern links, and reopening a psychological can of worms for himself as he comes face to face again with his ex-wife Eleanor.

There are just so many excellently constructed strands in Lost Light, and a host of brilliantly drawn characters to match. And as usual, everything comes good in the end, especially for Harry (find out for yourselves what that means). But what really makes the book so vivid is the beautiful jazz background which pervades it. Shame then that Orion did not chose to follow the example of the US publishers and provide a free CD of Harry’s favourite jazz numbers with the book. It really does add to the enjoyment of reading the book when the likes of Coltrane, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown are adding to the colours of LA noir.