No Salt Required (The Black Ice - Michael Connelly)

Member Name: Slim Lee

Product:	The Black Ice - Michael Connelly
Date:	31/05/01 (393 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice twisting plot, Strong characters

Disadvantages: A little slow initially

Ah, back into the comfort of a well-known and loved character. After the shock that was “Void Moon”, although a reasonably pleasant one at that, it is always good to settle down with a book featuring a character you really know.

“The Black Ice” if taken in strict order is Michael Connelly’s second Harry Bosch novel (after The Black Echo). I guess I’m quite typical in that I never seem to read these things in order, so I can tell you from personal experience that this will have no bearing on your enjoyment of the book or hinder the characterisations in any way.

In fact, I seem to be reading his novels backwards! I’m in the strange situation now of having only two of Connelly’s books left to read. His very first one and his latest offering, “A Darkness More Than Night”. I’m not sure which one I should read next! Anyway, that’s enough babbling about me …. Let’s get onto “The Black Ice”


• The Author


Woah … not so fast …. You mean you’ve never heard of Michael Connelly??? Well, for those of you who've been living in a cave for the last few years, I'll give a quick background on Michael Connelly.

Before turning his pen to crime novels he was a police reporter for the Los Angeles Times, which goes some way to explaining his obsession with basing all of his crime novels in and around LA. He has to date won the Edgar award, the Nero Wolfe prize and the Anthony award for his published work in the USA, along with international awards the Maltese Falcon (Japan), .38 Caliber (France) and Grand Prix (France).

Although a recognised author in the US, he is only just starting to break through into the UK market. In most good bookstores you should now find his name displayed prominently amongst those of Ian Rankin, John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell. If they haven’t got a good selection of
his novels then it’s either a poor bookshop or they’ve sold out!

The majority of his novels have previously centred on Hieronymous ‘Harry’ Bosch (as this one does), a maverick LAPD detective, with the odd novel such as "The Poet" and "Blood Work" featuring other sleuths, but they are really of a fairly similar vein and revolve around a different (always male) detective chasing serial killers. The one exception to this rule to fate is “Void Moon”, which focuses on a female thief.



• Plot (Briefly - No major spoilers I promise!)


It’s Christmas time in LA, and Bosch is spending it alone again, with only the occasional howling of a coyote to keep him company. But he likes it that way. People only complicate things. He can never hold down a relationship anyway, not with his commitment to his work.

So there he is sitting at home eating Christmas dinner alone, going through the motions when the police scanner he always leaves on as background noise cracks into life. Bosch knows instinctively what has happened, and after a few phone calls he finds himself in a hotel room staring at the corpse of a fellow colleague, Calexico Moore.

It wasn’t a great shock to Bosch. Rumours had been circulating around the LAPD since Calexico’s disappearance that he had crossed over and was involved with narcotics. In fact, they had been waiting for something like this to happen to him.

Harry starts to untangle some odd facts surrounding Calexico soon after the discovery of his body, and begins to doubt everything he has seen. It just doesn’t fit right. Why has Calexico left a file for Bosch in his car? Who is the Juan Doe dumped behind the diner? It all has something to do with a new high-tech drug labelled “Black Ice” being imported from Mexico, and Bosch is in determined mood to get to the bottom of it, even if it means disobe
ying his superiors.


• Verdict


Initially, “The Black Ice” was a little difficult to get into. It starts at a slow pace and reveals little of the twists, turns and deceptions to come. But stick with it, as once a few layers are uncovered it becomes a really engrossing read, and it one of his best I’ve read to date overall.

The more I read his books the more I grow to like the character of Harry Bosch. He maverick LAPD detective so probably not that original in itself, but the depth and believability in his character is wonderfully laid out. On reading this novel alone you will get a good feel for the character, but he certainly comes to life more over the span of the novels.

The plot is good and will keep you guessing on a number of counts until the last 20 or so pages. One major fact you will guess early on, which I thought at the time would spoil the story, but there is an extra twist, which makes the knowledge of this acceptable. Part of me believes that Connelly made it easy to guess this fact so that he could grab you with the twist in it towards the end. A masterstroke if it was intentional, as it’s one of those moments where you’re sitting there all smug in the knowledge of the plotline, thinking you’ve worked it all out only to have it slapped back in your face. With Connelly you never really guess the entire story until the very end. He has a knack of keeping a few major twists under wraps until the dying moments.

The main LAPD characters are here, with Harry’s boss Harvey “98” Pounds in his usual spineless yet amusing mode. The other characters Harry interacts with are fairly throw away ones, particularly the Mexican ones. Saying that they are fleshed out just enough for the time and importance they have in the novel so no complaints there.

Overall, “The Black Ice” is one of my favourite Harry Bosch novels so far, and it bu
ilds further on the strength of his character. A neat, well thought out and twisting plot that will keep you interested until the final few chapters, it comes with a high personal recommendation from me!


Publisher: Orion Paperbacks
ISBN: 0-75281-541-5
RRP: £5.99
(Available at amazon.co.uk for around £4.79)



• If you liked “The Black Ice” then


If you do enjoy this book, then I strongly recommend that you try some of these others novels by the same author. Hey, just go read them all okay:


- The Poet
- Blood Work (featuring Terry McCaleb instead of Harry Bosch)
- The Concrete Blonde
- Angels Flight (leave until last as it gives away a lot of character backgrounds)


I would particularly recommend his previous novels "The Poet" and "Blood Work" if you enjoy the Thomas Harris novels featuring Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. They are quite similar in the type of subject and the sense of the chase you experience. Where I think they beat Harris hands down is in the style and strength of the characterisations. Very believable and you WILL find yourself getting engrossed in these books believe me! Michael Connelly is not as widely known as Thomas Harris (due mostly to the Silence of the Lambs film) but from his work to date he stands out as a far more consistent writer. It can only be a matter of time before someone snaps up one of his works for film adaptation.

Here are a few quotes from the press on his work:

“Impressive …. Convincing ambience, a mass of procedural detail, authentic dialogue, a speeding plot and a flawed hero” - The Times

“Most impressive …. Rich in detail, strong on character, with a fascinating plot that functions on several emotional levels … Connelly has, with great skill, given us a detective who inhabits a world filled only with torment, fear and d
anger” – People Magazine


• Author’s Website


Also worth checking out is his website at www.MichaelConnelly.com, which will give you further background into this excellent author and his published work to date. Definately one worth checking out, and try your hand at the competitions too, they’re pretty hard but the prizes on offer are worth a stab at it (signed first editions normally).

Other features of the site include a small biography of the author, press information, news on the latest or forthcomings novels, information on book signings via email (when is he coming to the UK?!?!) and a messageboard (which strangely seems to be quite civilised). All in all it’s a cracking little site for fans of his work.

Summary: