Refinished Tu 12/12/17
This is a discarded from the library hardback book that I got at the Lincoln library book sale on Sa 6/11/05 and first read and finished on Sa 7/30/05. My initial impression was, "...good book, THE POET was better". I think that I liked it better the second time, and although THE POET is probably the better novel, I truly enjoyed this second look at Jack McEvoy (he has a relatively small part in the book), and the new character, ex-FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb. I ordered THE SCARECROW a few weeks ago, and Jack McEvoy is featured in this novel.
TWO STORYLINES;
1) A man is murdered. Trussed up and strangled; the body position is based on a character in a painting by Hieronymous Bosch. This man had gotten off for the murder of a prostitute. Harry Bosch always believed that this man stabbed the woman, but he pleaded that it was only self defense, and he was able to turn the knife on her. Harry had it in for this man.
2) A prominent Hollywood director is on trial for murder. He is accused of strangling a sex partner, and he has a history of autoeroticism.
The director and his security man killed the first man and arranged the body like the character from Hieronymous Bosch so that it would appear that Harry did that murder. Then, Harry's testimony would be disregarded at the director's trial.
Terry McCaleb is recovering from heart surgery and lives on Catalina Island. He makes a living chartering his boat. He is married and has a very young daughter. He loves them more than he can imagine, except he can't forget his passion- profiling criminals. McCaleb gets involved on the cases and at first he believes that Harry has 'gone rogue', but later learns of the director's plot to frame Harry.
From the description at Amazon-
"LAPD Detective Harry Bosch crosses paths with FBI profiler Terry McCaleb in the most dangerous investigation of their lives.
Harry Bosch is up to his neck in a case that has transfixed all of celebrity-mad Los Angeles: a movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. Bosch is both the arresting officer and the star witness in a trial that has brought the Hollywood media pack out in full-throated frenzy.
Meanwhile, Terry McCaleb is enjoying an idyllic retirement on Catalina Island when a visit from an old colleague brings his former world rushing back. It's a murder, the unreadable kind of murder he specialized in solving back in his FBI days. The investigation has stalled, and the sheriff's office is asking McCaleb to take a quick look at the murder book to see if he turns up something they've missed.
McCaleb's first reading of the crime scene leads him to look for a methodical killer with a taste for rituals and revenge. As his quick look accelerates into a full-sprint investigation, the two crimes - his murdered loner and Bosch's movie director - begin to overlap strangely. With one unsettling revelation after another, they merge, becoming one impossible, terrifying case, involving almost inconceivable calculation. McCaleb believes he has unmasked the most frightening killer ever to cross his sights. But his investigation tangles with Bosch's lines, and the two men find themselves at odds in the most dangerous investigation of their lives."
I loved the book and would read anything by Michael Connelly. James Patterson doesn't even have the writing talent to sharpen pencils for Connelly.
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