Conspicuous Consumption

  There are, as of this writing, nine books in this series after  The Burning Room , which is the seventeenth volume. The most recent entry was published in 2026. The protagonist, Harry Bosch, is one year away from mandatory retirement and not looking forward to it; Connelly, on the other hand, appears to feel no need to slow down. I'm beginning to wonder whether I will live long enough to make it through the whole series, or if I'll leave the planet with Connelly still cranking out these excellent police procedurals. These sorts of novels are often structured as a series of obstacles erected by the bad guys, but also by the bureaucracy, that the detective has to surmount. One of the odd things about the investigation chronicled in The Burning Room is that a lot of the difficulties seem not so difficult. For once, things go Harry's way. That didn't detract from the pleasure.  Harry's impending retirement won't be the first time he's left the force. The last...

This is something like the fifteenth book in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. One could argue that there was a slight sag in the middle volumes, but the later entries are the strongest yet. I guess it's not surprising that a dedicated writer gets better with years of experience.  After gallivanting to Hong Kong in a recent entry, Harry is back in California, traveling from his Los Angeles hometown to the agricultural center of the state. He's still in the cold cases unit, and he has a new supervisor to lock horns with. Harry's working post-retirement on a contract, and his new boss, who would like to move Harry on into post-post retirement, does his best to make that happen. Harry, of course is not having it, but his adversary remains standing at the end, so no doubt their quarrel will continue. The novel begins with a flashback to the LA riots. Harry and his then partner, Edgar, are called out in the midst of the chaos to a murder victim that turns out to be a Eu...

Readers of the old blog, Only a Blockhead, will know that I've been making my way through the never ending, and I think still growing, series of crime novels by Michael Connelly featuring Detective Harry Bosch. I'm glad that there is no end in sight, because though one would think an author would be getting stale by the fourteenth entry in a series, Nine Dragons seems to me one of the best so far. One is aware of Connelly's efforts to keep things fresh—the hard-bitten LA cop visits Hong Kong in this volume, and a major recurring character dies—but one doesn't object because his efforts are successful, not desperate.  The detective, Harry Bosch, is aging in real time. There are several novels in the series after this one, and apparently Bosch is in his seventies in the later volumes. It'll be nice to see, when I get that far, what a geriatric and presumably retired LA cop gets up to