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Gunn was a small-time criminal who had been questioned repeatedly by LAPD Detective Harry Bosch in the unsolved murder of a prostitute, most recently on the night he was killed. McCaleb knows the tense, cranky Bosch (Michael Connelly's series star--see The Black Echo, The Black Ice, et al.) and decides to start by talking to him. But Bosch has time only for a brief chat. He's a prosecution witness in the high-profile trial of David Storey, a film director accused of killing a young actress during rough sex. By chance, however, McCaleb discovers an abstruse but concrete link between the scene of Gunn's murder and Harry Bosch's name:
"This last guy's work is supposedly replete with owls all over the place. I can't pronounce his first name. It's spelled H-I-E-R-O-N-Y-M-U-S. He was Netherlandish, part of the northern renaissance. I guess owls were big up there."Bosch fits McCaleb's profile of the killer, and McCaleb is both thunderstruck and afraid--thunderstruck that a cop he respects might have committed a horrendous murder and afraid that Bosch may just be good enough to get away with it. And when Bosch finds out (via a mysterious leak to tabloid reporter Jack McEvoy, late of Connelly's The Poet) that he's being investigated for murder, he's furious, knowing that Storey's defense attorney may use the information to help get his extravagantly guilty client off scot-free.McCaleb looked at the paper in front of him. The name she had just spelled seemed familiar to him.
"You forgot his last name. What's his last name?"
"Oh, sorry. It's Bosch. Like the spark plugs."
It's the kind of plot that used to make great Westerns: two old gunslingers circling each other warily, each of them wondering if the other's gone bad. But there's more than one black hat in them thar hills, and Connelly masterfully joins the plot lines in a climax and denouement that will leave readers gasping but satisfied. --Barrie Trinkle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Harry Bosch, the worn, pragmatic Los Angeles police detective, protagonist of a number of Connelly's earlier books, is joined by Terry McCaleb, former FBI crime-scene profiler, introduced in Blood Work (Little, Brown, 1998). Harry is immersed in testifying at the murder trial of a Hollywood film director, Jack Storey. When McCaleb, retired and living a quiet life with a new wife and two young children, is asked by a former colleague to look at the investigation materials of a recent gruesome homicide, he realizes just how much he misses his vocation. Terry alone has noticed some clues from the crime-scene video that point toward the influence of Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch. Despite pleas from his wife, Terry is drawn into the investigation and finds, to his dismay, that pointers lead straight to acquaintance Harry Bosch, whose real name is Hieronymus. Certain details in Harry's life fit in well with the profile Terry is developing of a ritualistic killer. The clues stemming from Bosch's paintings may lead readers straight to the Internet to view some of Bosch's well-known works to see the clues for themselves. The plot is intricate, and the twists and turns keep coming, but it is so well done, and the characters are so vivid, that confusion isn't a problem. Despite its length, this involving book is a fast read with "can't put it down" appeal.
Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Harry Bosch, as a man, grows ever darker and deeper!,
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This review is from: A Darkness More Than Night (Mass Market Paperback)
When the LAPD run into a brick wall solving a bizarre murder, sheriff's detective, Jay Winston, asks her friend Terry McCaleb, a retired FBI agent recently recovered from a heart transplant, to help them out by polishing up his psychological profiling skills and putting them back to work on their stalled case. Edward Gunn, a small-time LA hood involved with the murder of a prostitute was himself found tied, gagged and strangled. McCaleb is convinced that the key to finding Gunn's murderer rests with two bizarre clues - the statue of an owl found in the room with Gunn and the inscription on the tape binding his mouth, "Cave Cave Dus Videt" or "Beware, Beware, God Sees" translated from a version of Latin spoken around the time of the Renaissance.McCaleb started his search for details on Gunn's murder with an interview of detective Harry Bosch. Bosch, who had been assigned the case of the prostitute's murder and was certain that Gunn had been the killer, was apparently one of the last people to see Gunn alive. But Bosch can only find time to give McCaleb the most cursory of interviews. His time and his mind are fully occupied as the star witness in the very high profile prosecution of David Storey. Storey, a fabulously wealthy Hollywood producer, is on trial for the sex slaying of a young actress. He's alleged to have strangled her during a bout of rough sex and then staged the scene to make her death look like a case of accidental auto-erotic asphyxia. It's that bizarre owl that's the centerpiece of McCaleb's investigative efforts. Author Connelly leads McCaleb (and this fascinated reader) on a magnificent journey through "A Garden of Earthly Delights", as it were - a fabulously informative sidebar on the paintings of sixteenth century Dutch Renaissance painter, Hieronymus Bosch. It isn't long before McCaleb and Winston have Harry Bosch in their sights as their sole suspect in Gunn's murder. They've got it figured as Bosch meting out frontier justice because he couldn't corral Gunn within the framework of the legitimate legal system. "A Darkness More Than Night" is unquestionably the darkest and most complex story yet in the ever growing Harry Bosch canon. Connelly skillfully weaves the story of Gunn's murder into the tale of David Storey's trial for murder and brings both stories to a superb conclusion. But for all the complexity and brilliance of the plot that Connelly has devised, it is really the growing, ever deepening and ever darkening character of Harry Bosch that takes centre stage in this particular play. From his earliest appearance in "The Black Echo" as a shell-shocked Vietnam War tunnel rat returning to an ungrateful country to his suspension for pushing his supervisor through the glass window of his office, Connelly continues to make Bosch an ever-deepening mystery. Maverick, loner, cowboy, sinner, saint, psycho ... all of the above? How are we to know? A superb addition to the Harry Bosch series. Highly recommended. Paul Weiss
5.0 out of 5 stars
RIGHT UP THERE WITH THE LAST COYOTE,
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This review is from: A Darkness More Than Night (Mass Market Paperback)
A Darkness More than Night draws you in on the first page and doesn't let you go until the last. You are drawn deep into the soul of Harry Bosch to view the good, the bad, and the ugly in this haunting book. Terry McCaleb is the perfect complement to Bosch's extremely complex character. He is drawn from retirement to help solve a baffling murder and the trail seems to lead in Bosch's direction. Not since The Last Coyote has there been such an intense Harry Bosch novel.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Writer better than most....,
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This review is from: A Darkness More Than Night (Mass Market Paperback)
It is always a difficult thing to do - to bring 2 of your major characters together in a novel. Connelly pulls it off with a flourish. What makes Connelly tick? He does not write poetic paragraphs but his writing is crisp and clear. His characterisation is brilliant. There are no always do-good, super-American heroes in his books His plotting is almost always brilliant with just about enough twists and turns. I go crazy with plots that twist and turn like a hairpin bend road - it just seems so contrived. This plot would have been perfect except for the last bit with Harry and Terry There is always a problem with great writers running out of steam - Connelly seems to have not lost it so far (Looks like Narrows passed the test) The Owl, Paintings and title add to the psyche of the setting There is something about novels set in LA that has a great feel (like a Western) - from Chandler, McDonald and Connelly continues that tradition with aplomb Michael Connelly is without doubt the best crime fiction writer alive today. What more you have in store for us?
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