Book Review: The Overlook

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Overlook     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Michael Connelly
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   FBI
Series: Harry Bosch # 13
Little Brown, May 2007, $21.91, 225 pp.

Retirement didn’t work out for LAPD Harry Bosch so he went back to work for the cold case unit. Now he is working for homicide special and he is called out at midnight to the overlook above the Mulholland Dr. Somebody has been murdered execution style with two bullets to the head. When Harry and his new partner Iggy (who he is breaking in to the job) arrive on the scene he finds out that the victim is Dr. Stanley Kent. When he calls the information in, the FBI quickly arrives on the scene. Dr. Kent had access to Cesium, the fusion of uranium and plutonium.

The FBI warned the victim last year to be careful and to take protection to make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. When they arrive at Dr. Kent’s home, they find his wife tied up. She tells them two men dressed in black and wearing ski masks did this and took a picture of her. Both Harry and the police learn that they sent the picture to Dr. Kent saying that if he doesn’t give them a quantity of cesium they will kill his wife. The radioactive material has been stolen from one of the hospitals that the doctor uses and the race is on to find it. The FBI tries to shoot Harry out of the case but he isn’t listening because there is more to the case than meets the eye.

Harry Bosch is one of the most irascible, stubborn and bullish police detectives to ever grace the pages of a police procedural. He is also determined to see justice done which gets him in trouble with other agencies and his superiors yet he is resolute to do things his way which is usually the right way. THE OVERLOOK has plenty of action and chase scenes so that readers never stop reading the book until the final astonishing climax.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner