The Overlook

Ugh… I didn’t expect this. A bad Bosch novel!

Well, bad is, of course, relatively speaking: “The Overlook”, instalment 13 of the ongoing Bosch series by Michael Connelly, isn’t outright bad. It’s just surprisingly and significantly mediocre.

For the first time in his new job in Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) at Homicide Special as a senior investigator looking into cases that might require long-term engagement, Harry is called out to the eponymous overlook where a murder took place.

Soon it becomes clear the case might not solely be a murder, but also a case of terrorism, and so the FBI is called in. Rachel Walling is first among them. If you remember the previous novel’s outcome with respect to Harry and Rachel, you might wonder at the tension between them. There’s a bit of it, but not much.

“Not much” is, in fact, something that can be said about many aspects of this novel as well as the novel in its entirety. Harry is still Harry, but even he slowly meanders along for most of the story, and, suddenly, it all comes to a rushed ending.

Harry’s new partner Ignacio “Iggy” Ferras feels like stuffing – he’s hardly around, and if and when he is, it’s as a semi-serious sidekick with much of the character and personality of a toothpick.

The investigative part also suffers from this strong imbalance: Whereas Harry follows a sound and logical train of thought, the FBI and other three-letter agencies are on a wild goose chase for domestic and international terrorists. They never really come together, nor do they clash as spectacularly as in other Bosch novels.

Similarly to earlier Bosch novels, but on the positive side, is the writing which is just as clear, dark, and gritty as always. “Overlook” certainly is an easy read, if at times a bit slow, and at its end there’s a lot of action and some suspense. It’s just like a fast food version of Bosch: Easy to devour, but not very nourishing.

»Bosch checked his watch. It was almost one. He had ridden the case from beginning to end in little more than twelve hours.«

“Overlook” reads just like that. I was also rather surprised to see an already short novel end, at less than 200 pages, at 80% of the ebook.

Three stars out of five.

Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

I need a lot of mind numbing suspense to get through these shutdowns, and Michael Connelly is a master.