Reviews

Angels Flight by Michael Connelly

fosterwalrus's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

topdragon's review against another edition

4.0

When I'm in the mood for a contemporary police procedural it's hard to beat a Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly. I'm reading these in order, and trying to splice in the other Connelly characters as they come into play as well. With this 6th book in the series, Connelly continues the high quality realism of police investigations that I've come to expect. Additionally, I wanted to read another Bosch book before the upcoming season of the excellent "Bosch" TV show hits Netflix later this month.

lesserjoke's review against another edition

4.0

This 1999 novel is interestingly (and depressingly) timely two decades on, as it plays out against a backdrop of police brutality and an ensuing race riot. Author Michael Connelly may have been drawing on the recent high-profile Rodney King and OJ Simpson cases, but his lurid tale of a murdered attorney who had been suing the city on behalf of a black man tortured by cops interrogating him about a missing white girl almost feels like it could have pulled from today's headlines instead. The characters voice a lot of arguments that sound familiar as well, and it's to the writer's credit that protagonist detective Harry Bosch is both more enlightened than his average peers and willing to listen to the African American colleagues who challenge his biased perspective further. That's a step up from his attitude in the last book, and while the series may be 'copaganda' overall, at least in volumes like this it's not afraid to call out the problems in law enforcement that systemically enable and protect abusers.

The procedural element is fairly straightforward, but that conventional plot still throws a decent number of red herrings at us to disguise the ultimate solution to the lawyer's death. The main flavor of the text, though, is in the fraught atmosphere of a people fed up with racist misconduct and poised on the verge of boiling over as the department investigates and potentially exonerates its own officers. And that's why this works so well as a Bosch story, with the investigator continuing to come into focus as a man determined to find justice for every victim who crosses his path, no matter the political fallout. It won't win him career advancement from the higher-ups looking to sweep everything under the rug, but he's the ideal agent to uncover the truth of a crime at any cost.

[Content warning for child sex abuse, gun violence, homophobia, and racism including slurs.]

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grantf's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

tom_in_london's review against another edition

1.0

This is where I stopped reading Michael Connelly. After the story was finished and the plot all worked out, he decided to tack on a whole new novel with a load of extra plot twists, names to remember, and pointless new developments. Maybe his agent told him the book was too short - I don't know. But having read my way through all the previous Bosch books, in sequence, it was becoming obvious that Connelly is just a writing machine; his books are formulaic, repetitive, and the plotting is all mechanically worked out. I find them hard to follow because the characters have no real depth to them. Bosch's relationships with women are very contrived and his descriptions of lovemaking are cheesy and embarrassing to read. I'm not looking for the Great American Novel here (Richard Ford or John Fante, for example) but I do expect some level of gratification. So by the time I got to "Angels Flight" Connelly's other shortcomings as a writer were beginning to grate on me anyway, and this novel pushed him over the edge, off his balcony and down into the arroyo - where I'm going to leave him for a while. I will probably never come back.

judenoseinabook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A good solid fast moving detective story. Lots of moral questions about attitudes of LA police and the black community. Ties in with what actually happened in the Rodney King case and unfortunately what is still happening today, ie the George Floyd killing. 
However there are still good guys who try to put things right against all the odds I'm sure, just like Harry Bosch.

hdm73's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

happycactus's review against another edition

5.0

Ottimo romanzo, letto dopo aver visto la Stagione della serie "Bosch" tratta proprio da questo romanzo.
Rispetto la serie, si riscontra un intreccio più complesso e naturalmente meno serie secondarie, e forse un po' più di cinismo.

booksapothecary's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

jpuckey36's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0