A review by davidgreene
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
3.0
Like other reviewers, I enjoyed author Michael Connelly's writing in this third installment in the Harry Bosch series, and was engaged with the story more than I was with his first two Bosch installments.
But like others, I also found the protagonist difficult to like and the themes in this book disturbing. A more favorable spin would be to say that the book is provocative--since it wrestles with the moral ambiguities involved in the pursuit of justice.
Because of the moral ambiguities, I find reading about Connelly's Harry Bosch less purely entertaining than reading about Lee Child's Jack Reacher. In Jack Reacher's universe there is little moral ambiguity. Reacher always witnesses the bad guys being decidedly bad before he mixes it up with them. Bosch sometimes mixes it up with people solely on the basis of his speculations. No matter that his speculations are justified retroactively, it pulls me out of an escapist trance to follow a hero with so many self doubts.
Bosch is a loner and outsider who is nevertheless working inside the system. Despite being a cop, Bosch frequently subverts the rules and regulations, and undermines the legal process which he is supposed to represent. His character promotes the view that the rules and mechanics of the legal process provide not so much the foundations of justice as impediments to it. That view didn't stop me from reading the book, but it made it difficult for me to enjoy it.
But like others, I also found the protagonist difficult to like and the themes in this book disturbing. A more favorable spin would be to say that the book is provocative--since it wrestles with the moral ambiguities involved in the pursuit of justice.
Because of the moral ambiguities, I find reading about Connelly's Harry Bosch less purely entertaining than reading about Lee Child's Jack Reacher. In Jack Reacher's universe there is little moral ambiguity. Reacher always witnesses the bad guys being decidedly bad before he mixes it up with them. Bosch sometimes mixes it up with people solely on the basis of his speculations. No matter that his speculations are justified retroactively, it pulls me out of an escapist trance to follow a hero with so many self doubts.
Bosch is a loner and outsider who is nevertheless working inside the system. Despite being a cop, Bosch frequently subverts the rules and regulations, and undermines the legal process which he is supposed to represent. His character promotes the view that the rules and mechanics of the legal process provide not so much the foundations of justice as impediments to it. That view didn't stop me from reading the book, but it made it difficult for me to enjoy it.