The Concrete Blonde: Harry Bosch Series, Book 3

“The Concrete Blonde” is the third novel in a series authored by Michael Connelly with a protagonist Harry Bosch. The novel is of moderate length and is written in modern conversational English. It is mostly easily comprehended and followed and as such makes for a good candidate for an audiobook. I have read the first three of these novels in order. While I have enjoyed all of them, this is easily my favorite thus far.When I say that I “enjoy” these novels I mean that in context. These are stories about violence including homicide. The stories are also about the dark side of human nature that exists to some extent in most of us. Harry Bosch himself is a combination of saint and sinner. Within this novel under review, these issues are discussed explicitly between characters.I read a lot of different types of books, fiction and nonfiction. I was a police officer for thirty nine years and a detective for thirty one years. Of all the modern police novels that I have read, Harry Bosch is the fictional character that I most identify with. I absolutely do not conduct myself the way Bosch does. However his internal machinations and emotional responses align with mine. I completely understand what it is like to try to put my mind into the mind of an offender. It can be a very difficult exercise. It is also difficult to work in that way and then go home and try to be a normal husband and father. Michael Connelly conveys that as well as any modern mystery fiction author that I have read.In summary I really liked this novel. It seems very realistic to me. The novel does contain revolting graphic violence. There is also street language. I would not allow my youthful children to read this novel. But as a policeman I found the novel very realistic. It is dark. It will be some months before I read the next novel in this series but I absolutely intend to do so. Thank You for taking the time to read this review.

Hard to put this one down. Keeps you guessing til the very end. Time to start # 4. I'm hooked

Anyone who has read my reviews knows I’m a huge fan of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels. I have read almost all of them, starting in the early 1990s. I read them out of order, and for whatever reason, I only recently decided to fill in the gaps and read the ones I never got to. Hence this review of Concrete Blonde, the third in the series. Like usual, I absolutely loved the book, but I also was drawn to the fact that the younger Harry is different from the older Harry. The Bosch in this book is a harder-edged cop (perhaps because as we age, we tend to mellow) who takes huge risks. But like the other books, he is lauded for his work in the end. In Concrete Blond, Bosch is in a courtroom being sued for taking a serial killer’s life. The plaintiff, the killer’s wife, wants the court and the jury to believe that her husband was not the notorious killer and that Harry took the life of an unarmed man. The wife’s lawyer is Honey Chandler, a character that has turned up in the TV series Bosch. She is a fascinatingly skillful trial lawyer. But another victim turns up, and Harry must, while fighting this accusation, find out who killed this victim and whether this victim is another victim of the man he shot, a victim of a copycat killer, or, indeed, if the man Bosch shot wasn’t really the killer as his wife alleges in her lawsuit. The whole novel starts out with a twisted premise and the twists and turns continue until the very end. It is a totally thrilling reading experience. A side note: I love the Bosch TV series. I totally buy Titus Welliver as Bosch and think he’s great in the role. But when I read the books, I never picture Welliver. I suppose I have some nebulous vision of who Bosch is, and when I read, that’s who I picture. Crazy! Second side note: Having read Concrete Blond so many years after it was written, I had forgotten what a heavy smoker Bosch was. I knew from later books he was a reformed smoker, but in this book, he is constantly reaching for a cigarette. That behavior is woven nicely into the plot, but you have to wonder if one day Connelly will come up with a plot where Bosch is dealing with emphysema or lung cancer.

It’s hard to read other detective novels after you experience the tenacity when Bosch works a case.Great novel! Spend a couple of days at the beach with this book!

Another Connelly masterpiece.

Mais um ótimo livro do Harry Bosch series!

Love this series of crime books. They envelope you into the story.

Excellent comme tous les romans de Michael Connelly. J'ai oublié de préciser que ce sont les versions anglaises...

This has been wonderfully adapted into the first season of the Bosch Amazon series. But the original is quite different and I loved it.