In anticipation of the release of the new movie, “The Lincoln Lawyer” tomorrow, I wanted to read another Connelly, so I chose this 2001 novel which featured the retired disabled cop, Terry McCaleb, who is living with his wife and little girl on Catalina Island following his heart transplant. His temporarily quiet life seemed to involve taking his massive dose of pills every day and spending time with his daughter and wife. He does have a boat charter business, but that’s not too busy in the winter time. Jaye Winston, an old associate and still active detective seeks McCaleb’s thoughts on a crime for which they’ve run out of clues, and McCaleb’s life suddenly becomes very active once again. Meanwhile, Harry Bosch is involved in a parallel case, and McCaleb decides that it is Bosch (named for the painter of the same name) who must be the killer in his own case. Connelly takes us through an examination of the paintings by the first Bosch and the darkness in which his mind dwelt, thus the title of the book, the same title of one of Bosch’s most famous paintings. The courtroom drama, which took up most of the last half of the book, was as good as any that I’ve read. But, the best part of this book was the character development of Bosch and McCaleb, and their evolving relationship with one another. There were good plot twists at the end, including the resolution of the relationship of these two men. This was a most enjoyable novel.
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