Void Moon by Michael Connelly

It had been too long since I read a Michael Connelly book, one of the kings of our genre who is also at the top of all of our power rotations at MRB. I was encouraged to read Void Moon by old buddy MG. This one was written in 2000.

Cassie Black was just out of prison after having been caught in a big time robbery of a high roller at a Las Vegas casino, the Cleopatra. On the night she was arrested, her lover Max was killed, apparently having jumped from a 20-story window while she waited below. Cassie always thought he was murdered, all the way through her five years of confinement in the High Desert Correctional Institute for Women, but there was no evidence to support her idea.

After prison, Cassie was trying to make a go of straight life as a car sales person at Porsche of Hollywood, but she needed more money and she missed the excitement of the crooked side of life. The book opened with her obvious and unexplained interest in a family who had a home up for sale in Laurel Canyon. How did that connect to the rest of the story? She had been out of prison for a couple years when Cassie finally contacted one of her old criminal cohorts, Leo Renfro, who proposed a job back at the very casino where she was arrested and Max died. She was reluctant to ever set foot in the Cleopatra again, but Leo was sure this robbery would provide her with the seed money she wanted to disappear. She might not ever get another opportunity like this one.

Vincent Grimaldi was still the owner of the Cleopatra, and he had kept his security guy, the brutal Jack Karch, under his thumb since Max’s death. The casino was up for sale and mob money from both Chicago and Miami was in play. When Cassie hit the high roller, she got more than she bargained for. Rather than finding the expected 100k, she got a brief case with $2.5 million, money that was intended to be a payoff by one of the mobs for the casino deal. It was too much. She had stolen money from the wrong guys.

The chase was on and bodies started dropping everywhere. This was an action packed book which proves Connelly remains at the top of my power rotation and that MG knows what he’s talking about (at least this time).