The Overlook by Michael Connelly

Synopsis :
A body has been found on the overlook near Mulholland Drive. The victim, identified as Dr Stanley Kent, has two bullet holes in the back of his head from what looks like an execution-style shooting. LAPD detective harry Bosch is called out to investigate. It is the case he has been waiting for since being recruited to the city’s Homicide Special squad.

As soon as Bosch begins retracing Dr Kent’s steps, contradictions emerge. While Kent doesn’t seem to have had ties to organized crime, he did have access to dangerous radioactive substances from just about every hospital in LA County. What begins as a routine homicide investigation opens up into something much larger and more dangerous – and much more urgent.

Not really.

What I meant is that the synopsis exaggerates slightly and the sense of urgency wasn’t really there. The development of the story was quite gradual and Harry Bosch turns out to be a pretty decent and obnoxious at the same time. His works well with Special Agent Rachel Walling of the FBI and I believe this is not the first time they are working together.

For someone who’s reading Michael Connelly for the first time, I approached this book with great interest as he’s a pretty well known author with many thrillers under his name. I was left pretty disappointed as the book wasn’t that thrilling and to my expectation. What I enjoy however, is the twist (I live for a twist in story!) from where the story developed to how it ended although I must say I have a slight idea that it would go that way and I’m pretty glad I was partly correct! :-)

However, there was what I felt was a factual error on the author’s part when he referred to the Hong Kong Disneyland as Disneyland China. There’s no Disneyland in China (at least not yet, anyway) although technical HK is part of China but its name is Hong Kong Disneyland.

The Overlook was originally created by the author as a 16-part series for the NY Times Magazine. This edition that I read was expanded and revised substantially beyond that initial serialization.

Thanks NS, for lending this to me.

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