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    Free-From Heaven Magazine

    Free-From Heaven Magazine

    Food & Drink and Magazines & Newspapers

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    Free-From Heaven is the UK magazine series dedicated to free-from cooking and baking. Made up of...

The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Harry Bosch #19)
The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Harry Bosch #19)
Michael Connelly | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
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Another excellent entry in a great series
Harry Bosch is retired from his days as a detective with the LAPD, but certainly not from his days investigating crime. Bosch is working for himself, as a private investigator on a referrals only basis, and he's also a reservist with a small police department with a limited budget in San Fernando Valley. When Bosch gets word that a new client, Whitney Vance, wants to hire him, he can't help but be intrigued. Vance is a billionaire and heir to a fortune via his family's company, Advance Engineering. The aging man wants Bosch to track down a supposed heir: when Vance was in college, he had a fling with a young Mexican woman, and believes she had a child. If so, somewhere out there could be a heir to Vance's vast fortune (besides his eager, greedy board). Vance swears Bosch to secrecy, as no one associated with Advance Engineering and the board would be too keen to hear about someone standing in the way of their potential fortune. Meanwhile, in his work at the police department, Bosch is helping his colleagues track down a serial rapist. The suspect seems to be getting more and more bold; can they stop him before he strikes again?

Picking up a Harry Bosch book is always like coming home again, and this one was no exception. Bosch is a well-loved, nuanced, and wonderful character. He is complex and well-written, and I will forever be saddened when Connelly stops writing about him, or Bosch decides to stop investigating crime. I sincerely love him dearly. This novel is Bosch and Connelly at their best: a well-plotted mystery novel backed by Bosch's backstory and ruminating. Bosch is amusing, stubborn, and familiar, and he's also wonderful at his job.

Connelly does an excellent job of telling the tale with Bosch's two disparate cases (Vance and the Screen Cutter rapist); neither seem to overshadow the other, and you don't get confused with both threads going on simultaneously. Both are interesting cases, and Bosch is torn finding time to devote to each, much as the reader is. The story features appearances from Bosch's daughter and Mickey Haller (Bosch's half-brother, and a key character in the Lincoln Lawyer series), which is always fun, too. I was very intrigued by both of Bosch's cases, and Connelly kept me guessing until the end. I find it amazing that he's managed to keep Bosch so relevant and in the game all this time, but I suppose that's a testament to Bosch's skill (and Connelly's).

Overall, this isn't some amazing beyond words mystery, but it's just so well-done, with its dual cases, and features such a wonderful character, that I really loved it. If you haven't read any of Connelly's books, I highly recommend them. I started at the beginning with the Bosch series and certainly didn't regret it. But you could always start with this one, too.
  
    FieldMonitor

    FieldMonitor

    Photo & Video and Utilities

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    ***Please read this entire description before purchasing, and contact me if you have any...

    All My Gods HD

    All My Gods HD

    Games and Entertainment

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    From the creators of Roads of Rome series Become a Roman god! Don't be shy! Epic game that topped...

Nightblade's Vengeance
Nightblade's Vengeance
Ryan Kirk | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
*** I received a free advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***


This summer I read the first Nightblade trilogy: I loved the first one (the world-building, the three different stories running in parallel and occasionally crossing over), enjoyed the second one (character development was the focus plus setting up the conflict in the conclusion) and tolerated the final book (largely a repeat of the same plot as the first two plus a number of loose ends left un-tied).


Given how I fell out of love with the series as it went on, I was a little tentative about reading this, the first in a new trilogy following on from the events of the first. I have to say it was very poor.


Pretty much nothing happens throughout the book, the sole focus is on political manoeuvring and the nightblades have become a shadow of what they were to be at the end of the first series.


The king is dying and has no heir, so one of three lords looks likely to be chosen to take the throne (or decide to take it). There is some unrest within the populace of the Kingdom towards nightblades (ninja-like warriors with a spidey-sense warning them of danger and allowing them to sense each other) - rumours are spreading that nightblades are demanding unreasonable payment for protection and are harming those they are supposed to be serving. And a particularly weak nightblade, the daughter of a dayblade (whose powers are used to heal rather than in combat) killed in service, by a mysterious warrior who subsequently vanished, is looking for vengeance (hence the title).


And that is pretty much it. The plot is very basic, the narrative takes an absolute age to cover what few events are happening and the vocabulary is pretty limited (I think at one point within three paragraphs about 6 things were said to have happened "in a moment" or "for a moment").


Twice in the book the phrase "to cut a long, boring story short" was used and I can't help but think Kirk was referring to what he himself should do.


I wasn't sure after ending the nightblade trilogy whether I would return to the world of the nightblades. Now I am certain I won't.