Book Review

By Derryll White

Connelly, Michael (2003).  Lost Light.

Michael Connelly is a true sentimentalist with Harry Bosch crouched among the muck and gore of the Los Angeles Police Department and the city itself.  Harry is always involved, this is the ninth novel in the series, in haunting life and death scenes that leave him ducking violence and clutching at love.  The job, the Homicide Department of the L.A.P.D.,, stole a lot from Harry before he retired, including his wife.

Connelly takes a hard look at the brutality of power, at small people given access to the controls the State can give.  One branch of the U.S. anti-terrorism effort, embedded within the F.B.I., gives a window into how life must have been under Pinochet of Chile or Franco of Spain.  The author illuminates just how immoral people seize a little power and become king for a day.  ‘Lost Light’ invites the reader to contemplate just how disgusting our neighbour might become, how abusive he might be with just a little power.

For all of that, this is an enjoyable read. The story moves fast and the characters are very well-developed. Give it a try.

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Excerpts from the novel:

INTUITION – I felt a burning in my chest and I knew it wasn’t the midday martini backing up.  I felt like I was closing in on something.  Like when a child can’t see something in the dark but is sure it is there just the same.

AMERICA – “REACT is a BAM squad, Bosch.  By Any Means.  There are no rules with these guys.  The rules went out the window September eleventh, two thousand one.  The world changed, so did the bureau.  The country sat back and let it happen.  They were watching the war over there in Afghanistan when they were changing all the rules here.  Homeland Security is what it’s all about now and everything else can take a back-fucking-seat.”

GOVERNMENT – “Do you think this is what the attorney general and the Congress of the United States wanted when they enacted legislation that changed and streamlined the bureau’s rules and tools after September eleventh?”

“No, I don’t,” I answered.  “But they should have known what could happen.  What’s the saying, absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Something like that.”

REFLECTION – In love and in loss the night is always sacred.  It’s only a wonderful world if you can make it that way.  There are no street signs pointing to Paradise Road.

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

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