Blood Work (Harry Bosch Universe, #7)
Michael Connelly
New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly presents his most ambitious, most gripping achievement to date--a novel of masterly suspense and righteous obsession that will never let you go. When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful. But when Graciella tells him the way her sister Gloria was murdered, it leaves Terry no choice. Now the man with the new heart vows to take down a predator without a soul. For Gloria's killer shatters every rule that McCaleb ever learned in his years with the Bureau--as McCaleb gets no more second chances at life...and just one shot at the truth.
Publication Year: 2002
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'Blood Work' is one of Michael Connelly's weaker detective thrillers. That means it's still pretty good.
Terry McCaleb is medically retired at a relatively young age. A former FBI agent recovering from a heart transplant, all he wants to do is work on his boat, fish, and get better. But then a young woman named Graciela comes to him and shows him a picture. The photo is of her sister, Gloria, smiling and holding her young son. Gloria was murdered. The police have no leads. Her heart is currently beating in Terry's chest.
And we're off on a mystery that hits all the beats: you've got your knight errant, working under the twin handicaps of his unofficial status and his vulnerable physical state. You've got your hostile cops, who want him to get out of the way of their dead-end investigation. And, of course, you've got your mastermind killer, whose fiendish plan is, well, fiendish. And a little ridiculous.
All the beats are there, but this feels more like a first novel than a seventh. As a reader, you can feel the gears grinding, the A and B plots preparing to merge, the whole thing moving toward the inevitable. 'Blood Work' reads like it was written from a generic outline as a NaNoWriMo effort, as opposed to a genuinely gripping thriller with characters who are people instead of automatons.
Now, look: I like Michael Connelly. I generally enjoy his novels, and I expect to read more. I'm going to write this one off as a misfire and move on to 'Angels Flight,' the next book set in the Los Angeles of Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller. If you're as prolific as Connelly, they're not all going to be winners.
0McCaleb is not as interesting as Bosch, so Connelly's bad writing shows up starker here.
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