Desert Star, any Bosch fans read it yet?

[Anonymous]

I was so happy that finally Connelly is focusing on Harry again (I just don’t care for Ballard the same way) but the ending felt like a punch in the gut.

[Anonymous]

I have not read these but I have binged the TV version on Amazon and always feel slightly mournful when it ends. Is this a new book beyond what has appeared on screen? If so I will definitely go and get a copy.

[Anonymous]

I'm very much looking forward to getting it from the library when it's my turn!

[Anonymous]

Connelly is the writer where I wait all year for the new book and then finish it in a day.

I was fortunate enough to meet him about 25 years ago and I asked if he would write a book about Harry when he was younger or in Vietnam and Connelly said that with Harry aging in real time he didn't feel he could afford to waste any years on backstory while the clock was running on Harry's life and eventually getting too old to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm very much looking forward to getting it from the library when it's my turn!

Me too! I think I'm in for a long wait but that's okay. I've just recently read the last Renee Ballard book so I think I'm up to date but need to confirm that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Connelly is the writer where I wait all year for the new book and then finish it in a day.

I was fortunate enough to meet him about 25 years ago and I asked if he would write a book about Harry when he was younger or in Vietnam and Connelly said that with Harry aging in real time he didn't feel he could afford to waste any years on backstory while the clock was running on Harry's life and eventually getting too old to work.

That's great he explained it to you. He could just have said "No".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connelly is the writer where I wait all year for the new book and then finish it in a day.

I was fortunate enough to meet him about 25 years ago and I asked if he would write a book about Harry when he was younger or in Vietnam and Connelly said that with Harry aging in real time he didn't feel he could afford to waste any years on backstory while the clock was running on Harry's life and eventually getting too old to work.

That's great he explained it to you. He could just have said "No".

He was extremely kind and generous with his time and gave thoughtful answers to a number of questions like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very much looking forward to getting it from the library when it's my turn!

Me too! I think I'm in for a long wait but that's okay. I've just recently read the last Renee Ballard book so I think I'm up to date but need to confirm that!

This is OP. You are up to date but (I don't think this is a spoiler) stuff happened during the last year after the last book and before this one and when it is mentioned you will wonder if you missed something (and feel a few moments of wild hope that there's another book out there that you haven't read!) but don't fret, you didn't miss anything.

OK, everybody waiting for it, please come back when you are done because I gotta talk about it.

[Anonymous]

I’m here - just got it from the library at 9pm last night and stayed up way too late reading the whole thing! I also was so happy to have a Harry focused book again. I didn’t love this book. Not sure if it was because Connelly balanced between Harry and Renee, but I felt like I didn’t get enough of the inner workings of Harry. Almost no discussion of his relationship with his daughter which is always a soft spot, and he barely even connected with anyone much less Renee - he is a lone wolf but usually he forges a connection with someone in each book. There were even few private “Harry at Home” moments when you see what little and big things in life are important to him (I usually can almost hear the haunting jazz music playing in the background as he sits on the back deck of his beloved house in the hills - you didn’t feel any of his pleasure in that in this book). This book felt to me like Connelly rushed through writing it and was more driven by the plot than by giving us more Harry as a character. Of course I still enjoyed it but not the same as prior books.

Now for Spoilers-



The ending was a gut punch, but his illness has been discussed in prior books so not a surprise - I was worried he would actually die at the end of this book, but am holding out hope that Connelly plans for at least one more Harry book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very much looking forward to getting it from the library when it's my turn!

Me too! I think I'm in for a long wait but that's okay. I've just recently read the last Renee Ballard book so I think I'm up to date but need to confirm that!

This is OP. You are up to date but (I don't think this is a spoiler) stuff happened during the last year after the last book and before this one and when it is mentioned you will wonder if you missed something (and feel a few moments of wild hope that there's another book out there that you haven't read!) but don't fret, you didn't miss anything.

OK, everybody waiting for it, please come back when you are done because I gotta talk about it.

NP — I had that exact problem, worrying that I’d missed a book somewhere just before this one!

[Anonymous]

I love Harry Bosch but I like all of Michael Connolly’s protagonists. When the shooting scene happened earlier in the book and I briefly thought Harry was dead, I was surprised at how I felt thinking Harry might be dead. I have read every single Michael Connelly book and will continue to read. This one was in the middle of the pack. My favorite is The Poet and my least favorite is Nine Dragons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love Harry Bosch but I like all of Michael Connolly’s protagonists. When the shooting scene happened earlier in the book and I briefly thought Harry was dead, I was surprised at how I felt thinking Harry might be dead. I have read every single Michael Connelly book and will continue to read. This one was in the middle of the pack. My favorite is The Poet and my least favorite is Nine Dragons.

The Poet was my favorite too.

Curious, to any other long-time readers, have you noticed a change in the last ten years or so? Do you think he might have a ghostwriter? Somewhere around the first Ballard book, I swear there was a subtle change in style. There was even one book — either the first Ballard book or the second? — where the style went back and forth, like he was writing the Bosch chapters and someone else the Ballard chapters. Even if there is a collaborator, I suspect he reworks the draft to give it his own style. But I’ve worked as a copyeditor and tend to notice sentence structure and grammar choices, and I just finished the latest and once again kept having the feeling that “this is 20-something-Internet-freelancer sentence structure, not middle-aged-former-reporter sentence structure.”

I googled a bit, and he’s considered to be an author who does NOT use ghostwriters. It’s possible that his own writing style has been influenced by Internet writing over the years, or that he’s rushing or burned out and just doesn’t put in quite as much care as he once did. As a reader, I really don’t care one way or the other; I’m just driven slightly crazy by noticing this change that no one else seems to notice. Curious what other longtime readers think.

[Anonymous]

I finished this today, and I am sad about where this is headed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but it has been headed this way the past couple of books

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but it has been headed this way the past couple of books

But why? What is the point of this storyline? I don’t understand the appeal of it.