The Concrete Blonde
by Michael Connelly
Copyright: 1994
Pages: 397
Rating: 4/5
Read: June 11-16, 2013
Challenge: Off the Shelf 2013
Yearly count: 26
Format: Print
Source: Personal copy
Blurb: They called him the Dollmaker – the serial killer who stalked Los Angeles and left a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. With a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thought he had ended the city’s nightmare…
But then the dead man’s widow sues Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man – an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker’s macabre signature…
Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It’s a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go – the darkness of his own heart.
Review: This is the third book in the Harry Bosch series, and I think these books just keep getting better. After not being overly impressed by the first, The Black Echo, I gave the second, The Black Ice a go earlier this year and really enjoyed it. So I figured picking up the third book would be a great place to sneak in a TBR book 🙂
This particular installment is mainly set in the courtroom, where Harry and the city of Los Angeles are having to fight a civil case brought against him by the Dollmaker’s widow. I think we really got to see more of Harry’s character in this book. I know I personally saw a softer side to him. From his interactions with his girlfriend, Sylvia, to the internal conversations he has with himself during the course of the trial, I think that he is really starting to open up some. I definitely liked that. I want to like Harry as a character, but I have to admit that he wasn’t too likable for me in the first book. So I felt as if it was some much needed character-development. I also really appreciated that we finally got to see why Harry had been demoted, but I think he will work his way back up the ladder eventually. He definitely seems to have the backing of the chief after this case.
I had a lot of fun trying to figure out what was going on … was it the Dollmaker or was there a copycat? Was it a cop? Or someone just close to the investigation. I definitely went round and round trying to figure it out. Mr. Connelly sure did a great job of making me fall into trap after trap with Harry. And although who the killer ended up being was not very original in my opinion, it definitely took me the entire book to figure it out.
Overall another great installment in this series that I would highly recommend.
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