When a sheriff's detective shows up on former FBI man Terry McCaleb's Catalina Island doorstep and requests his help in analyzing photographs of a crime scene, McCaleb at first demurs. He's newly married (to Graciela, who herself dragged him from retirement into a case in Blood Work), has a new baby daughter, and is finally strong again after a heart transplant. But once a bloodhound, always a bloodhound. One look at the video of Edward Gunn's trussed and strangled body puts McCaleb back on the investigative trail, hooked by two details: the small statue of an owl that watches over the murder scene and the Latin words "Cave Cave Dus Videt," meaning "Beware, beware, God sees," on the tape binding the victim's mouth.

Gunn was a small-time criminal who had been questioned repeatedly by LAPD Detective Harry Bosch in the unsolved murder of a prostitute, most recently on the night he was killed. McCaleb knows the tense, cranky Bosch (Michael Connelly's series star--see The Black Echo, The Black Ice, et al.) and decides to start by talking to him. But Bosch has time only for a brief chat. He's a prosecution witness in the high-profile trial of David Storey, a film director accused of killing a young actress during rough sex. By chance, however, McCaleb discovers an abstruse but concrete link between the scene of Gunn's murder and Harry Bosch's name: "This last guy's work is supposedly replete with owls all over the place. I can't pronounce his first name. It's spelled H-I-E-R-O-N-Y-M-U-S. He was Netherlandish, part of the northern renaissance. I guess owls were big up there."

McCaleb looked at the paper in front of him. The name she had just spelled seemed familiar to him.

"You forgot his last name. What's his last name?"

"Oh, sorry. It's Bosch. Like the spark plugs." Bosch fits McCaleb's profile of the killer, and McCaleb is both thunderstruck and afraid--thunderstruck that a cop he respects might have committed a horrendous murder and afraid that Bosch may just be good enough to get away with it. And when Bosch finds out (via a mysterious leak to tabloid reporter Jack McEvoy, late of Connelly's The Poet) that he's being investigated for murder, he's furious, knowing that Storey's defense attorney may use the information to help get his extravagantly guilty client off scot-free.

It's the kind of plot that used to make great Westerns: two old gunslingers circling each other warily, each of them wondering if the other's gone bad. But there's more than one black hat in them thar hills, and Connelly masterfully joins the plot lines in a climax and denouement that will leave readers gasping but satisfied. --Barrie Trinkle


From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Harry Bosch, the worn, pragmatic Los Angeles police detective, protagonist of a number of Connelly's earlier books, is joined by Terry McCaleb, former FBI crime-scene profiler, introduced in Blood Work (Little, Brown, 1998). Harry is immersed in testifying at the murder trial of a Hollywood film director, Jack Storey. When McCaleb, retired and living a quiet life with a new wife and two young children, is asked by a former colleague to look at the investigation materials of a recent gruesome homicide, he realizes just how much he misses his vocation. Terry alone has noticed some clues from the crime-scene video that point toward the influence of Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch. Despite pleas from his wife, Terry is drawn into the investigation and finds, to his dismay, that pointers lead straight to acquaintance Harry Bosch, whose real name is Hieronymus. Certain details in Harry's life fit in well with the profile Terry is developing of a ritualistic killer. The clues stemming from Bosch's paintings may lead readers straight to the Internet to view some of Bosch's well-known works to see the clues for themselves. The plot is intricate, and the twists and turns keep coming, but it is so well done, and the characters are so vivid, that confusion isn't a problem. Despite its length, this involving book is a fast read with "can't put it down" appeal.Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VACopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Police Detective Jay Winston calls on her retired colleague Terry McCaleb to create the profile of a killer, based on the evidence from a murder investigation. Before he knows it, the bizarre details of the murder have sucked McCaleb out of retirement and back into the world of police work. With the profile in hand, a suspect is identified but is he the right man? Or is it a setup? Connelly, award-winning author of Void Moon, Blood Work, and The Poet, weaves his intricate story with skill; his characters are well rounded and complex. Both interesting and exciting, the unabridged version is well read by Richard M. Davidson; the abridged format incorporates the Southern inflections of Michael Beck. Both programs are recommended for fiction collections. Joanna M. Burkhardt, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Providence Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


New Yorker, 2/5/01
"...Connelly allows Bosch and McCaleb to regard each other critically in ways that sharpen the reader's perception of them..."


USA Today, 2/1/01
"An intricate plot, rich characterization and deft dialogue play out our medieval moralities in modern dress..."


From AudioFile
It takes a special performer to do justice to Connelly's thrillers because of his complex character development and psychological bent. In Connelly's latest work, the reader's task is formidable because Connelly brings his two characters, Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb, together for a blockbuster. While L.A. Police Detective Bosch, a compulsive, one-of-a-kind investigator, is officer-in-charge of a trial for a Hollywood director accused of murdering a starlet, McCaleb, retired from the FBI, is asked to profile a ritualistic murder of a man Bosch suspects of killing a prostitute. As the cases merge, the listener is treated to lessons in trial procedure, forensics, psychological motivation, and even fifteenth-century art and painters. To Richard M. Davidson's credit, the listener can really picture the gravelly voiced Bosch as he interplays with the more mild-mannered McCaleb. The trial sequences are especially interesting because Davidson is called upon to portray a multiplicity of characters in tandem. This reviewer was captivated by the content and performance, listening long into the night. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
In Blood Work (1998), the critically acclaimed Connelly introduced his many readers to former FBI profiler Terry McCaleb, prematurely retired by the need for a heart transplant. In the author's latest work, McCaleb takes a break from tranquil family life on Catalina Island to help an L.A. County detective investigate a horrific murder that looks like it might be the first of a series. McCaleb's study of the murder quickly isolates a prime suspect: LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, Connelly's most memorable character and the star of his best novels, including Trunk Music (1996). Although McCaleb knows and admires Bosch, he believes too much cruelty, depravity, and violence may have pushed Bosch over the edge. Connelly's appearance here elevates what might otherwise have been a major disappointment. The plot seems more than a little contrived, and Connelly seems to labor to reuse characters and events from earlier novels. Similar contrivances marred 1999's Angels Flight , but even at less than his best, a new Connelly is pretty much a must-buy for public libraries. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Independent elements from several earlier books come seamlessly together in Michael Connelly's ingenious, compelling novel, A Darkness More than Night. This one features both Terry McCaleb, last seen in the Edgar-nominated Blood Work, and Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch, the haunted hero of several of Connelly's finest novels. The lives of these two damaged, all-too-human figures intersect in a typically extravagant story that is at once a murder mystery, a legal thriller, and a psychological drama of considerable subtlety and power.

The novel begins when McCaleb, an FBI profiler forced into retirement following a successful heart transplant, agrees to lend his expertise to a particularly baffling murder investigation. The victim is Edward Gunn, an alcoholic lowlife with a violent past. He was once arrested -- by Harry Bosch -- for the murder of a Los Angeles prostitute but managed, despite Harry's best efforts, to avoid prosecution. McCaleb's analysis of the crime scene reveals a number of anomalies: an unexplained head wound, a phrase ("Beware, beware, God sees") written in medieval Latin, the replica of an owl placed in the vicinity of the corpse. Following his instincts, McCaleb locates mirror images of these arcane clues in a number of paintings by Harry's namesake, the 15th-century Dutch master, Hieronymous Bosch.

Harry, meanwhile, is serving as chief investigator and star witness in the sensational murder trial of a world-famous Hollywood director and has no idea that he's just become the primary suspect in an unrelated investigation. As the trial progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Harry's testimony is critically important and that any attempt to destroy his credibility will undermine the case against a vicious, well-connected killer.

Eventually, Harry learns about McCaleb's suspicions and forces a confrontation. McCaleb takes a second look at the accumulated evidence and begins to discern the outlines of a very different scenario. As new revelations come gradually into view, the disparate elements of the novel coalesce, and the narrative moves with increasing urgency toward a violent, thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Connelly is only a moderately gifted stylist, but he is a devious, resourceful plotter and a world-class storyteller. His new book generates the kind of irresistible momentum that very few novelists ever manage to achieve. At the same time, it offers empathetic portraits of two memorably complex protagonists with more than their share of ghosts, griefs, and personal demons to contend with. A Darkness More than Night is an intelligent, compassionate, unfailingly entertaining thriller. It deserves the success it is doubtless about to achieve.

--Bill Sheehan

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A spectacular new crime novel — the most astounding in his already remarkable career—from the New York Times bestselling star of thriller writing, Michael Connelly.

SYNOPSIS

A New York Times bestseller, this spectacular new crime novel is the latest addition to Michael Connelly's astounding career.

FROM THE CRITICS

New Yorker

...Connelly allows Bosch and McCaleb to regard each other critically in ways that sharpen the reader's perception of them...

USA Today

An intricate plot, rich characterization and deft dialogue play out our medieval moralities in modern dress in one of Connelly's most adept constructions...

Pilot

No one...knows more about police and criminals than Michael Connelly...filled with details...with the most completely rered vision of Los Angeles...frontrunner for best crime novel of the year...

Denver Post

Michael Connelly's mysteries exude the grit of their settings, but their real standout element is the haunted nature of the heroes...

San Diego Union Tribune