The Black Box

Michael Connelly’s “The Black Box”

Reviewed by Gerti

This is a crime novel that will make you cry. Author Michael Connelly is a former LA crime reporter who is a compelling storyteller with a consistently good, clear style of writing, but in this novel, he seems to rise above even his unusually high skill level. This story involves his frequent protagonist Harry Bosch, an LA homicide detective who, like Connelly himself, rises above his colleagues because of the level of emotion and sacrifice he invests in each case he solves.

In this book, Bosch is trying to solve a murder that took place during the LA riots following the Rodney King verdict in 1992. The victim was an international reporter named Anneke Jespersen, who freelanced for a Danish newspaper, and who had covered other conflicts around the world, including Operation Desert Storm. There were so many crimes committed during those days of violence in 1992, the case remained unsolved by the Riot Crimes Task Force, and has now gone to the Open-Unsolved Unit. But with the anniversary approaching, Bosch’s boss wants him to shelve this case, because the reporter was white.

But Bosch can’t let it go because he was one of the cops at the original crime scene, and something about it always bothered him. Under his blotter at his desk, he has a collection of pictures from cases which have gotten under his skin, and Anneke’s is one of those. Using his own memories from the night her body was discovered, as well as the evidence collected from the original crime scene, he methodically works the case, coming up with clue after clue that had been missed at the time, including the gun that killed her.

He ends up uncovering a conspiracy that involving several California National Guardsmen who helped keep order during the riots, but who were also involved in Desert Storm. Turns out they had drugged and raped Anneke on an R & R ship back in the day. Now one is a wealthy business owner, another is a county sheriff running for Congress, so they will do anything to hide the truth, including kidnapping Bosch and executing several former war buddies. Lucky for Bosch, he is being investigated, and the detective tailing him ends up saving his life.

That’s the story. But what makes this book special among Connelly novels for me is that he does more than simply tell a good tale. He goes under Bosch’s skin and reveals his emotions, which are what makes Bosch a better cop than his partner or his boss, who are primarily worried about solving cases to make quotas. Bosch cares when he’s talking to Anneke’s family, and the scene in which he tells her brother that he’s finally caught her murderer is heartbreaking in its emotional intensity. The brother’s anger over what happened to his sister all those years ago is mirrored by Bosch’s own, and that makes Harry Bosch my hero, and a champion for all those who’ve been waiting years for justice to be served. This book elevates Connelly from a good crime writer to a great one.

The Brass Verdict

Review of Michael Connelly’s “The Brass Verdict”

Review by Gerti

Now I’m Michael Connelly’s biggest fan. And I love his protagonists Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch. But five-hundred and forty-seven pages is just too much for me to tell one story. And that’s the only problem I have with “The Brass Verdict.”

Connelly is a master storyteller, and this story combines his two favorite storylines – Haller defending a guilty man who claims to be innocent, and Bosch tracking down the truth behind a high profile LA crime. Perhaps Connelly and his editors felt that one-two punch justified the book’s length, as there were two stories that needed telling. But maybe it was just overly ambitious to try to combine two strong but flawed heroes in one colossal novel.

But here are some positives - I loved seeing Haller out of rehab and trying to get back into the law game. I also loved his interaction with Bosch, who is his half-brother, although Haller doesn’t realize it until the end of the book. But I did not like the tricks Bosch played on Haller in order to solve the headline-grabbing crime in this novel, the murder of a movie producer’s wife and her lover.

One attorney has already been killed trying to defend the Archway Studios exec who discovered the pair, and that’s before jury selection has ever started. Haller lucks into that attorney’s case load, but he’s playing catchup. His wealthy client, Walter Elliot, doesn’t want the trial delayed, even though his first defense attorney’s calendar and files on the case were stolen when he was murdered. Turns out, Elliot has bribed a juror, so he’s not worried about a guilty verdict. Haller just can’t work with a stacked deck like that, and he tells the judge about the ringer, but that sets a whole house of cards tumbling. Haller is almost killed himself until Bosch and the FBI come to his rescue.

I am however bothered by the last few chapters, which seem largely extraneous, and as the book is already running over 500 pages, I get a little restless about literary excesses. I’m glad to see Haller and Bosch becoming friends in the midst of this turmoil, but it does make me regret all the ink Connelly used to set up the relationship between Haller and his new driver. Don’t get me wrong. I love spending time with Haller and Bosch. I just don’t want to spend ALL my free time with them.

In short, while I love the characters, and am impressed by the intricate plot which involves several of Connelly’s characteristic twists and misdirection, I felt the book could have been tighter. A good editor could have cut at least 50 pages out of here and made it a more manageable 400ish pages. The title, “The Brass Verdict,” refers to street justice, where a gun is used to dispatch the guilty party. I almost wish this book had been as quick to reach its conclusion.

Mammoth Cave National Park

"Mammoth Cave National Park" by Ruth Radlauer
Reviewed by Gerti

I have never been in a cave, but was recently contemplating a trip south to visit either Boone Caverns in Indiana or Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. Therefore, I read this book as a form of research before deciding which cave system to make the focus of my planned vacation.

"Mammoth Cave National Park" by Ruth Radlauer is a quick introduction to the hundreds of miles of caves found south of Louisville. While I didn't care much for the chapters on caves were initially formed, or why watering the soil above is important to cave dwellers, I was pleased by the many pictures in the book and her use of large print. There is also a pretty cool map that shows the national park to be just off of I-65, which is pretty handy for those of us who live in Northwest Indiana! It also mentions the hiking and camping opportunities available for outdoorsy families and their young ones.

The history of the cave was more interesting to me, and I especially enjoyed hearing about Stephen Bishop, who began life as a slave of the owner of the cave, but would eventually make the first fairly accurate map of many underground miles there, and discovered many of the cave's unique features. Also fascinating is the fact that there were building down below, and even a hospital had been built there, despite the dark and damp that exist so far below the surface. hard to believe a doctor actually thought the place might cure tuberculosis and had people live there...

For children, this book would be perfect introduction to this nearby national treasure. For me, I was hoping for more specifics on the various underground rooms the author mentions, and possibly a map of the cave system. While I did enjoy learning the quick tricks the author used so kids could distinguish between stalactites (spelled with a "c" as in ceiling) and stalagmites (spelled with a "g" as in ground), I still don't think I could recall what a troglobite is. I did like her pictures of the white crayfish and blindfish who live in the very lowest level of the caves, but was pretty grossed out because many of the creatures who live their entire lives in these caves are millipedes, beetles and flatworms.

In summary, the book made me decide that visiting Mammoth Caves was not for me, mainly because of Raudlauer's realistic descriptions of many of those slimy cave dwellers! But hopefully younger readers would not be as grossed out by those things, and this slim volume would spark their interest in the topic of spelunking.

Mary, Queen of Scots... And All That

Gerti's Review of “Mary, Queen of Scots… And All That”by Allan Burnett

Author Allan Burnett is a citizen of the United Kingdom. I gathered that from his language choice (no one in the US would call someone a “nutter”) and his ability to put an irreverent spin on the iconic tale of Mary, Queen of Scots. I’ve heard her story since I was a small child, and my son recently did a school report on her, which is why I requested the book. But since it came all the way from Missouri, his report was already done by the time the book arrived, and hence, I’m the one to read it!

For those who are unfamiliar, Mary was the only child of the King of Scotland, James V, but was sent to France as a child to be the bride of a Prince there, who later became King Francis II. Sadly, he was no more hardy than her father, and died about a year after the couple were married, sending her back to Scotland to reclaim her crown there. If you think that’s unlucky, Mary’s life really hits the skids after returning home. While there, she married a couple of jerks, including the royally related Lord Darnley, with whom she had a son named James. Then (does this begin to sound familiar?) Darnley died in a suspicious castle explosion, and Mary quickly got married to the Earl of Bothwell, who unfortunately for her was one of the fellows suspected of planting explosives under Darnley’s castle. Whoops!

Her countrymen turned against her after all this questionable behavior, and rather than remain imprisoned in Scotland, Mary fled across the border to England, which was ruled by her cousin Elizabeth I. Sadly, Elizabeth had her own problems – her country had been torn apart by religious quarrels, and about half the citizens (and nobles!) wanted to be Catholic, and the other half preferred their queen Protestant. Elizabeth was a Protestant, but Mary was a Catholic, and that was the rub. To let Mary run free meant risking her own throne, and Elizabeth was far too clever a girl to let that happen. She kept Mary imprisoned in various castles, but eventually Mary was implicated in a plot to take the English throne, and Elizabeth was forced to cut off her head.

Now that you’ve seen some of the highlights, this book is a much better introduction than I had to Mary, which was the classic work by Antonio Fraser (not child friendly!) Burnett covers all the factual bases, and makes this an accessible intro to Scottish and British history. It is even peppered with cartoons children would find amusing, which makes this text seem contemporary, like a graphic novel. For adults like me, it’s pretty amusing to see John Knox and other historical heavy’s in cartoon form, although I imagine there are those who might be offended. Still, I think children and young teens would find this a quick but comically interesting look at a cultish Queen from way back when.

Just As Long As We're Together

Gerti's Review of Judy Blume’s “Just As Long As We’re Together”

Judy Blume is an author that I found irresistible when I was a teenager, many, many years ago! I recently picked up one of her books at a library book sale, and realized that she kept writing even after I went to college! Her books are still designed to appeal to her traditional target audience – tweens and teens.

In this book, “Just As Long As We’re Together,” a young girl named Stephanie is getting ready to go back to school. Her best friend since second grade, Rachel, is scared about the new school year, but excited, too. Then a new girl named Alison shows up in their neighborhood, and the longtime best friends begin to drift apart. Add to that social complication the fact that Stephanie’s parents are separating, which they of course hide from her, and you’ve got a story of typically modern teenaged angst. Stephanie hates her dad’s new girlfriend, and works hard to break them up and re-introduce her mom into the love equation. Rachel has a hard time accepting Alison as Stephanie’s new friend, and the two girls have a huge fight that their parents try to mitigate. And of course, all three girls are starting to notice boys, which leads to its own problems! Oh, the drama!

More “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” than “Forever”, “Just As Long As We’re Together” is a book for young teens who may be going through the same sort of social upheavals. The lessons are softballs - it’s hard to insert new friends into old alliances, and it’s even harder to figure out the opposite sex! While I like the book’s well-defined main character, Stephanie, her friends seem like caricatures. Rachel is the prototypical “smart girl,” and Alison, the foreign, worldly one. Her mom is a famous actress, and as a result Alison has travelled the world and was even born abroad, which is pretty sophisticated for her group of friends.

Each girl has to solve her own crisis, but in Judy Blume world, it all turns out all right. JALAWT has little content that could be objectionable to parents. And while it still amazes me that middle-aged Judy Blume still knows about the silly things that worry teenagers, I guess that’s the nature of her creativity. It was amusing, as a parent, to spy on the pubescent conversations she presents here, and perhaps more than when I was young, this text shows me exactly how talented a writer Blume is. This book won’t change anybody’s life, but it is an entertaining and well-written effort by one of America’s favorite writers of teen fiction.

My Horizontal Life

Gerti’s Review of "My Horizontal Life" by Chelsea Handler

“My Horitzontal Life” is a book you can read and feel guilty about in the morning. Was it funny? Yes, occasionally Chelsea Handler’s collection of stories about her one-night stands was funny. But I’d have to say my enjoyment at her occasionally humorous turns of phrase was mitigated at my being appalled at her lack of a moral center. I am a middle-aged woman, and perhaps that is why I should not have been reading a book called “My Horizontal Life” at all. I just wanted to know who Chelsea Handler was since I’d never watched her comedy show, and the title was just ambiguous enough to lure me into buying the book.

Well, now I feel I know all too well who she is. But the problem with the book is that I don’t care. I really don’t want to know whether someone Chelsea went to bed with had large or small pudenda. I don’t really want to know whether she is turned on by midgets or black men. It’s the reason I don’t go into bars and get into conversations with boozy whores, because I don’t care what they’re doing with their nights, either. This book falls into the category of “too much information”, and like comic Ron White’s written account of how often he takes drugs and has oral sex, sometimes the amount I’m disgusted by a person’s behavior outweighs my enjoyment of how cleverly they can express themselves.

I would recommend this book only for people whose comical leanings are highly voyeuristic. Not suitable for young teens, or for anyone, really. I think I’ve finally found a book that legally qualifies to be called obscene, as this is smut lit with no redeeming social value.

Monster

Gerti’s Review of Jonathon Kellerman’s “Monster”

The Detroit Free Press review says on the jacket, that John Kellerman owns the genre of psychological thrillers. While that may be true, it was certainly not based on his writing in “Monster”, the only book of his I have ever read. While I like protagonist Dr. Alex Delaware, who is apparently featured in a number of Kellerman books, I found this book long (396 pages) and unnecessarily confusing. Delaware is partnered here with Detective Milo Sturgis, and together the two are trying to a series of odd murders in the LA area.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by reading the police thrillers written by Michael Connelly, but that man can spin a yarn that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last few pages. On the other hand, Kellerman proved predictable, and it was obvious by about the halfway point that the character called “The Monster” was physically and psychologically incapable of killing anyone, let alone a family, and that he had been set up by someone else to take the fall for the murders.

Like so many murder mysteries, it was just a question of finding out who had the most to gain from the deaths of a young family, and the Detective and Doctor seemed to spend a lot of time finding clues, but not much time putting them together. While the book enabled me to see step by step how a police investigation into murder might actually work, I much prefer Connelly’s detectives, who figure things out with a little more speed and brain power.

Yes, I was charmed by Dr. Delaware and his relationship with his wife, but I have the feeling that has more to do with Jonathon Kellerman’s relationship with his own wife than with any fictional character he has created. “The Monster,” Ardis Peake, may have been abused and mistreated as a youngster, but I as the reader feel more sympathy for him than for either of the two victims that Kellerman cooks up early in the book. Peake allegedly “predicted” their deaths, and it’s pretty obvious that the mostly mute Peake is being set up as some kind of oracle by someone involved in the crimes. It’s just a question of by whom.

Yes, it is nice when some of the bad guys are finally brought to justice and the magnitude of their crimes revealed. It’s also satisfying when the boss of the mental hospital gets fired. But ultimately there is no justice for Peake, as he never committed the crimes of which he was accused, yet with no one else out in the real world to care for him, the powers that be decide he is best left in the mental institution for the criminally insane where he has spent most of his adult life. And that to me is another kind of crime. I as the reader wanted a distant relative to come and take this blameless “Monster” to a happier life, too. I feel stuck in solitary with him, and am too empathetic to think that that kind of “what else can you do?” resolution is satisfactory. It’s like reading “Beauty and the Beast”, but with Kellerman, the Beast never turns into a prince. “Monster” is a sad fairytale which leaves me less likely to read Kellerman again.