Blood Work (1998)

3.5 stars. ( )

Ex FBI agent Terry McCaleb is recovering from a heart transplant on his worn down boat when a robbery/murder falls into his lap. You can probably guess where it goes from there.

This takes place in the Bosch universe but apart from a mention of Mickey Haller it's self contained. It keeps the black/while, evil/good elements from other Bosch books, but Terry McCaleb is a duller anti hero. He actually seems like a decent person and who wants their heroes/anti heroes to be decent persons?

I was leaning towards two stars, an "Ok" book, but it was a page turner after all so let's go with three stars. ( )

Well written in typical Michael Connelly style, a minim of descriptive words, but giving a clear picture
of the location and action. A cleverly designed plot with very believable characters involved in the twists and turns. The crime to solve morphs as the story unfolds. A good energetic read. ( )

As I have mentioned before, I think of book reviews and ratings being less about the overall “quality” of a book and more about how well it matches with the reviewer’s tastes. Blood Work met more than enough of what I seek in a mystery/thriller to earn a rating of 5.

A good friend recommended Blood Work as a story full of plot twists – ‘enough to keep you guessing to the last page’. Perhaps I am being too literal, but I would not describe it that way. To me, a twist means that you think you know where the story is going, only to have something happen that changes the interpretation of the previous action entirely. And the best twists are ones that after the re-direction is revealed, you realize there have been subtle hints about this possibility all along. It is tough to write a book with great plot twists, in my opinion.

For Blood Work, I felt the plot continued to build without significant changes in direction. Rather, what the author did was build great intensity as the story unfolded. There were good reasons why I was fully immersed in the story, as new intricacies and interrelationships were uncovered. Actually, when the story is done, you realize that this plot is fairly common. I have seen it in several other books and movies. Connelly, however, does it extremely well.

Finally, without going into detail, and making this review a spoiler, let me also say I liked the way the author tied our changing theories about interrogation and memory into the plot. At first, I thought he was merely out-of-date in the approach he was advocating. As the story unfolded, however, it became clear that our changing understanding of memory was another means to build intensity. I appreciate that attention to detail much more than stories that simply run roughshod over science. Very nicely done.
( )

GAVETA DE LA IZQUIERDA CUARTO ANAQUEL.