Rating: 
Summary: When It Rains, Stay Away From The Narrows
Review: I had strayed away from Michael Connelly's last book, but heard that with this one "The Narrows", he had brought back the best of his writing. Oh, so very true. This is a page turner in the grandest tradition. Hieronymous(Harry)Bosch has retired from the Detective Division of the LA Police Department, and is doing free lance work. A little private PI work here and there. In the meantime he has discovered that he has a 4 year old daughter, Maddie, who lives with her mother in Las Vegas. He zips up the Interstate several times a month to see her, He has even secured a long time rental of a serviceable kitchenette, bedroom motel room near the airport, something he can afford. The relationship between Maddie's mom and Harry is best at times "troublesome". Into this new PI work, his former partner, Gerry's wife, Graciela, has requsted that Harry help her investigate why Gerry died. Something is not right-Gerry had had a heart transplant several years ago and was doing well. Then all of a sudden he died of heart failure...Graciela found that his anti-rejection pills had been tampered with. Filled with sugar powder. Harry delves into this mystery and finds another mystery in the making that Gerry was looking at. Maybe this will help reveal what happened to Gerry. The LA police are investigting why six men from the LA area have disappeared while in Las Vegas, and no sign of the men has ever been found. Someone had been following Gerry and his family and had taken photos of them and sent the photos to Gerry. At the same time there is a picture of a sign on a desert highway near Las Vegas called ZZYZX Road. And Gerry has written his investigation into small snippets- something about a triangle. Bosch decides to go to ZZYZX Road to see what he can find. At the same time Rachel Walling, FBI assigned to Minot, North Dakota as a result of her last big case that went haywire, is summoned to Las Vegas to help investigate the finding of 11 bodies near ZZYZX Road. She has been notified by one of her former mentors gone bad, The Poet, that he is once again enmeshed in another fiendish crime. Ah,ha, never the twain shall meet? Oh, they have already met in another case, and Rachel at odds with the FBI and Bosch team up to uncover the truths of these grisly murders and to unveil the truth of The Poet. Will they get to the truth in time, will the FBI get their man? When it rains, it pours! A fascinating murder mystery, told with zest and zeal. Compelling and frightening- you bet- one of the best Harry Bosch mysteries. Welcome back, Harry! prisrob
Rating:
Summary: Simply, His Best!!
Review: I have liked most of Michael Connelly's novels, but until this one, I always thought The Poet was his best. With this one, building upon that novel, Connelly has out done himself. Harry Bosch has agreed to look into the death of a good friend at the request of the widow. Everyone thinks it was a heart attack. Through careful sleuthing, Bosch comes up with a scenario which suggests murder, but no obvious reason or suspect. In the meantime FBI agent Rachel Walling, last seen in The Poet, has been drawn back into another search for the serial killer, whom all thought dead. The Poet was her mentor as an FBI agent and he clearly has plans for more killing. As the story moves between Walling and Bosch the lines of the story intersect and Bosch and Walling, while dealing with FBI higher ups that make your teeth hurt, follow the clues and find the truth. If you only buy one harcover book this summer, buy this one. It is flat, dead great.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and unimaginative
Review: I like Connelly, and read The Poet.
The biggets problem is that "The Poet" was a thriller, while this book is more of a hybrid mystery-thriller. But the pace is way too slow for a thriller.
The Jane character was weird and left completly unresolved.
The characters seemed to be stereotypes and shallow. Rachel was made even more shallow than in "The Poet".
I kept hoping it would pick up, or something would surprise me and it didnt happen.
The ending was unbeleivable.
Without giving anything away.
Why wouldnt "The Poet" have just killed the guy, instead of telegraphing everything?
Why would he wait 8 years?
It seems like this was a book his publisher wanted, so he gave it to them.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I looked forward to this book - as I do with all of Michael Connelly's books, but after finishing it last night I cannot call this the best or even one of the best of his books. The rating is based on judging this book against only the author's body of work. If I rated it in comparison to other authors I might have rated it a star higher. So what don't I like about this book? Wellllll... At first the mention of the Blood Work movie was kind of cool. And so was bringing back the Poet... And Agent Walling. But with so many references to the movie and so many characters from prior books reappearing, it all began to annoy me, especially since it became so flagrant that it seems downright self-indulgent of the author. Plot-wise: What began fine, moved into great, started tripping itself up on its own details, not to mention the ever-changing psychological profile of the Poet that seemed to alter to fit whatever scene was being written. I don't want to print spoilers here so let me just say that the ending revelation regarding McCaleb's death could not only be seen coming a mile off but was wholly unbelievable. Also I felt disappointed in the first person voice of Harry Bosch, but that might be my own taste rather than any fault of the author. For my money, I like Harry kept just a little beyond the reader's touch: We can know him, but we can never KNOW him, if you take my meaning. The haunting quality of Harry's persona escaped me in this book. Will I be around to buy Connelly's next book? Absolutely. And I'll hope it turns out to be as good as my favorite, Angels Flight.
Rating:
Summary: Not Sure I Agree
Review: I read at least two books a week, time well spent as I rarely watch television. One news program I did see had a reviewer who compared Michael Connelly to Raymond Chandler. I'm sorry, but I don't share that opinion: Raymond Chandler's use of language and his ability to paint extraordinary human portraits does not appear part of Mr. Connelly's repertoire. I find Harry Bosch very bland, his love life could not be more pedestrian, and some of his plot devices -- an F.B.I. agent turned serial killer -- just fabrications. The two best mystery-thriller writers I have found in the last 10 years are both San Francisco writers: Oakley Hall, in his extraordinary series of Ambrose Bierce mysteries set in old San Francisco, and James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and the just-released 1906, a crime/corruption thriller set against the great San Francisco earthquake that is just mesmerizing. I have just starting posting these reviews, at the urging of a friend, and feel that in addition to telling people what I think about the book I just read, I should speak up about the truly wonderful writers I discover. James Dalessandro and Oakley Hall are the best.
Rating:
Summary: Harry Bosch Rules!
Review: I REALLY liked this book! It met all of my expectations. I was introduced to Michael Connelly several months ago and have already read all of his books. Without question, Connelly has hit the jackpot with the character of Harry Bosch. The Bosch novels are a cut above the other Connelly novels. I am already anxiously awaiting the next one!
Rating:
Summary: The Poet is Back, Harry Bosch is too
Review: I should say right off the bat, if you haven't read Michael Connelly's "The Poet" yet, you should stop reading this review right now and get that book, it will make your enjoyment of "The Narrows" oh so much better.
This story finds Harry Bosch still a private eye and the widow of a former colleague asks him to check into the death of her husband. On the surface it appears to be of natural causes, but she suspects otherwise.
Meanwhile FBI agent Rachel Walling, who we first met in "The Poet" learns to her surprise that perhaps the Poet (a real nasty serial killer) may still be alive. What's more he's apparently resurfaced and is back at work. And his work, which is of course a wave of killings, seems to be designed to set up the ultimate confrontation between the two.
And where does Harry Bosch fit into all of this? Well you are just going to have to read this better than excellent story to find out. But rest assured, your time will not have been waisted as Michael Connelly is just about the best guy out there when it comes to thrilling crime fiction. Five stars from me, would that I could give more.
Rating: 
Summary: truly awful
Review: I'm about 1/2 way through this awful piece of junk. I must have read "The Poet" to which this is sequel but I cannot remember. In fairness, I am also rereading "Gorky Park" and the contrast, at every level, is cruel to Mr. Connelly.
Some points: All characters are passive-aggressives, those where there is any development are also depressed, no wonder.
What is it with the weird names he gives female characters?
Clearly Mr. Connelly has to write X pages to fulfill his contract so we get Harry Bosch's thoughts on everything, no matter how irrelevant, and boy, are they are irrelevant! In fact, a hidden message in the book may by that Harry Bosch is a total idiot (wink, wink). He keeps complaining that the professionals are blowing him off (he's retired and bugging other people) and you can see why people hang up on him. He goes on about his car, his hotel room, his daughter,..... Mr. Connelly also spends a lot of time in repitition, describing scenes, arriving at the obvious after mucho circular speculation, etc. but that may be just to show how stupid Harry is.
The other main characters are "Rachel" who apparantly spent the last 10 years on an Indian reservation as punishment for something she did in the previous Poet novel. There is the Poet himself, a shadowy character who is fixing to kill them all gruesomely, I was going to say for reasons unknown but after 1/2 a book's exposure to Rachel, Harry, etc. I am cheering for Mr Poet and fully understand why he would want to cleanse the universe of such idiots.
As I leave them Harry and Rachel are bouncing around Las Vegas being followed by a squad of FBI'ers and the Poet. I expect that Rachel is going to get it because such depressed foreshadowing has to lead to something bad and Mr. Connelly can't kill off his mealticket. Harry has a daughter in Vegas and really gruesome things are possible in that direction including 20-30 pages of Harry's thoughts on father-daughter relationships.
Re Amazon's "Fine Print"; this product is not likely to cause injury or death but it may feel like it.
John Glynn
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: I've long been a fan of Connelly; I've read Blood Work, The Concrete Blonde, The Poet, Angels Flight, Trunk Music, City of Bones, Void Moon, and Black Ice and put each novel down looking with anticipation towards his next great story. Good old Harry Bosch gets to confront a killer's killer in 'The Narrows', the Poet, one bad dude. The stuff nightmares are made of. I have all the Harry Bosch thrillers, and have even read a couple more than once. Connelly is a master at shaping rich characters you long remember, like Bosh and the Poet; his story and plot development skills are amongst the best, as he manages to develop a complete dynamic synchronicity between the two. Some readers don't like the author's switching between the first person and third person accounts, but it grows on you. The thrills, the chase, the suspense, the clues that drive you to logical preemptive guesswork, will all drive you happily crazy as you flip through the pages, staying up long after your normal bedtime. I strongly recommend this book, the audio version is also great. I highly recommend 'The Da Vinci Code' by Brown, 'Therapy' by Kellerman, 'A Hole in Texas' by Wouk, 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' by Baigent, and 'Alien Rapture' by Fouche - which is rumored to being made into a movie. Three of five of my recommendations are books based on real conspiracies, check out the reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: The Poet Revisited
Review: In 1996 Michael Connelly treated us to one of the best psycho-sexual serial killer novels of all time. I am usually not a big fan of that genre. Usually authors get to caught up in the slash and dash bizarre elements of such crimes. They almost revel in the depravity often mistaking gore for tension. Connelly never made that mistake. In The Poet, we find that we don't need the in depth details of the crimes to give us the chills, it's enough to see the effects these crimes have on the surrounding players to know we are dealing with a true madman. The Poet was truly that, a madman targeting Homicide detectives. All these detectives were particularly disturbed and obsessed with particular case and when they were found dead in apparent suicides, no one questioned it.
Connelly let us in on the hunt, and when the end of the book came we were truly shocked by the identity of the killer, and dismayed with his escape. Well, it seems that Connelly was equally dismayed. Recently in an interview Connelly mentioned how he resisted writing a sequel to The Poet, but after 9/11 he just didn't feel right letting this evil still roam his universe. Connelly needed to exorcise his demon, and to do that he needed to invite along his dearest friends.
So Connelly pulls together all the characters from his series and stand alone novels to battle this evil. Rachel Walling, the disgraced FBI agent who handled the original case. Harry Bosch, the hard nose retired LAPD Homicide detective who is the object of the majority of Connelly's work and Terry McCaleb, the retired FBI profiler and heart transplant recipient. In a way this is not just a sequel to The Poet, but a linking of his entire universe.
Like a master chess player Connelly spends the first half of the book putting his pieces in the right places. Connelly knows how to build tension through intelligent development instead of explosions and gore. His also infuses a bit of humor into the mix by including many references to the Theatrical version of Bloodwork, and the movies complete disregard for the original tales ending.
Connelly takes on a tough task of trying to complete the tale that The Poet started. While clearly not as good as the original, The Narrows is a worthy follow up to that tale. Connelly's task is tough, because for the most part we know who the killer is and what drives him to do what he does. What he does is create a balance to the world he has created, ending some characters stories, while rejuvenating others.
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