Almost thirty years ago. I lived far from the Los Angeles his
story took place in.
In a kinder, gentler city - well, then, anyway. Not sure
about now for any city.
So I got a crime thriller from the local library. I have
always loved libraries! I would need one of those floor-to-ceiling
libraries at home, the kind with the rolling ladder, if I bought all
the books I have read.
I started the book, a paperback novel, and barely survived
the first page. Gritty, down and dirty crime scene. And oh my the
crime! And the details!
No, I had not experienced this level of violence, nor
descriptions of! I'm quite sure I suddenly had something to do...And
resumed the book a few days later.
I got drawn in. The post-crime scene tedious functions of
the detective Harry Bosch, calmed my shocked mind. Not that the novel
was tedious, but the form-filling, detail reporting to the captain,
documenting overtime -- that helped me stick with the story.
Kind of like anyone's job, right? The sturm und drang so to
speak.
A lot of years went
by before I read another Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly. I had
moved to Los Angeles County.
I had watched the
six o'clock news for a while - the Los Angeles news. I became
acclimated.
I was actually
driving down to LAX airport to pick someone up and had to stop for
directions, one normal day. The car dealership I pulled into was
closing. A kind black man gave me directions to the airport adding --
"and ma'am I don't l know what you're doing out here right now."
He eyed my toddler,
strapped into the car seat in the back. I was puzzled.
I didn't know that
while I was heading along Century Blvd. into LAX, that rioters were
shooting at the planes that were landing!
I didn't know that
the Rodney King verdict had come out and that the city was being
assaulted by the offended black community.
I picked up my
friend, and he opted to drive back. We decided to go up PCH, through
Santa Monica and up along the ocean. Instead of going past Inglewood
where tremendous emotional pain and rage was playing out.
We turned on the
radio (I never had it on because I liked to talk to my child when
driving) and realized what was happening!
I think that was the
first time I registered that I was now in the town of Harry Bosch, a
wonderful complex character created by Michael Connelly. Yup, I am
here, where I am.
And yet, it was
probably a few years later that I checked another book by him out of
the library. "The Poet".
I was fascinated by
computers, and computer crime. And I've read it again.
And since then, I
have read every Michael Connolly novel, in sequence.
Amazing, the City of
Angels... So wonderful, so mixed up, so light and so dark.
Yet
Michael Connolly has that amazing talent, he's kind of like the
Impressionist painters -- with a palette of dashes and dots, that you
can step back from, relax the focus of your eyes.
And everything is
perfectly clear.
