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A Novel I Loved

 My favorite novel I've read in a while is "Desert Star," which is currently at the top of various sales lists in America.


"Desert Star" is ostensibly about two puzzling murder cases, but really it's about people. It's a large gallery of bizarre, compelling characters. You have a politician whose team calls the police thirty minutes before a "surprise pop-in," so a photo shoot can be arranged. You have an "empath" who annoys her colleagues with inane chatter about "psychic auras," but who also may be indispensable to various cold-case investigation efforts.

You have a bull-headed star, Bosch, who can't force himself to pay attention to his employer's agenda, and who insists on covertly photocopying private workplace papers. (The fights over photocopy privileges are such a treat, and they quickly bring Bosch to life. One thing that makes the writer Michael Connelly special is that he is *simultaneously* interested in horrifying murders *and* interested in an office photocopier.)

You have a woman who lies about a home robbery; the fact of the lie is clear, but the reason for the lie is shady. (Bosch hovers outside the woman's house after a visit, hoping to overhear an incriminating phone call. In the real world, if you're a cop, you might occasionally overhear one brother whispering, to another, HE KNOWS WE DID IT! ....In the case of "Desert Star," you get only half a sentence--"The cop just left....."--before the woman wanders deep into the bowels of her house, making her voice inaudible.)

Some writers develop a "triple threat" quality; they check off all the boxes. Connelly's interest in personality, and his relentless pacing, will hook me every time. I loved "Desert Star."
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