Lost Light, by Michael Connelly

LAPD detective Harry Bosch has just retired from the police force and he has gone into business for himself as a private investigator.  For his first case, he has himself for a client.  Four years ago Harry was the initial detective assigned to the murder of Angella Benton, a young woman working in the film industry at Eidolon Pictures.  Harry had just started investigating her murder when two million dollars was stolen from Eidolon during the shooting of a movie scene.  Angella was one of the few people who knew the money would be on the set.  Since her murder might have been linked to the robbery, her case was reassigned to the detectives handling the theft.  Angella’s murderer and the robbers were never caught and the two million dollars never surfaced.   Something about Angella’s death has always haunted Harry and now that he is retired, he decides to reinvestigate her murder and try to discover why she was killed and who killed her.  Connelly is one of my favorite authors and this is a welcome addition to the great Bosch series.
 

The Face, by Dean Koontz

The Face belongs to Channing Manheim, the most famous, most handsome, and most successful movie star in the world.  Channing, divorced, lives on a huge estate in Bel Air called Palazzo Rospo with his ten-year-old son Aelfric and a staff of thirty or so.  The time is a few days before Christmas.  Channing is in Florida shooting his latest film but is due back Christmas Eve to celebrate the holidays with Fric, as his son likes to be called.  While Channing is gone, the head housekeeper looks after Fric, with the help of the chief of security, Ethan Truman.   As head of security, Ethan has been personally dealing with a series of mysterious, anonymous packages that have been sent to the estate and seem to be threatening harm to Channing.  When he traces one of the packages to a small-time actor, he sets in motion the start of a strange, scary, supernatural experience that will pit him and Fric against a dangerous enemy.  I’m not a great fan of the supernatural but I enjoyed this book due to its suspense, its wonderful description of Palazzo Rospo, and the truly winning characters of Fric, Ethan, and a homicide cop named Hazard.
 

The Guardian, by Nicholas Sparks

Julie Barenson, 29, works in a beauty shop in the small North Carolina town of Swansboro.  Four years ago, her husband Jim died of a brain tumor.  Shortly after his death, she received a final gift from Jim—a Great Dane puppy.  Julie named the dog Singer and he has been her constant companion in the years following her husband’s death.  Now, Julie is finally ready to start dating again.  After a couple of false starts she meets Richard Franklin, a handsome engineer transferred to Swansboro to work on a new bridge.  Richard is suave and sophisticated and he sweeps Julie off her feet.  For a time.  After two dates, though, she decides she’s more interested in Mike Harris, an old friend of Jim’s.  Richard, unfortunately, has become obsessed with Julie and will not take no for an answer.  Soon he’s plotting Julie’s abduction so she can take the place of his dead wife.   In an author’s note, Mr. Sparks explains that he wanted to try a suspense novel as a departure from his usual fare.  I found the suspense to be somewhat lacking but I liked the characters and this was still a pleasant read.
 

Bare Bones, by Kathy Reichs

This is the sixth novel featuring Tempe Brennan, the forensic anthropologist who divides her time between Canada and North Carolina.  Tempe is in Charlotte and getting ready to go on vacation to the beach with Andrew Ryan, the Canadian police detective she has been dating.  Before they can leave, though, Tempe is called to investigate human bones that have been discovered in a woodstove.  Then, more human bones turn up at a remote farm.  Are the cases linked and will the bones provide clues to the disappearance of two forest service rangers who were investigating the smuggling of exotic animals and plants?  Tempe has a personal connection to one set of bones and she and Ryan set out to investigate the cases themselves.  When Ryan is called back to Canada, Tempe continues on her own, not realizing she is putting herself in grave danger.  This was one of the best books in this series—with an interesting story and nice interplay among the characters.
 

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

We’re in Paris, where the elderly head curator of the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere, has been found murdered in one of the museum’s galleries.  Before he died, he managed to scrawl a number of messages that appear to be in code.  One message, however, is less ambiguous: P.S. Find Robert Langdon.  Langdon is a famous Harvard professor of religious symbology and he happens to be in Paris giving a lecture.  Is he Sauniere’s killer or the key to keeping an ancient secret safe?  Saunier’s estranged granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, is a police cryptologist, and she is called in to assist in unraveling the coded messages.  Sophie immediately sees that Langdon is considered the chief suspect by the police but she feels her grandfather meant for her to work with him.  She and Langdon escape Paris and embark on a dashing journey as they decipher her grandfather’s coded clues to an ancient treasure.

I waited and waited for this book but it kept being checked out and every time it came back there was a hold on it.  It earned a rave with each return.  Finally it got to be my turn.  There’s a reason it has been on the bestseller lists for months.  It is flat out one of the best novels I’ve read this year.  It’s a wonderful suspense story but a whole lot more than that.  It’s simply crammed with fascinating information that also moves the story and contributes to a book that’s very difficult to put down.  You will lose yourself in this book—and also find yourself running to consult a few history and art books.  Don’t miss it!
 
 
 
 

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