Speaking of monster hunters becoming that which they hunt ... Have you read "The Narrows"? It's an absolutely spine-chilling sequel to this one ... I thought Connelly had gone as deep and dark as he possibly could with this one, "The Poet", "Blood Work" and "The Concrete Blonde", but dangit ...
Also, Eleanor actually does make a reappearance in the later Bosch novels -- and another thing I love about them is how he brings back characters and makes them make an appearance from left field as it were ... (If you've read "Void Moon", take a closer look at Harry's neighbor in Las Vegas, for example ...)
I have! Hm...funnily enough, I think I found The Poet creepier....Narrows just got too close, maybe.
Yep, I also have re-encountered Eleanor....what, three times total? I found that a little weird, to be honest. Perfect personality swap from avenger/upholder of law to...well, you know. And then their interactions? And then she gets to be Refrigerator'd.
One of my pet peeves with the series is how women never make it for more than one book. She's the only return victim and even she doesn't make it for long.
I'm currently on a hardcore Kellerman kick and doing the comparisons. I think Connelly is a better writer, and better at truly digging into issues that he finds troubling, but I have to say I like Alex Delaware and Milo more as protagonists. It's nice to encounter non-self-destructive protags once in a while.
Hah, yes, that's true; there's only so many grumpy detectives I can take, too. (Or make that "grumpy and incapable of forming a lasting relationship", actually, to the extent that's not a tautology). That's why I'm reluctant to get into new mystery/crime series as well if I see the main character is being billed along those lines -- way too many are, these days. Almost would have missed out on Ian Rankin for that reason; boy am I glad I decided to give them a try after all ...
I'm actually not so much bothered about Eleanor as she's portrayed in the later books -- but I do remember also being bothered about her being presented as a pro card player when it first happened. Then again, even as an FBI agent she wasn't exactly conventional and a bit of a loose cannon, so it's at least not totally inconsistent.
What actually bothered me more was the brief shift to a predominantly first person narrative in "City of Bones", as well as the constant changes of perspective in "The Narrows" and one of the Haller novels, "The Reversal" -- I can see why it might have occurred to Connelly to briefly give up the 3d person POV for Bosch, but I never got why it was supposed to be essential to the story; nor were the alternating view points in the other books introduced sufficiently well to make them flow very easily. Still tremendous books overall, but if, on a slightly-more-than-nitpicking level there's soemthing that was "off" for me in them, it would be this!
Also, Eleanor actually does make a reappearance in the later Bosch novels -- and another thing I love about them is how he brings back characters and makes them make an appearance from left field as it were ... (If you've read "Void Moon", take a closer look at Harry's neighbor in Las Vegas, for example ...)
Yep, I also have re-encountered Eleanor....what, three times total? I found that a little weird, to be honest. Perfect personality swap from avenger/upholder of law to...well, you know. And then their interactions? And then she gets to be Refrigerator'd.
One of my pet peeves with the series is how women never make it for more than one book. She's the only return victim and even she doesn't make it for long.
I'm currently on a hardcore Kellerman kick and doing the comparisons. I think Connelly is a better writer, and better at truly digging into issues that he finds troubling, but I have to say I like Alex Delaware and Milo more as protagonists. It's nice to encounter non-self-destructive protags once in a while.
I'm actually not so much bothered about Eleanor as she's portrayed in the later books -- but I do remember also being bothered about her being presented as a pro card player when it first happened. Then again, even as an FBI agent she wasn't exactly conventional and a bit of a loose cannon, so it's at least not totally inconsistent.
What actually bothered me more was the brief shift to a predominantly first person narrative in "City of Bones", as well as the constant changes of perspective in "The Narrows" and one of the Haller novels, "The Reversal" -- I can see why it might have occurred to Connelly to briefly give up the 3d person POV for Bosch, but I never got why it was supposed to be essential to the story; nor were the alternating view points in the other books introduced sufficiently well to make them flow very easily. Still tremendous books overall, but if, on a slightly-more-than-nitpicking level there's soemthing that was "off" for me in them, it would be this!