Maybe this is why I either misplaced “The Overlook” or never actually bought it at the book sale in “Little Washington.” I would not have gone looking for a signed copy of this book online. But, I have just ordered it for about $42 (including tax & shipping). Why? If it arrives with a valid Connelly signature as shown below, it would be well worth it for me, “Bill,” even though the “Bill” mentioned in the signature, wasn’t me… but maybe it was meant to be. ‘All the best from Harry Bosch, Good luck in court’;-)
from JOHN CARTERThe Overlookfrom BOSCHIf only, would this not be my perfect signed copy?
Apparently this is the novel in which the FBI agent, is having an affair and kills the husband, who has stolen radioactive Cesium, and somewhere during this case Harry is exposed to the radioactivity… later giving him a mild form of Leukemia (With mom dying of Leukemia, I find it difficult to imagine a “mild form.”).
On the TV Bosch, Lynn Collins plays the unfaithful wife, who’s husband has been murdered, by her lover, an FBI agent. The actress played Dejah Thorin in “John Carter.” I liked the “John Carter” movie, but later, much later, was reading online that this movie was a “stinker,” and had lost a bunch of money for Disney. In that movie, Lynn Collins looked like a goddess, while she was more haggard looking in the Bosch episode.
[NOTE]: I just recalled that I did a Google Maps Street View on some of the locations from the Bosch TV series that included this story (The Overlook). They had an outside scene for St. Agatha’s Hospital, which I eventually found was another “out of business” hospital that they had put a sign on. There had been an actual “St. Agatha’s Hospital” but that location had been razed to the ground, pending new development. [end NOTE]
I suppose this is the Overlook.
And this was the victim’s home (which is actually very close to the Overlook location.
St. Vincent’s Medical Center used as St. Agatha’s Hospital
The truth is that the Shrimp Burger with coleslaw and a side of fried okra & a cold Diet Pepsi (and a small plastic cup of Cocktail Sauce), was really delicious and… I just made dinner with a pork chop fried in bacon grease, steamed asparagus, polenta & a Greek salad and it was really delicious also. So was the gravy I made from the little bit of grease in the pork chop pan mixed with some Wondra flour and chicken stock. The gravy went well with the polenta and a little slice of pork chop, each bite.
The Greek salad was delicious, and the homemade dressing (red wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, Italian herbs, and sweetener) is spot on. The salad is simple: romaine lettuce, sweet onion, assorted olives, grape tomatoes and Feta cheese. Simple, yet easily repeatable, and consistently delicious.
And this homemade Greek salad went really well with the Lamb Gyro sandwich that I got from Pharaoh’s Legacy in Fayetteville (other side of town) last Wednesday. The next day I drove to Jacksonville, NC and had lunch at Marakesh Restaurant, and I had another Lamb Gyro there, with their small Greek salad. That was delicious also, but just a hair below the flavors of the previous day. Celebrated our birthdays, I together. I was born on Mary Ann’s 16th birthday, so she is now 86 years old, and I am 70 years old.
As far as I know I am in good health. I do have the pacemaker, to keep my heart from beating too slowly, and am taking one or more drugs to make sure it doesn’t beat too fast. Both of those seem to be working. And my Type 2 Diabetes has been better kept in check, until just recently when my resting Bgl has started to inch upward, I think because I am having trouble getting a refill for my Trulicity 4.5. Seems Trulicity is on back order across the board, not just CVS, but several CVSs, both n town and out of town (Erwin & Lumberton), and Walgreens (who said they were told not to order before February 23rd). That’s a full month from today. I’ve lost about 10 pounds in a little over 2 months, and my average resting Bgl has dropped about 30 points. My lows were just hitting about 150 about three months ago and for the last two months, just a few highs have been above 150. Quite a jump.
So, I feel relatively good. I’m able to live without assistance. Able to drive myself wherever, and daily to at least a couple of grocery stores (Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Publix, Fresh Market, Sprouts, Lidl, IGA, Walmart & Pates Farmer’s Market), and plan, days in advance, and cook my meals, with a relative sense of control of what I am eating, and varying the meats & veggies enough to not tire of any of it.
On the fly, I can change what I have scheduled to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today, I replaced a salad for baked beans at dinnertime.
I’m enjoying reading the Connelly’ Bosch novels and am currently on my 5th, “9 Dragons.”
Still wondering what happened to “the Overlook,” which I thought I had bought down in Washington at the Brown Library Book Sale last Friday. But, either I didn’t buy it, or I bought it and it has “magically” disappeared. I marked four novels (that I didn’t already have) on my phone as having been purchased in Washington. But, now I can only find 3 of them. I bought 10 Connelly hard backs in Washington. *Now, having mixed the books I had, with the new ones purchased, I can’t tell which is which, or even if one is missing.
From reading online, Eleanor Wish, Harry’s Ex, is murdered in “9 Dragons,” and Harry is exposed to radiation, which eventually leads to cancer, in “the Overlook.” I recall the Overlook story from the Bosch TV series. A woman’s husband is set up to steal radioactive material from a hospital, and then is killed by his wife’s lover (an FBI agent), which sets up the story to be told and the crime to be solved in that story. *The actress played a Princess of Mars (is that Barsoom) in the unsuccessful Disney movie. I liked the movie, but apparently the rest of the public did not, or at least not enough to pay for the exorbitant special effects. **The actress, Lynn Collins, who successfully played a “goddess” of Barsoom, is proof that movies can make “an ordinary looking woman” into a goddess, using makeup, wardrobe, lighting & camera angles.
So, at my age, I am facing, “the next moment” in which my life is severely changed, and in a negative way. I won’t be alive, or I won’t be able to live on my own, or cook for myself, or drive myself around (and that may be as few as five years more), or perhaps think clearly.
Sometimes I make homemade hummus (garbanzo beans, lime juice, olive oil, cumin seeds, S&P). I like to cut up some sweet bell pepper (assorted colors), a little sweet onion (Vidalia), halve a few grape tomatoes, add a few assorted olives and open a can of smoked oysters. I may even pour the oil from the smoked oysters into the hummus. I can make a meal off of this.
The replacement I bought. Oneida Golden Julliard Cocktail/Seafood Fork.
I gave my whole Oneida Golden Julliard pattern away including the flatware box, and then I realized how dependent I had become using the above Cocktail/Seafood Fork, so I bought just one from the Replacements Showroom, just outside of Burlington. I use this fork a lot when eating olives, or the smoked oysters, pickles, or maybe even Spicy Chili Crisp out of the jar.
I drove down to Jacksonville on Thursday morning to meet up with Mary Ann and Ray & Jacquelyn at Marrakesh Restaurant at 11 am. Mary Ann had said they open at 11 am, but I think I saw online that they normally open at 10:30 am, except on Sundays, which I think was 11 am.
On the way down, I stopped at the rest stop where NC 24 and I40 cross paths, to use the bathroom. There were a bunch of young children all being naturally loud, some in the bathrooms and some in lines against the hall walls. As I am coming back to my car, the children and their teachers had all migrated out near the church vans they were being transported in. A sign on the side of one of the vans was the name of a church, perhaps something like “Emmanuel XXX Church Rocky Mount, NC.”
Feeling playful and sensing their excitement of the whole experience, I asked, “Are you on a field trip, from Rocky Mount.” The nearest adult, I presume a teacher, responded that they were on a trip, and that they were from Rocky Mount. I did not find out where they were going, but I could surmise that they might be going down to Wilmington, NC. I waved at the children, who had now formed a line, with two children each side by side. Their teacher had grouped them in twos before they were to cross the street to get to their van. But, as I begin to get ready to back my car out of its spot, I see the last little girl in the line and she is looking at me and starts to wave. And, I am glad that I was still looking at these children, and so I make an animated wave back to her, as she joins her line-partner.
My thought on this waving to this child, and I’m not always attentive, is that she was the last child in the line of children I had been “playing” with and asking questions of. I probably didn’t even look directly at her while I was playing. But now “my playing” had been important enough to her that she was giving me a special wave goodbye. And that gift, unacknowledged, would have sent the wrong message to her. But the message I wanted to send to someone that had just given me a special wave, was that you are just as important to me as all those others were, maybe more so, because of you thinking enough of me to wave.
I had a picture book, on my passenger seat that was about “the Ocean.” Not just one ocean, but all oceans, and all the stuff and things that swim about and in these oceans. Something interesting for a child to look at, while physically holding a book. I wanted to roll down my window and hand this book, as a gift to the teacher, but I didn’t. That is a little regret. That would have made our interaction even more special & memorable. Oh well.
So, I had asked Mary Ann if I could stay the night (I normally just go down for the day and return home at night.), since I was planning to go to Wilmington for the Library Book Sale on Friday morning. She said okay. I wasn’t sure if I was going to both book sales, one in Wilmington and one in Washington, NC, but I thought that the Wilmington sale might have more books that I was looking for. *That actually turned out to be incorrect. There were 10 hardbacks in Washington and only 6 in Wilmington, but I went to both & bought 16 books for a total of about $45. ** Some of the extra money I gave, as a donation to the libraries above the $1 or $2 prices per book.
Up on Friday morning, read just a little of “Echo Park” and then had a very enjoyable warm shower. Short trip to Helen’s Kitchen for a country ham breakfast, with one egg over medium, grits, biscuits & coffee and water, with ice. *My routine is to save one biscuit (which I love how they’re made, really flat with little insides), slice it open with a knife and then put a good portion of the good portion of country ham that they bring out for my meal. I then ask for a sandwich wrapper, and in this case the waitress also brought out a small brown bag to put the wrapped country ham biscuit in. The breakfast was good, as usual.
It takes just a little over an hour to drive from Jacksonville to Wilmington, NC. Dixon, mostly unchanged, but most of the rest of the way (Highway 17) has become extremely developed, maybe even overdeveloped. Holly Ridge and Hampstead more development and then at some point there is only development on each side of the highway… endless stores, shops, conveniences, etc.
Made it to the library location in Wilmington shortly after 10 am. It was to open at 10 am. I walked through the front door and immediately there were all the books, on tables for sale. There was another room with books also, but there was no waiting in line to get inside, as there is at the Cumberland County Library Book Sale (Fire Department Limits). I was in, asked where Connelly books might be located, was directed and found a small box, on a table with Michael Connelly novels. I think I found two or three that I didn’t already have but ended up buying six hardbacks (at $1 each). Got a card with a 6/1 on it, which meant 6 @ $1 and 1 @ 50 cents, walked to the cashier, presented my card, was told that I owed $6.50 and I gave her a $20 and said keep the change for a donation. And, I was out the door, and in a brief time, once again on Highway 17, but this time heading back to Jacksonville, and then New Bern, and eventually Washington, NC.
So, I drove up to Little Washington to go to the Brown Library Book Sale (01/19/24 – Open to the Public) in the Washington Civic Center. I’m currently reading some of the Harry Bosch (LA detective), Michael Connelly novels, and have found I can buy them at library book sales for a dollar, or two. Brown Library was selling “hard backs” for $2@. I ended up finding 10 Connelly hardbacks, and paid $20 plus a small donation. Still, “what a deal” compared to spending $35 per book, when they are brand new, only paying $1 or $2 each.
Met a couple of women, friends of each other, going into the book sale. One was asking me about the yellow bag I was carrying in. I told her it was my grocery bag, and that I had forgotten my larger, heavy duty, light gray, bag that I had used for the Cumberland County Library Book Sales in Fayetteville. She went back to her car to get her own bag, and I talked with her friend briefly. The friend said she had become interested in “detective” novels, and I told her briefly about the L.A. detective, Harry Bosch, and that Michael Connelly was a very good writer. She repeated the last name, “Connelly” and we all made it to the front door and went in. I left them and went over to the “C” section for Connelly, and other authors with names beginning with C.
At first I couldn’t find any Connelly books, the name is usually prominently displayed on the colorful book jackets. I asked one of the staff whether there was a “Connelly” section. She wasn’t familiar with the name but she was putting a long string of another author’s books together. I then found about 4 Connelly novels grouped together. I already had a couple, and two I didn’t, but I bought all four. And then I found that there were others, not in the group, but there amidst the other authors if you looked, a Connelly here, a Connelly there, and eventually I found 10 Michael Connelly hardbacks (@$2). *Surprisingly finding more of these in Little Washington than I had at the book sale in Wilmington, NC. Only six of the Connelly novels I wanted in Wilmington that morning, but I did also buy a German Language softback for 50 cents also.
Before leaving the book sale, I looked around trying to find the two women I had talked to before coming inside. Since I had bought ALL of the Connelly books that I had seen, I had left none for the woman. I had a couple of duplicate books, and thought it would be a cheap present for someone I didn’t know to introduce her to Harry Bosch, and Michael Connelly. But, I didn’t see the women, but then thought they might have already left, and the next thought was that I might be looking at them and not remembering what they actually looked like.
So, I left and drove the short distance around to “Down on Main Street“. I’ve been to the restaurant, “Down on Main Street” several times. Perhaps first with Leo Taylor, on one of our visits to Washington. I think I may have had their Spaghetti “lunch special” and immediately fell in love with their spaghetti sauce. Most restaurants, that I visit, “dumb down” their spaghetti sauces, trying to not offend anyone with distinctive ingredients, like onion, mushrooms, Italian spices, or maybe even some meat (ground beef). But this spaghetti sauce was DELICIOUS! It had distinctive flavor and the garlic bread was good with it. *The problem, was eventually “Down on Main Street” stopped offering the spaghetti special for lunch. I think they stopped serving spaghetti altogether, at least for a while.
But, yesterday, January 19th, 2024, I had a Shrimp Burger, with slaw, and a side of fried okra, with a cold, Diet Pepsi. The burger was delicious, the shrimp good, the slaw good, the Kaiser Roll (maybe just a burger bun) soft & moist. The fried okra were cooked well, and there was a little plastic cup of cocktail sauce. It all came together for a very pleasurable lunch. My waitress, Jo Jo (not sure of how she spells it), was very friendly and attentive to my drink refills, and at the last, my “to go” cup. In our banter, I asked about the spaghetti special, and she said they offered it on Tuesdays for lunch. I told her I had enjoyed it before they discontinued it, and was glad that they had started offering it again.
While I was eating lunch, I think it was a waitress coming out from the kitchen, and a female customer, coming out from the bathroom awkwardly tried to occupy the same space briefly. And, the waitress, without really being at fault, contorting to try to avoid the customer, dropped a couple of small bowls and the food made a mess of a rug and the floor in that walkway area. Someone came out with a caution sign, and someone with a broom, and someone with a mop. These someone’s were all young men, not sure if they are all waiters also, but that the cleanup duty came to them, and they stepped efficiently into the fray, and the cleanup was, in a brief time, complete… except for on small dollop of perhaps mayo, left on one edge of the throw rug. And this, only something that someone, myself, that had witnessed the whole accident & cleanup, would even notice.
I mentioned the “accident & efficient clean-up” to Jo Jo, my waitress. I said that the young men reminded me of the Roomba Robots (there is a current commercial showing the imagined, behind the scenes, chorography controlling the cleaning robot). She said that her husband had also made a comment on how efficiently they cleaned up, when necessary. They are a good working team!
After my very pleasurable lunch experience at “Down on Main Street,” I decided to drive around the town. I wasn’t going to go far, but just wanted to see if there were any changes in the immediate area, and knew I wanted to “get on the road” back to Fayetteville. I had already been on the road for three hours that morning, from Jacksonville to Wilmington, and back through Jacksonville to New Bern and on to Washington, NC.
Just a few blocks up from the restaurant, I came upon Moss Landing. I found this new neighborhood to be immediately captivating. The homes were colorful, mostly in pastels & whites, and very reminiscent of the nice “beach” homes, that you find, “on the beach.” I drove slowly through the new development and then came back taking several pictures of the homes with my phone. I liked this neighborhood immediately and thought that it was a very nice addition to “Little Washington.” Something positive and to be proud of. *I live a long distance from Washington, NC, rarely visit, but have had good experiences in Little Washington and as “Down on Main Street.” I miss my good friend, Leo Taylor. He was very good to me, as a friend, and a boss.
[NOTE 01/21/24]: Finished “Echo Park” early this morning. There was something about the Wait’s garage description, and the hole in the wall that jogged my memory. I must have seen this in the Bosch series, but don’t recall how many years ago. *[01/22/25 UPDATE]: This novel starts with a car being found in the small garages leading to the High Tower Apartments, and the High Tower is an icon from the 1973 movie, “The Long Goodbye,” in which Elliot Gould plays the fictional detective, Philip Marlowe. I love the “feeding the cat” sequence and now there is even a view from the tower looking down on the small garages. Brief, but if you know what you are looking at, rewarding. The High Tower (elevator) is located just over the hill from the Hollywood Bowl Amphitheater. I learned to despise Harry Bosch from reading the books, not from the TV series. [end UPDATE]
Not sure of what criteria I’m going to use to choose the next book to read. Go to the latest, well next to the last one, unless Connelly has published a new one for this year… or go to the earliest one I have, which is probably about 2001. **Not sure that I am really interested in the early Bosch, although at one time I would have enjoyed it. Sort of like all those Midsomer Murder mysteries I watched over the years (20+ seasons). I enjoyed most of them, but no longer have a desire to rewatch them and I actually began to dislike Barnaby. What a shit family man he was.
NOTE [ 01/22/24 ]: Got around to writing to “Down on Main Street” Restaurant via email, complimenting them on my good experience there (again):
I first visited Down on Main Street several years ago with a friend, who had grown up in “little” Washington. His name was Leo Taylor and his parents had managed the Trailways Bus Station for many years. I think I had your “Spaghetti Special” and thought it was so good because you didn’t “dumb down” your spaghetti sauce. There was a lot of flavor in your sauce! And, I came back several times and enjoyed this special, until you stopped offering it.
I live out of town, but last Friday had come up from Jacksonville, NC and decided to have lunch with you. My waitress was “Jo Jo” and she was excellent, friendly and attentive. I had your Shrimp Burger, with coleslaw, and a side of fried okra, with a cold Diet Pepsi. Let me say that was the BEST tasting lunch, from the first bite to the last.
While there, there was an accident between a waitress, coming out of the kitchen, and a woman, coming out of the bathroom. They both tried to occupy the same space at the same time, and unfortunately the waitress dropped some of her order on the floor making a mess in the walkway. It wasn’t her fault, by the way. Here is the compliment… there were several young men who went into action, like the Roomba Robot, and cleaned up the area quickly and efficiently. They acted as a team, one with a broom, one with a mop, etc. Floor clean, viola.
So, you have really good food. You have a really good waitress, and you have really good staff that are working as a team!
Thanks.
Bill
[end NOTE]
[NOTE 01/22/25]: As I was reading the Bosch novels, I would go online and use Google Street View to get a better feel for the Los Angeles area. It may have been “Echo Park” and I was looking at a cafe that the character might have passed in the novel. I visited the web site for this restaurant and saw their long handled silverware. This inspired me to buy some like them. Yes, it made no sense, but I did it.
However, there is something rewarding about having a set of stainless steel chop stix. Well four sets. One for each place setting. [end NOTE]
I don’t notice it in Bosch Legacy episodes, but the early Bosch shows did something that I found quickly odd. Odd compared to almost all TV shows & movies that came prior. The locations were real, and street signs were real, with a few exceptions where an actual location was used for a different purpose, such as, a bank and it’s parking lot being used as a restaurant and “shoot out” scene for the story. But, for the most part, if you paused the video and looked at a street sign, then you could actually google for that location in Google Maps (Streetview) and you could usually find it. I do recall one house that I couldn’t find on my own in this way, but that was because there was only a house number showing on a gaudily painted house, and nowhere in the scene was there a street sign visible.
So, I have never read a Stephen King novel (that I can recall), but I have watched the myriad of movies which have been made from his writings & novels. Until recently, I could say the same about the author Michael Connelly and his Bosch (and Lincoln Lawyer) novels. I rarely read fiction, and for most of my working life only read technical manuals & industry related items. The exception might have been in reading various works regarding education.
But, I am now almost 180 pages into reading “The Crossing” by Michael Connelly. I’ve cheated, and looked, and there are 388 pages of the actual novel. Why? Well, this is about the third book that I am reading because of my experience with the Little Community Lending Libraries that I took on as my own project, of being a “book bee” (my term for moving a few books from one location, area or even city to another). I normally don’t take a book or two to actually read, but only to cross-pollinate these little book drops. Two exceptions have been “Fig Pudding” and “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” which was the late Matthew Perry memoir. I will attribute “The Crossing” to these little libraries, but not because I actually found it there, but because I’ve started collecting these Connelly novels to add to these lending libraries starting this coming spring. *I’ve stopped my “book bee” process since it’s gotten colder, because I am guessing that fewer people walk around to these locations in bad weather, and I also don’t want to leave a book, “out in the cold” during stormy winter months. Oh, and I settled on Connelly novels because I had enjoyed the Bosch series on TV. And it was an added bonus that I had independently liked the Lincoln Lawyer series, before I ever knew the connection between Haller & Bosch, and Connelly, the author of both. At the last Cumberland County Library Book Sale, I found a whole shelf of the Connelly-Bosch novels and that was the second day of the sale. No telling how many had filled the shelves on Day One.
I don’t plan to read even a few of the Bosch novels, but I am finding The Crossing to be enjoyable. First, I know most of the characters mentioned, and have probably even seen the story line on TV first, but I do see where an event where Haller is “set up” by crooked cops on a DUI bust… so the cops can view the files he is carrying in the trunk of his Lincoln, after he is carted off to jail, actually happens to Honey Chandler in the TV episode. And I’m not sure of how a fictional event in a book, or a fictional event in a TV episode can “actually happen.” I guess it’s just poetic license.
But all of the previous writing above, was just to get me to the point so that I could mention that the novels apparently echo that of the TV series. Places mentioned in the book are many times, actual places that you can find in Streetview. I’ve skipped over a few locations already mentioned in the book but plan to go back and include them in my Streetview searching.
So, Harry Bosch is meeting another character at a local bar. The book mentions the name of the bar and even describes a large mural painted on the side of the building as being of an old Mariachi. This was the trigger for me to finally go to Streetview searching for this bar & location. Sure enough I put in the bar name, “Eastside Luv” and quickly found it and yup, there was the grizzled old Mariachi musician portrayed on the side of the building.
As another aside, I will miss Lance Reddick, the actor. I liked him in everything I saw him in. Enjoyed his character in “Fringe.”
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I came across the Matthew Perry memoir in one of the little community lending libraries about three days before the actor died. I snagged the book because I thought someone would like to read it. However, less than a week later, as I was viewing one of those online tributes to actors & other famous persons who have died in the current year, I saw a picture of Matthew Perry. My thought was that I didn’t know he was dead, and when did it happen. I quickly found that he had actually died, very recently, and just 3 days after I snagged his book.
So I told myself that I probably will have to read it now. And, I started slowly, but then picked up speed and finished it, except for the last half page, which I superstitiously left unread. He was a tennis player in his youth, so I had that in common, although I started much later in life. He made $80 millions mostly from “Friends” but he also spent $7 millions on therapy. By the end of the book, I was thinking another title might have been “Self-Inflicted Wounds.” Catch-22. Without the holes in his soul, he probably wouldn’t have been talented enough to be on “Friends” and make millions & millions of dollars… and with the holes, he was so “fucked up” that he could never be happy, and would put himself through more pain than almost any enemy would have thought “too brutal” to foist on even the most hated foe. And ironic. From the start of the book he is saying, “I should have been dead by now,” ”many times.”
I got “Fig Pudding” from a LCL in Benson, NC. It was one of many (perhaps 15 or more copies) in the little hut on a stick. I’m guessing this many copies might have been purchased for a Sunday School class, or other group reading project, perhaps at a school. In any case, the read was quick and enjoyable. Not really religious themed, but a family story with ups and downs, and one of the downs being really down. The sudden death of one of the children. It’s not a real family or story, but an entertaining look, that makes the reader want to participate in that kind of cohesive unit.
[NOTE]: On the actor, Titus Welliver… ”Mullholland Falls” from 1996 is still fun to watch, and in it Welliver, a much, much younger Welliver, plays a letch, who is about to screw a young, naive girl, even if it means doping her up beforehand. The Nolte character, a policeman, steps in hard, and kills the Welliver character with his own dope filled hypodermic syringe. But none of that keeps the bad guys, other bad guys, from throwing the Jennifer Connelly character from an aeroplane. And, I don’t know if Michael Connelly and Jennifer Connelly are any, if even, distant relation.
[ A LATER NOTE ]: ”I don’t plan to read even a few of the Bosch novels, but I am finding The Crossing to be enjoyable.“ Funny, since now I am on my fifth Bosch novel, “the 9 Dragons,” and may read more. I am finding “9 Dragons” to be a little slower reading than the previous four Bosch novels I have read, and enjoyed. I think this may be the novel where Harry has to fly to Hong Kong to rescue his daughter, Maddie. Not sure if his ex-wife, who Maddie lives with all but two weeks of the year, (is it Eleanor Wish) is killed in this story. In the TV series, his ex-wife is gunned down in an L.A. parking lot, and I don’t think that Harry flies to Hong Kong in the TV series.
*I enjoyed the first Bosch TV series, and the latest, “Bosch Legacy,” but having started to read Connelly’s Bosch novels, I really like the author’s stories better than the TV adaptations, and part of that is because I like the Mickey Haller, his Lincoln Lawyer half-brother, character. I think I read that it is licensing agreements that limit the Bosch-Haller interaction on the TV series, and that is probably why the Honey Chandler character was prominent in the TV series. I haven’t read if she even exists in the novels, or if she does, probably plays a much smaller mentionable role there.
[AN EVEN LATER NOTE 04/02/24]: Having mentioned above that I don’t plan to read even a few of the Bosch novels, I am now reading “The DROP,” and I have already read about 15 other Bosch novels, and have a couple more ready to be read after the current one I am reading. I haven’t read them in order, and there have been some interesting insights because of the timing & order of reading that I have made. That is one reason for why I wrote a brief article called, “Harry Bosch, that lying sack of shit.” [end of NOTE]
[NOTE 07/04/24]: The 4th of July, 2024, and I am at home watching part of the “Twilight Zone Marathon” on the SyFy Channel. And the current episode is, “Time Enough At Last,” which stars Burgess Meredith. This is the episode in which Henry Bemis, a bank teller, who is a voracious reader with thick glasses is repeatedly stymied at both work and home by “non-readers.” One day, while reading on his break, in the bank vault, an H-Bomb goes off killing everyone else on Earth. Bemis emerges from the bank vault into a world of twisted metal and ashes. He walks the earth and finds that there is enough canned goods and other food in a demolished grocery for him to survive. (I know that canned goods, most of them, have a shelf life, and eventually will spoil, even in a well sealed can. So, eventually he would need to figure out how to reproduce food by “tilling the soil.”) And then, just before deciding to put an end to his aloneness with a bullet, he spies a fallen pillar with the words “Public Library” written on it. And here he finds and starts to compile his readings, sorted by months, as stacks of books on the front steps of the demolished library. And here’s the twist. While bending down to pick up a tome, his glasses slip from his face falling to the concrete steps and completely shattering the lenses. He cannot see to read, which seems to be the most important obstacle for the rest of his life. And the episode ends, “in the Twilight Zone.”
So, I’ve read all the Bosch novels except for “The Burning Room” and “The Wrong Side of Goodbye.” I am a little over 50 pages into “The Burning Room,” which I thought would be a story about the death of a young girl, killed by smoke inhalation during an apartment fire started by a fire bomb. The “bad guys” were trying to get tenants out of this apartment complex so they could build something bigger. *That storyline was from several Bosch episodes on TV. **But that hasn’t happened yet, and we are focused on a Mariachi player, who having been shot ten years prior has suffered and finally died of blood poisoning, due to his original injury. Thus this becomes a homicide which is now handed off to Harry Bosch and his novice Spanish speaking protege, Soto. This is Harry’s last year, not many more cases left in his LAPD detective career before the DROP (not the Bosch novel).
Mariachi Plaza
The shooting occurred at the crowded Mariachi Plaza and was for 10 years thought to have been a “drive by” shooting. But now, with the player’s death, an autopsy has produced a rifle slug that had been lodged into his spine. And the bullet, having been fired from a rifle, was proof (if not positive) that the shooting had been deliberate and not just random.
There is a description, from a store security camera located across the street from the Plaza, of the actual shooting. I suppose from the current Google Street View that that store no longer exists.
The Corner of Boyle and 1st Street at Mariachi Plaza.
As I explored Mariachi Plaza via Google Maps & Street View, I came upon a surprise revelation. I was just looking to find a concrete table, like the one described from which the Mariachi player had fallen after being shot. I found several concrete outcroppings, not quite where I thought they should be, but that made me go to Street View to get a different angle on Mariachi Plaza. And, that is where I looked in the opposite direction from the Plaza. There it was, a view that I was familiar with, from a long ago Bosch novel, “The Crossing.” And here it is,
Eastside Luv Wine Bar
I just checked the publishing order for the Michael Connelly’s novels and see that “The Crossing” was published directly after “The Burning Room.” But, I read “The Crossing” a good many books ago, so it seems at a much different time. ***There has also been a description of a drive-by shooting regarding the “White Fence” Gang. Not sure which novel this other vignette comes from, but there was a shooting into the walls of a garage, in which, at a much later time, LAPD tried to recover the slugs, but unsuccessfully. ****I mention this because I put “two and two together” between two other novels, that I had read, “out of their order.” I read about an Oriental shop/store keeper (wine shop?) who had been shot and killed in his store. Bosch finally reveals that the store owner’s daughter had actually killed her father. But, now I was reading another novel in which Harry drives a crooked detective into hostile territory, during the LA Race Riots, and this detective is pulled from the car and beat to death, while Harry managed to drive back to safety. On safe ground, Harry walks over to a looted wine shop to get cigarettes and some matches and finds the Oriental store owner cowering down behind his cash register. There was something about this description that made me look further, and I realized that this was when Harry first met the store owner that some years later was killed by his, the owner’s, daughter.
Another note. If you look in the opposite direction from the Eastside Luv Wine Bar, up 1st Street, you are looking a short distance to downtown LA.
Bill Gibson, II 