(Welcome to Audio Books in Review, a new feature here at ReadersRoom.com. In this feature we will be reviewing the latest releases in the Audio Book world. At this point, I would like to thank Audible.com for providing the audio books for these reviews. You can find a link to their fine site at the top of this page, and if you are a fan of audio books, you will want to check them out. Not only is their service and selection the best on the Internet, but their pricing system is the most competitive going.)
LOST LIGHT (unabridged - 9 hours, 28 minutes)
By Michael Connelly
Time-Warner Audiobooks
2003
Read by Len Cariou
Reviewed by Rob Holden
It requires considerable intestinal fortitude for an author to take a well established character and change the way he or she writes them. Fans of a series get used to their hero being presented in one way and sometimes don't like change, and people who start a series with the "different" book run the risk of being disappointed if they run out and buy the back list only to find that nothing else is at all like the book they loved. This is probably why most authors of successful series will experiment in their stand-alone work, but keep the series pretty close to the formula that got them to the bestseller list. After all, who wants to mess with success?
Michael Connelly, that's who. After a string of very successful New York Times bestselling novels featuring Harry Bosch written in the third person, in Lost Light Connelly for the first time gives Harry a first person narrative voice. When asked why he chose to do it in this novel during his chat this month with ReadersRoom.com, Connelly said: "I was in a transition, taking Harry from being a cop to a private eye. I wanted a clear line between the two. I also figured that if I was going to take a shot at the classic private detective form I ought to move into first person as were the novels that inspired me in this genre." Connelly has taken more than a "shot" at the form -- he's hit a bull's-eye. As a long time fan of his Harry Bosch novels, in my opinion, Lost Light is the best of the series to date.
The novel revolves around a four year old case Harry Bosch worked on while a member of the LAPD -- involving two million dollars in cash stolen from a movie set and a dead production assistant. The case remained unsolved when Bosch left the department, but it had always bothered him. Unlike most of his cases, this one had too many pieces missing and now -- retired and in possession of his private investigator's license -- Bosch decides to go back and see if he can figure out what he missed the first time. As he delves deeper into the case and discovers that that there is much more going on than a simple robbery/homicide, Harry learns how different it is trying to get at the truth without a policeman's badge to back him up -- and how much more dangerous it can become.
So what does Harry Bosch sound like? Well, by golly, he sounds exactly like this book's narrator, Len Cariou. The casting for narrating this first tale that Harry tells himself is nothing short of perfection. Cariou -- a 63-year-old actor you've probably seen on television and in the movies, but who has spent the majority of his career on Broadway (most notably in Sweeney Todd) -- has a husky, gravelly voice that fits the aging, world-weary character of Bosch to a tee. Cariou reads the character exactly as he is written -- a man who has seen more than he wishes he has, but simply cannot give up the quest to see more. While Cariou's acting abilities allow him to perform numerous emotional calisthenics with the supporting characters in the novel, he keeps Bosch consistent and understated through out the performance. In the classic tradition of the private eye novels of the 40s and 50s, Cariou as Bosch simply tells the story with the quick, no nonsense delivery you would expect from this character. There are no endlessly long dramatic pauses for effect in this performance because Harry Bosch isn't much for drama -- either his own or anyone else's. Bosch is a cop -- albeit it a retired one -- and a tough cop to boot. You can feel the years of dealing with almost unspeakable crimes day after day weighing heavily on Bosch in Cariou's performance, but you can also hear the spark of whatever it is that drives him on.
All in all, this is one of the better performances I have heard thus far this year and I recommend this unabridged audio highly to both fans of Michael Connelly's work and fans of a good, old fashioned, private eye story.
Copyright 2004 by ReadersRoom, LLC. All rights reserved.
