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The Black Ice, by Michael Connelly
Grand Central Publishing, 1993
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It’s Christmas but LAPD detective Harry Bosch has no holiday plans, so
when he hears over the police scanner that a body has been found in a two-bit
hotel, he’s curious. It should be his
case since he’s on call but it’s immediately referred to Robbery-Homicide and
one of the highest ranking officers in the department. This doesn’t sit well with Harry, and he soon manipulates his way into the investigation. An undercover cop is dead, an apparent
suicide, but what is his connection to the Mexican drug trade in black ice--coke,
heroin and PCP “rocked” together. A typical Bosch book--violent, intricately plotted,
with a moral dilemma that Harry does his best to resolve. I have to admit I bought this
paperback a couple months ago despite having tons of books waiting to be read. I wanted to read one of the first Harry Bosch police
procedurals, because the early books give
insight into Harry Bosch’s character and provide background for later novels.
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Death is Disposable, by Even Marshall
Worldwide Mystery, 2012
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This is the first of a series featuring a New York Sanitation
Department garage supervisor Anna Winthrop.
This unlikely scenario works when you consider that sanitation workers go
everywhere in New York City and see what others don’t. Anna befriends a homeless man who is later found
dead behind her apartment building, making her a suspect. Anna decides to find out more about the
homeless man who she knew as Isaiah in hopes that she can discover his killer. The plot meanders at times, but this
book was better than I thought it would be. The premise was so unlikely that every time I started to put it in our LFL, I would get curious all over again. A mystery series featuring garbage collection?!? Finally I just decided to read it.
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Murder Is Binding, by Lorna Barrett
Berkley Prime Crime, 2008
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Tricia Miles is proprietor of a
mystery bookstore, Haven't Got a Clue, in the fictional town of Stoneham, New Hampshire. The entire downtown is devoted to different
kinds of book stores, or shops related to books (my kind of town), so maybe that’s
one reason I enjoyed this cozy mystery. When
the owner of the cookbook shop next to Tricia’s shop is murdered, Tricia
decides to find the murderer because the police seem to think she did it. I had started reading this book before and
didn’t care for it, but this time I grew to like the characters--Tricia, her
annoying sister Angelica, the local newspaper owner/editor and the book store
employees. There are now ten books in this series, and I would read more if they appeared in my Little Free Library. I swear I’m not buying any more books for a
long time.
