Review: Void Moon

Void Moon by Michael Connelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Michael Connelly is one of those authors. You know what I mean, whereby the word ‘those’ is written in italics or spoken with more emphasis than the rest of the sentence. He is a name you can speak and everyone will instantly know to whom you’re referring. Most have read one of his books, if only to see what he is all about. Considering the number of books he has written, and the following he has, it should come as no surprise that he has been sitting on my to-read list for a very long time. With Void Moon, I finally worked around to giving him a read.

As I said, Michael Connelly has been sitting on my to-read list for quite some time. I wasn’t really sure where to start. I’d been planning to start with the Harry Bosch series, working from the beginning, as that seemed to be what everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Plus, I’m a sucker for a good series. I constantly tell myself I’m working through far too many as it is… yet I still find myself buying more books that are part of a series than I do standalone novels. I just love following characters throughout constantly developing stories. Thus, when I found a Michael Connelly collection going cheap, I jumped at them. Ten books for a little over what I would pay for just one book: count me in! Within the collection, there were the first in many of his character’s stories. There were also the most recent, meaning if I enjoyed the first I would need to go out and purchase the in-between books. There was also a single standalone novel – Void Moon. It was through this that I decided to go for the standalone novel rather than being lured into yet another series whereby I’d be playing catch up with the rest of the fandom.

After finishing Void Moon, I can safely say I understand why he has so many fans. There is no doubt that I will now be delving into his Harry Bosch universe, working my way through the books until I’m up to date. If Void Moon was any indication of what I can expect in his other work… well, I can imagine Michael Connelly will quickly be working his way up my list of most read authors.

I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t pulled in from the very start. At the start of the book things seemed to drag a bit. There seemed to be too much set up for me. The story was moving forward, but the action promised in the synopsis was not appearing. I’d been promised a thief and murderer showdown of epic proportions, yet I was given all the build-up into our thief re-entering the life of high roller pay-outs. Due to this, I was a little bit let down.

That changed, however, once we reached the point of the actual crime being committed. At that point, I could not put the book down, finishing what was left of the story in one sitting. What I’m trying to say is don’t let the first part of the story put you off finishing the book. Once we move beyond part one, the book moves at the kind of pace I’d expected of it. The story moved forward, things start to intertwine, and everything comes into play. We are given what the synopsis promised: we have a good old game of cat and mouse in the criminal world.

Honestly, it was such fun. Certain things failed to give the shock that was probably intended, but I wasn’t really expecting a mystery from this one. It was thriller, and with all the action going on I wasn’t bothered by how I worked out certain aspects of the story before they were explained.

Overall, it was a great introduction to Michael Connelly’s work. As I’ve already stated, I’ll certainly be reading more of his books in the future.

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