Review: The Late Show

The Late Show by Michael Connelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Michael Connelly is an author I constantly find myself meaning to read. In fact, I have quite a few of his books sitting on my shelf. I find myself shying away from his work, though, due to the way in which everything seems to be interconnected. I fear I will mess things up by reading things out of order, and yet I never go back to the start. Even the occasion where I have read one of the author’s books in the past – Void Moon, which I really enjoyed – I later found out it had been pulled into the author’s popular Harry Bosch universe.

When I found out The Late Show was the start of a new series, I decided I would jump in and give the book a try. It was advertised as the start of a new series, yet by the time I was done reading it I have the knowledge that the second book will be directly linking it with the Harry Bosch universe. Despite the references made in this one to the rest of the universe, this one did work fine as a standalone novel – however, the knowledge it will be directly crossing over in the second book leaves me tentative about reading book two until I am up the date with the universe.

Although, I am not one hundred percent sold on book two as it currently stands.

I love a good police procedural, I love being sucked into the crime fighting world, yet this book felt more like a police procedural for dummies novel rather than the high thrill I usually find myself receiving with a police procedural read. In many ways, this book was filled with excessive information dumping, finding ways of showing off how much research the author has done. I appreciate research, I cannot deny that, yet it felt like there were times when we were being given excessive information for things that are extremely obvious. Perhaps I read too many police procedural novels, perhaps I have more knowledge than the average reader, or perhaps (and this is my favoured theory) Michael Connelly was explaining things that did not need to be explained. For me, this stopped me from being sucked into the story.

Not to mention, the lack of those thrills. I constantly found myself waiting for that moment when the action would kick in, when the adrenaline would start pumping. I was waiting… and waiting… and waiting… and then the book was over. It never seemed to appear. Sure, the mystery was interesting to watch unfold; however, it never had the punch I had been anticipating. I know in real life crime fighting is not the likes of most crime novels, but I would have liked a wee bit more action that we were given. When things did occur, it almost felt like an afterthought – as though the editor had said to stick in a bit of action, and it was done so to the smallest degree.

Considering how much I enjoyed Void Moon, I was rather disappointed by The Late Show. I still plan to go back and read some of the early Michael Connelly books – I do plan to try and get myself up to date with the universe rather than dipping my toes in here and there – yet this one has not won me over in the way I had hoped. My fingers are crossed when I do get around to reading more of the author’s work, I enjoy the earlier books more than I enjoyed this one.

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