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THE OVERLOOK by Michael Connelly The electrifying new novel by the author of Echo Park. When a body is found on the overlook near Mulholland Drive, L.A. Detective Harry Bosch is sent to investigate. Could the victim's access to radioactive materials be a factor in his murder? As a routine homicide investigation turns into something bigger and much more dangerous, Bosch must battle the feds, LAPD brass, and his own demons to get to the truth. |
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Excerpt from Select Editions' THE OVERLOOK
"As a medical physicist, he had direct access to radioactive materials. That put him on a list," said Walling. Bosch thought of all the hospital name tags he had found in the dead man's Porsche. "Access where? In the hospitals?" "Exactly. That's where it's kept. These are materials primarily used in the treatment of cancer." Bosch nodded. "So what am I missing here? Lay it out for me." "Stanley Kent had direct access to materials that some people in the world would like to get their hands on. Materials that could be very valuable to these people, but not in the treatment of cancer." "Terrorists." "Exactly." "Are you saying that this guy could just waltz into a hospital and get this stuff? Aren't there regulations?" "There are always regulations, Harry. But just having them is not always enough. Repetition, routine-these are the cracks in any security system. We used to leave the cockpit doors on commercial airlines unlocked. Now we don't. It takes an event of life-altering consequences to change procedures and strengthen precautions." Bosch thought of the notations on the back of some of the ID cards in the victim's Porsche. Could Stanley Kent have been so lax about the security of these materials that he wrote access combinations on the back of his ID cards? The answer was probably yes. "I understand," he told Walling. "So if you were going to circumvent an existing security system, who would you go to?" she asked. "Somebody with intimate knowledge of that security system." Bosch nodded. He turned onto Arrowhead Drive and started looking at address numbers on the curb. "So you're saying this could be an event of life-altering consequences?" "No, I'm not saying that. Not yet." "Did you know Stanley Kent?" Bosch looked at Walling as he asked, and she looked surprised by the question. It had been a long shot, but he threw it out there for the reaction. Walling turned from him and looked out her window before answering. Bosch knew the move. A classic tell. He knew she would now lie to him. "No, I never met the man." Bosch pulled into the next driveway and stopped the car. "What are you doing?" she asked. "This is it. It's Kent's house." They were in front of a house that had no lights on inside or out. It looked like no one lived there. "No, it isn't," Walling said. "His house is down another block-" She stopped when she realized Bosch had smoked her out. Bosch stared at her for a moment in the dark car before speaking. "You want to level with me now?" "Look, Harry, I told you. There are things I can't-" "Get out of the car, Agent Walling. I'll handle this myself." "Look, you have to under-" "This is a homicide. My homicide. Get out of the car." She didn't move. "I can make one phone call and you'd be removed from this investigation before you got back to the scene." "Then do it. I'd rather be kicked to the curb right now than be a mushroom for the feds. Isn't that one of the Bureau's slogans? Keep the locals in the dark and bury them in cow manure? Well, not me, not tonight, and not on my own case." He started to reach across her lap to open her door. Walling pushed him back and raised her hands in surrender. "All right, all right," she said. "What is it you want to know?" "I want the truth this time. All of it." |
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FOR Michael Connelly, a key goal
when writing his best-selling Harry
Bosch series is to keep things fresh
and interesting. So for The Overlook,
the thirteenth Bosch entry,
Connelly wrote the original story as
a sixteen-part series that premiered
in The New York Times Magazine.
Years ago, serialized tales were
more commonplace in magazines
than they are today. Famous authors
such as Charles Dickens and
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle frequently
published their stories first as serials.
Recently, The New York Times
Magazine revived this tradition
with authors such as Scott Turow
and Patricia Cornwell.
The Times initially approached
Connelly to write a serialized story
a couple of years ago, but the busy
author's schedule did not allow it
at the time. When they asked again
a year later, Connelly was happy to
grant the request.Connelly soon learned that writing a serialized book held unexpected challenges. "I had to write each installment to fit a threethousand- word hole," he explains. "That is not how I normally write. When I am writing a novel, I don't care about the length of a chapter. I concentrate on its content only." As he realized the limitations on his writing style, Connelly knew he'd eventually want to expand and rework the story in order to publish it in book form. The rewrite was a pleasure, he says. "I got to look at it again with a totally fresh mind and take it apart and rebuild it and write it the way I prefer, with the pacing that I wanted, and also throw in some more current events to make it topical." Connelly made some significant changes, including adding a whole new character who was not in the serialization. He'd wanted to add this character for the magazine but simply didn't have the space. He also added material to the novel to ensure that it met his perfectionist expectations. The result is another top-notch Harry Bosch story. Along with writing-and rewriting-The Overlook, Connelly has been busy working on a new legal thriller featuring Mickey Haller, whom he introduced in The Lincoln Lawyer (2005). (Bosch makes a cameo appearance.) In addition, he's writing a screenplay for a film version of the 1980s television show The Equalizer, about a shadowy former secret agent who helps others to make up for sins from his past. But Harry Bosch fans need not panic. Connelly also plans another Bosch mystery, this one a follow-up to Echo Park (2006), set partially in Hong Kong. 
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