Audiobook recommendation- The Night Fire

Old dogs can learn new tricks!

It’s official! I’ve listened to every Harry Bosch book ever published! It has only taken me 20 years (since 2001 to 2021), but I’ve achieved it! So when I say I’ve grown old with Harry Bosh, I literally mean it. The first time I listened to ‘City of Bones’, I was a young and impressionable 17-year-old, I remember how that title seemed a bit too adult and intense for me at that time. But when I re-listened to ‘City of Bones’ 15 years later when reading all of the Bosh series in sequence, CoB seemed like just a child’s book, nothing to keep one replaying scenes in the middle of the night.

But as I grew old with Bosh, the brilliant thing about Michael Connelly’s creation, was that Bosh also grew old with me (so did the old waiter at Philippe’)- Harry’s age incrementing at the same pace as the real world. At this stage in 2019 in The Night Fire, Bosh is fully retired- not even a part-timer for the San Fernando PD. And more and more of his LAPD buddies are dropping dead due to old age.

But to keep the Bosh series about solving crime and putting criminals behind bars (rather than just stories of golfing and retirement) Michael Connelly has merged two of his  previously separate series together, thus the younger Renée Ballard who is a Night shift detective can still continue on the good fight with her badge. And not only has Connelly combined two previously separate characters, but he has also brought in Micky Haller, thus bringing together even more elements to make The Night Fire even more  interesting to say the least.

And where I’ve teased that ‘old dogs’ are able to learn new tricks, if you’re familiar with the Bosh series you’d be aware that for most of his novels- Michael Connelly has Bosh spending the entire novel investigating and solving a single case. However in The Night Fire, as now we have Bosh, Ballard and Haller in one book, so we end up investigating several cases at one time- thus it feels more like an anthology of short stories, rather than a novel, which isn’t a bad change-up?

And as this book is as much a Bosh series, as it is a Ballard series, alternating chapters we have the novel driven through Bosh’s perspective, then Ballard’s perspective (with a corresponding male and female narrator to play each). While it was interesting to notice the different styles Connelly writes in, like for Bosh it’s in the 3^rd person, while for Ballard it’s always from the first person’s point of view.

The Night Fire involves a seemingly accidental death of a young homeless man; a 30+ year old cold case killing of a drug addict in a dingy alley; and a court case to convict a mentally ill man accused of killing a prominent judge. These all seemingly separate storylines progress in different directions, before they eventually converge in a gripping finale! The final 2 hours of the book, I smashed it out in one sitting at 2.30am in the morning, seated in an armchair with ear pods in, trying not to wake my sleeping wife. And as usual, Michael Connelly had me riveted and holding my breath right down to  the very end! Brilliant! Bravo!

For the official ‘The Night Fire’ blurb, and extras, click HERE!