Review by Booklist Review
Edgar Grand Master Award--winning Connelly's compulsively readable, best-selling crime fiction is propelled by justice-seekers committed to their calling, no matter the risks. In his fortieth novel, Connelly introduces a new righteous law man, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Stilwell, and a new base of operations. Having run afoul of his alleged superiors, Stilwell has been exiled to Catalina Island, "a way station for the department's freaks and fuckups." But he finds Catalina, 22 miles from L.A., beautiful; he's in love with Tash, the assistant harbormaster; he doesn't mind being the only detective there; and he's starting to feel downright content. Until a buffalo is illegally killed, and a boater spots the body of a young woman with a purple streak in her long dark hair lashed to an anchor on the seabed. The case is officially under the jurisdiction of the mainland homicide unit, but Stilwell cannot stop himself from investigating, especially after he gets a sense of how the victim was treated when she worked as a waitress at an elite island club. Catalina is a playground for visitors, while the working-class denizens scramble, and the powerful scheme. With an intriguingly low-key but skilled and principled hero, his significant other, a pesky if useful reporter, a conniving mayor, and a crime boss known as Baby Head, Nightshade is a gripping and promising start to crime virtuoso Connelly's new series.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With millions of Harry Bosh and Mickey Haller fans on the Connelly watch, this series starter will instigate avid interest.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this winning series launch, L.A. noir maestro Connelly (the Harry Bosch series) proves small-town policing can be just as high stakes as crime solving in the big city. L.A. County sheriff's detective Stilwell has been transferred to Santa Catalina Island after running afoul of higher-ups. At first, Stilwell resents being exiled, but he learns there's plenty to keep him busy after the body of a young woman is discovered wrapped in an anchor chain in the island's harbor. Soon, Stilwell discovers the victim was a hostess at the island's exclusive, century-old Black Marlin Club, where a statue was just reported missing. Then there's the illegally decapitated buffalo on the island's nature preserve. Might it all point toward a deeper level of corruption on the island? Though protocol dictates that mainland cops investigate the murder, Stilwell doesn't trust them, and risks further discipline in the name of untangling the mystery. The claustrophobic setting and layered plotting evoke the crime novels of John D. MacDonald, and Stilwell makes for an intriguing hero, with enough biographical gaps for Connelly to sketch him in further in subsequent installments. The author's fans will be thrilled to find him working in a new register. Agent: Heather Rizzo, Rizzo Literary. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer. Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won't admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he's not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar "Baby Head" Terranova, Henry's boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero's obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that's what franchises are for. As the prosecutor sadly observes: "All this because of a dead buffalo." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
