The Dark Hours - Michael Connelly

 

Brand new LA set crime thriller from master storyteller Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly is most famous for creating the indelible detective Harry Bosch, rendered in the Amazon production Bosch starring Titus Welliver. Bosch is a hard-bitten, hard-working policeman who knows what is right and wrong, while the forces that be conspire to restrict his brand of policing in these more politically correct times.

As Bosch has grown up and in the narrative of his books, retired from the police force to become a private detective, we now follow Renee Ballard, a female police officer who works the same beat as Bosch used to do and is also facing the same troubles Bosch used to notice - colleagues who do not work as hard, no empathy for victims and hands tied by paperwork.

This new tale starts on New Years Eve, Ballard has to work the beat as all police officers must do on a busy night of the year in Los Angeles. In a pique of revelry, angelinos shoot bullets into the air amidst this unusual tradition a bullet goes astray leading to a murder investigation. The bullet leads to the reopening of a cold case led by Bosch.

The predatory Midnight Men are on the prowl, a duo of sex predators who attack women on major holidays - single women in their own home attacked and victimised. Ballard takes these attacks personally and chooses to hunt them down. Connelly has always had a great eye for detail in police work, as Bosch says 'get off your ass and knock on some doors' and Ballard's detective work in noticing the streetlights in terms of giving the perpetrators extra darkness is a wonderfully painted narrative detail.

As ever, there is a crispness to the dialogue spoken with real world dialogue apparent amidst a global pandemic and the swiftness of the narrative as Ballard spins numerous plates in the air while combining with Bosch to great effect. 

This makes for a winning combination and this is another winner from the desk of Connelly, a master of the crime genre.

The Dark Hours is out now from Orion Publishing on all formats 

In Plain Sight - Neal Francis

 

Second album from Chicago based singer-songwriter Neal Francis from ATO Records out 5th November

Encompassing a changing of personal momentum and relocating back to his hometown after a break-up, Neal Francis' second album In Plain Sight is an honest collection of new songs about resilience and overcoming adversity soaking up influence of rock and soul into a dreamlike state that is both absorbing and gratifying.

Produced by Grammy winning producer, Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT), who has experience of working with off the wall production; Francis takes the basis for the second album his debut Changes which was a New Orleans RnB effort that drew comparisons with Allen Touissant. High praise indeed, yet the music of this album is more rockier drawing inspiration from the Chicago jazz and rock scenes and for this listener you cannot ignore the influence of early Elton John when he was in true trubadour honky cat days or that of Leon Russell; that joie de vivre of piano performance.

The opening track of the album 'Alameda Apartments' kicks off as more a statement of intent than anything else; full of untethered melodies, luminous grooves and lyrics that find the protagonist drifting from despair to craziness as it tells the story of moving into a haunted apartment following another break-up.

Lead single 'Can't Stop the Rain' is perhaps the standout track of the album, a real tour de force combining the power of unabashed piano with anthemic guitar riffs, written with a friend David Shaw who came up with the refrain and incorporates a message of hope despite the prospect of rain, "You can't stop the rain/It's always coming down/It's always going to fall/But you're not gonna drown"

The album was recorded by Francis and his band in a defunct church (St. Peter's UCC) setting and on tape, to help grab the power of live music performance and a band in sync; such as the guitar-heavy 'Prometheus' which features Francis on St. Peter's pipe organ in combat with an electric synth. 

The surreal and odd nature of living and performing in a church infuses the album with this religious and spiritual context; you do not have to have faith to get the power of this album as the piano Francis plays is able to connect many a listener but the piano is Francis' tool for redemption and ultimately transformation for a person who has overcome addiction problems and is now happily sober in 2021.

The album is a pleasing and rocking joy to finish this most tumultuous of years, through it all we shall always have rock and roll.

In Plain Sight is out from ATO Records on 5th November 

Neal Francis is on tour in the UK headlining O2 Academy Islington on January 23rd 2022

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Agent in Berlin - Alex Gerlis

 

New spy thriller by Alex Gerlis from Canelo out 4th November

Alex Gerlis is a writer of spy thrillers, following in the great heritage of British spy authors such as John Le Carre and Frederick Forsyth, he bases his tales in the past in and around the second world war primarily, looking back at the past and finding tales to create historical fiction with a huge dose of influence by accurate depictions of figures who were in and around the actual turning of history.

His most recent book, Agent in Berlin, is set around the spymaster ring set up by British intelligence in the German capital as a reaction to the worrying trend of fascism and Nazism rising in profile from 1933 with the abhorrent attack on the Jewish people. Gerlis tells the story of spymaster, Barnaby Allen who recruits a network of allies from all sides to forge a bond against the Third Reich as they begin to gain power. He recruits a German homosexual, an American journalist and the wife of a Nazi commander amongst others, despite constant danger the ring discover plans for a new German fighter plane better than the illustrious Spitfires and Hurricanes.

The tension wracked up by the author in his numerous scenes are so well handled; depicting a time of terror and worry in a prominent city that slowly becomes more and more like a prison, the colour evaporating from the buildings and its inhabitants as Germany go on a course of cleansing of those they believe to be inferior to the supposed superior Aryan race.

The key character or agent Allen endorses is that of a spy in the Japanese embassy, who finds intelligence that Japan in an alliance with Germany are to attack the United States and bring them into the war. The action runs from 1933 when the seed is sown and up to early 1942 after Pearl Harbor has taken place with USA now making it a second world war.

There is a lot of pleasure to be taken from the reading of this novel, from Gerlis' well researched on life in Berlin to the touching points of the 1936 Berlin Olympics when in the character of Jack Miller he has a conduit of a fish out of water but also a spectator at something truly ground-breaking such as Jesse Owens' miraculous achievements under the hateful eyes of Der Fuhrer. 

The character, Miller also side bars into football commentary travelling around to see Schalke and Hamburg those heralded footballing hotbeds of Germany during the war and it allows Gerlis - a life-long Grimsby Town supporter - to use his love of football as a plot device, which for this reader was greeted with great relish. Some of the games mentioned are factually correct in the Bundesliga as well as the Olympic ties

In conclusion, this is my second Gerlis read. I read Prince of Spies last year and while that was a continuing story in a series. This stand alone novel is full of tension and drama, handling the arcs of all characters expertly with an end result bringing a neat resolution to proceedings.

Agent In Berlin is released from Canelo on Thursday 4th November