I read Michael Connelly’s The Poet while my husband flew to England reading The Narrows. Many years pass between the two novels, and many intertwined characters enjoy lives of their own in other books. But Blood Work and The Poet make a good introduction to The Narrows and the novel lived up to all the high expectations my husband’s comments inspired in me.

Michael Connelly again writes his book in two voices, the narrator watching over people’s shoulders, and the first-person narration, this time of retired policeman Harry Bosch. Relationships and backgrounds are cleverly sketched with minimal information and ample mood and conviction, so the reader—this reader anyway—doesn’t feel any loss at missing the intervening books; just an eagerness to go back and read them some day.

FBI agent Rachel Walling has been hidden in the middle of nowhere to keep her out of trouble. LAPD detective Harry Bosch has retired and is trying to find his way between unexpected family life and a desire to investigate mysteries without the aid of a badge. Suddenly Rachel’s name is attached to a new investigation, and the wife of retired FBI agent Terry McCaleb is convinced her husband was murdered. The two mysteries begin to converge with nicely timed discoveries that keep readers one step ahead of the tale while still trailing one step behind the investigation. There are mysteries behind mysteries, secrets behind lies, and a stunning concluding chase where all narrowing options close down to one.

Like all of Connelly’s novels, or at least all I’ve read, The Narrows is finely paced, convincingly plotted, and masterfully designed; not just a mystery; not just an investigation of human nature; not just good vs evil; but something convincingly more than the sum of its parts—a story that stays with the reader long after the telling.