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Void Moon
by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)
This rather long (400 pages) thriller consists of two halves. I gave up on the book half-way through the second half.
We learn in the early stages of the book that the main character, Cassie, has been out of prison for ten months, that she went to prison for a theft that went wrong in Las Vegas, in which she lost her boyfriend, and that she now plans to commit another theft very similar to the first - robbing a casino patron. The main focus of the first half of the book is on the planning and execution of this task, in particular using, and evading, security and surveillance technology. The plot itself is fairly standard and the characters, including that of Cassie, are not particularly well developed, but up to the mid-point the book was certainly a page-turner.
The second half of the book begins with a private detective employed by the casino establishing the identity of the thief, and he then tracks her down. He is able to do this because Cassie and her accomplice, who were made to look like master criminals in the first half of the book, are shown in the second half to have made a number of blunders, and indeed throughout the second half they continue to make bad decisions when obvious better alternatives are available to them.
It rapidly becomes apparent that the private detective is a psychopath and the pursuit turns into a killing spree. Notwithstanding this, the writing in this half is pretty humdrum, and because the Cassie character has been portrayed as rather unlikeable in the first half of the book, and is revealed in the second as inept in her chosen profession of thief, this reader did not have much interest in seeing out the rest of the story to find out whether or not she prevailed over the psychopath.
This is the first of Connelly's novels that I have read. Reviews by people who follow his books suggested that it was not one of his better ones, so I might read one of his Harry Bosch detective books in future. I felt that the writing in the first half had some good features, so I gave it a three in spite of not finishing it.
by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)
This rather long (400 pages) thriller consists of two halves. I gave up on the book half-way through the second half.
We learn in the early stages of the book that the main character, Cassie, has been out of prison for ten months, that she went to prison for a theft that went wrong in Las Vegas, in which she lost her boyfriend, and that she now plans to commit another theft very similar to the first - robbing a casino patron. The main focus of the first half of the book is on the planning and execution of this task, in particular using, and evading, security and surveillance technology. The plot itself is fairly standard and the characters, including that of Cassie, are not particularly well developed, but up to the mid-point the book was certainly a page-turner.
The second half of the book begins with a private detective employed by the casino establishing the identity of the thief, and he then tracks her down. He is able to do this because Cassie and her accomplice, who were made to look like master criminals in the first half of the book, are shown in the second half to have made a number of blunders, and indeed throughout the second half they continue to make bad decisions when obvious better alternatives are available to them.
It rapidly becomes apparent that the private detective is a psychopath and the pursuit turns into a killing spree. Notwithstanding this, the writing in this half is pretty humdrum, and because the Cassie character has been portrayed as rather unlikeable in the first half of the book, and is revealed in the second as inept in her chosen profession of thief, this reader did not have much interest in seeing out the rest of the story to find out whether or not she prevailed over the psychopath.
This is the first of Connelly's novels that I have read. Reviews by people who follow his books suggested that it was not one of his better ones, so I might read one of his Harry Bosch detective books in future. I felt that the writing in the first half had some good features, so I gave it a three in spite of not finishing it.
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Pamela
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rated it 2 stars
Feb 12, 2012 09:25am
Cliff, I've read--or rather listened to--all of Connelly I can get my hands on. Neither this, nor his other stand-alones, are able to compete with his Bosch and/or Mickey Haller series. (Bosh is the much better series.) One thing: I haven't read any of them...they've all be audio books. I really think this is the way to do Connelly. The treat is that the audio books have nice jazz soundtracks and really add to the story...more like an audio production than just a book being read. I honestly don't know how they would read, but give the first Bosch a try in audio if you can find it.
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