A review by kmatthe2
The Black Ice by Michael Connelly

3.0

Didn't know that this Harry Bosch novel was part of a series. I thought it was a stand alone novel and it could function that way. While Connelly isn't as sophisticated a crime fiction writer as some of the European authors, I really appreciated how this novel digs into the "mystery" that is the border area of Calexico/Mexicali. The use of setting and the central mystery—-who called Calexico Moore——nicely dramatize the ebbs and flows and convulsions of the U.S./Mexico border. It deals with the complicated geographical, economic, cultural, and political tensions there via this murder/drug mystery. Again, at times Harry Bosch reads like a poor man's Philip Marlow, but then at other times the subject helps to compensate for any faults of form.