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Nightshade

A Catalina Novel

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Nightshade

Written by: Michael Connelly
Narrated by: Will Damron
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Introducing Detective Stilwell: a cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island. Featuring a sneak peek of the next audiobook in the series, Ironwood.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.

Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.” Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

Propulsive and atmospheric, Nightshade launches a brand new character into the Connelly universe, and proves without question that Michael Connelly is “the undisputed master of the modern crime novel” (Real Book Spy). Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Police Procedurals Thriller & Suspense Crime Heartfelt
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Ironwood Written by: Michael Connelly
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Good progression of the stories contained. It made me want to continue the series. The epilogue was standard but the book left done questions of outcome. Guess we’ll see if it continues in next book. Not sure whether I want it to or not but it is a wait and see.

Enjoyable

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It was ice to read a believable story without eidetic memory or super heroes. Well done.

I enjoyed this book.

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Just couldn’t get into it. It was boring and it did not keep my attention

Boring

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The story is fine but relies on some contrived parts that weaken its appeal. Would be better if those were less central to the story.

Ok but seemed a bit contrived at parts.

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This is an engaging detective mystery novel set in a small town with a few moments in the big city, and it has satisfying ending where they catch the villain and, with little surprise, he (spoilers) gets the girl. This book neither feels nor acts like a Bosch book. In fact, it feels an act more like a Raymond Chandler book, which is actually what inspired the first Bosch novel. (For anyone wondering, Bosch is the flagship series of this author.)

the book starts and ends on a small island of Catalina hot post of Los Angeles. We can make endless comparisons to Connolly's other series, Bosch, but I'm just going to give two since this story stands on his own so well. The first is that detective Stillwell is more of a straight shooter. Bosch will step on toes of villains and even witnesses to get his guy, but still Wells offenses are all against police procedure and his own department, and they're all forgivable. Because of this, it's a lot easier to empathize with Stillwell, of course we feel for Bosch and want the best for him too.

To give you a sense for the main points of this book, the Story begins as a murder investigation of a woman who died shortly after either quitting or being fired from an exclusive club for wealthy yacht owners and fishers. Stillwell is officially not allowed to investigate the murder, at least at the beginning of the book, and tries to do so under the radar by pursuing a related case regarding the statue that was stolen from the same Club on the same night as the murder. The whole story then hits something unexpected something unexpected when stillwell catches wind of a corruption plot going on on the island and he pursues it no matter how deep it goes. Allegiances are tested and so is still Wells. He also is confronted with the tough reality that his work might be hurting his romantic relationship. What's nice about this and frankly all of Connolly's stories is that characters reactions are never contrived and frankly all of Connolly's stories is that characters reactions are never contrived. Main characters act and react in realistic ways, and for example when the love interested voices her pain at feeling occasionally left out of Stillwell's life, we get it and we want to see him figure out how to make things work.

The other difference is the endings. I'm not going to spoil anything plot or investigation related, but I will talk about how the ending made me feel. Bosch books tend to have either abrupt or tough and ironic endings that show how difficult it is to live and work in the police world that Bosch is in. In this book, we have a rare instance of a satisfying and completely good and. There's nothing ironic here, all the bad guys are arrested and the arrests are satisfying and by the book. Then the novel ends with Stillwell taking a vacation with his romantic partner, using his days off to make amends with her. Despite the overall colder feeling prose, we feel for this protagonist frequently because he's always trying to do the right thing. In fact, all of his blunders and every time he gets in trouble with his department, it's because he was trying to do the right thing. And he gets his well-deserved happy ending, and I think any reader of this book will feel good about it.

Great Detective Mystery that stands on its own. Satisfying ending and good main character to top it off.

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