Dark Sacred Night

Dark Sacred Night: a Ballard and Bosch Novel / Michael Connelly, read by Titus Welliver and Christine Lakin, 433 p.

Harry's on a personal mission to find the killer of Daisy Clayton, a teen prostitute murdered nine years earlier.  Harry rescued Daisy's mother from heroin addiction in the excellent Two Kinds of Truth and he maintains a connection to this woman whose suffering since her daughter's death has been unending. His investigation, which involves old LAPD 'shake cards,' brief records of interactions between beat police and citizens, brings him into contact with Renee Ballard.  Their initial distrust leads quickly to mutual cooperation and focus on getting Daisy's killer at all costs.  They're a great team, and, as always, I enjoyed the action and careful unfolding of the plot.  But I'm worried about Harry's seeming slide into ethically dubious behavior, and hope that Ballard can keep him in line in the future. 

Lakin and Welliver are both first-rate.

Cherry

Cherry by Nico Walker, 317 pages.
A great, somewhat depressing, and moving debut novel by a man who, like his main character, served as a soldier in Iraq, was a heroin addict and a bank robber.
Adrift as a teen in Ohio, the narrator joins the army, not out of a surfeit of patriotism, but more because his girlfriend has changed schools and is due to leave him. Soon he is off to Iraq as a medic, but he doesn't find much in the Army or in Iraq that inspires him. There is no heroism or patriotic awakening in the narrator's experience, it's mostly grim, stupid and wasteful. Once back home, and reunited with his wife, the narrator mostly focuses on his opiod addiction. That's where the bank robbery comes in. Walker presents his characters with a grim humor and empathy and makes the book a compelling read.

Gun Street Girl

Gun Street Girl: a Detective Sean Duffy Novel / Adrian McKinty, read by Gerard Doyle, 313 pp.

The fourth in the Detective Sean Duffy series; these audiobooks, wonderfully read by Gerard Doyle, have been my car companions for months now.

In this title:

An affluent middle-aged couple is found shot to death; the adult son turns up shortly afterward, an apparent suicide.  Simple enough, but to Duffy's experienced eye, the dead parents' crime scene looks too professional.  Something just doesn't add up, and Duffy is determined to get to the bottom of it.  He's a little busy, though, what with MI5 pressuring him to leave the police force behind for good...


In all Detective Sean Duffy novels:

checking under the BMW for mercury tilt bombs
a fabulous supporting cast, including Sergeant Crabben (Crabby), Duffy's dour Presbyterian sidekick, and attractive neighbor Mrs.Campbell, perpetually horny because her husband is either away or depressed
an encyclopedic display of musical knowledge
a shocking amount of alcohol consumption, even for Ireland
hilarious dialogue
a terrific sense of place