The Overlook by Michael Connelly
56-year-old Detective Harry Bosch is on his first case since moving to the LAPD Robbery Homicide Division. A medical physicist has been murdered, and the killer may have taken dangerous substances from him. The terrorism alarm bells start ringing and before Harry has chance to do much work, he's saddled with the FBI and all the extra bureaucracy and secrecy (and frustration) that brings.
This was the first Michael Connelly I'd read, picked from a library shelf because I thought the name seemed familiar from a casual recommendation I'd had. I toyed with giving up on it partway through; it looked like a fairly stereotypical thriller with obligatory mentions of the Middle East, the twin towers plane-crashes, suspicion of Muslims, and an unrealistic-sounding threat that was only vaguely (if at all) understood by the police involved. It redeemed itself by the end by turning out to be more subtle, more intelligent, and more of a detective story than that, but I'm still not sure I'd read another.
I've read and enjoyed (as light entertainment) a few Elvis Cole novels by Robert Crais. The Overlook was set in the same sort of location, and other than Harry being a policeman whereas Elvis is a private detective, there was some similarity. A lot of driving around Los Angeles being a bit of a maverick, with the occasional mention of a traumatic experience in Vietnam, and more people than seemed strictly necessary getting shot. Elvis Cole spends his life circumventing the LAPD, Harry Bosch circumvents the Feds. Given this similarity I'm surprised I didn't enjoy The Overlook more than I did, but I wonder if this (the 13th Bosch novel) was a bad place to start. Harry has a new boss, a new partner, and though he did encounter people he'd run across when he worked for a different division, I didn't feel like I got much of an insight into his character. The events of the whole novel took place in less than 24 hours, perhaps not enough time to get to know him.
Interestingly, in the edition I read there's a section at the end where Michael Connelly 'interviews' Harry Bosch. That was nicely done, and did give more of Harry's background and personal life away, plus an insight into what really drives him. It's a writing exercise I've come across a few times - interview your main character - but this shows that not only can it help the author nail the details of a character, presented to the reader it can help to make that character seem more real.