As I was reading Michael Connelly’s series on Detective Harry Bosch, I came across A Darkness More Than Night which seemed to focus less on Harry Bosch than on Terry McCaleb.  Having no familiarity with the character of McCaleb, part of the book was lost on me, so I went back to read Connelly’s first book about McCaleb, Blood Work.

Terry McCaleb is an FBI agent who recently received a heart transplant.  While he is recovering, he gets a visit from the sister of the donor of the heart he received.  Graciela Rivers tracked him down through a newspaper article and asks him to work on her sister’s murder.  Terry is conflicted.  Not only shouldn’t he be straining himself doing this type of work so soon after the surgery, but there’s a conflict of interest.  On the other hand, he feels he owes something to both Graciela and her sister, Gloria Torres.

Terry hides the connection but uses his former FBI credentials as he gets information on the case under the guise of helping a friend out.  He makes the acquaintance of Detective Jaye Winston, who will also appear in A Darkness More Than Night.  The more he learns about the case, the more he is driven to find the killer.  In the end, though, living with the truth may be more difficult than he anticipated.

Blood Work is absolutely fantastic.  The pace is superb and kept me riveted.  It was a bit hard to believe that someone so close to the surgery could physically be capable of some of the actions McCaleb takes, although Connelly does a good job making note of his deteriorating condition.  Other than that one quibble, I found no fault with Blood Work.  Connelly does a terrific job getting into McCaleb’s head as he investigates.  At various times I came up with different suspects and really didn’t figure it out until it was revealed in the novel.  The suspense factor is excellent.

A romance develops between McCaleb and Graciela.  This was no surprise to me since I’d read the next book first.  It felt like a good progression between them.  They don’t jump into it, but it feels very natural for it to happen.  She is multi-dimensional too, working as a nurse and trying to handle all that life has thrown at her, including raising her deceased sister’s son.  This is the great part of all of Connelly’s characters.  They aren’t just one-note characters who exist to serve a purpose in the story and that’s it.  Each of them seem to be actual people, good, bad, or somewhere in between.  Very few are exclusively good or bad or always do the right thing.  It’s what keeps everything quite interesting as a whole and allows for many possibilities.

If you like good mysteries and haven’t yet read Blood Work, I suggest you do.  It’s a nice departure from the smart-mouthed detective stories I’ve been reading as of late and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The characters are good and the pace will keep you glued to the pages.

Next book in the series: