Description: Private investigator Harry Bosch confronts the most terrifying killer he's ever known - the monster known to millions as the Poet.

Verdict: As usual, there are some nifty hooks to this new Connelly tale. 'The Narrows' features his most popular series character, retired L.A. homicide cop Harry Bosch, but it's also a sequel to his first stand-alone, 'The Poet' which came out in 1996, and is only his second novel (along with the aforementioned 'The Poet') to be written in both first and third person! The first-person sections are narrated by Bosch, who agrees as a favor to the widow to investigate the death of Bosch's erstwhile colleague and friend Terry McCaleb (of 'Blood Work' and 'A Darkness More Than Night'). Bosch's digging brings him into contact with Rachel Walling, the FBI agent heroine of 'The Poet', and the third-person narrative concerns mostly her. Are you following all this?! Anyway, although generally presumed dead, The Poet — the serial killer who was a highly placed Fed and Walling's mentor — is alive and killing anew, with, we soon learn, McCaleb among his victims and his sights now set on Walling. The suspense is steady throughout but, until a breathtaking climactic chase, arises more from Bosch and Walling's patient and inspired following of clues and dealing with bureaucratic obstacles than from slash-and-dash: an unusually intelligent approach to generating thrills. Connelly is a master and this novel is yet another of his masterpieces.
Reviewed by MJ Kline