Void Moon

Amazon.com Review There seems to be an unspoken rule among mystery writers that once the author has created a successful character, the obligation to fans demands regular installments in the hero's life history, whatever the author's literary aspirations. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was famously unsuccessful at killing off Sherlock Holmes and resurrected his detective in response to public outcry. Michael Connelly's police procedural series featuring Harry Bosch has garnered numerous top mystery awards, including the coveted Edgar. But, strangely, it is his deviations from Bosch, including The Poet and Blood Work , that have drawn the biggest readerships--and have won awards of their own to boot (_The Poet_ was honored with the 1997 Anthony Award). Now, once again, Connelly follows up the success of a Bosch book, Angels Flight , with a non-series tale that pushes Connelly's already impressive body of work into new territory. Void Moon traces the path of Cassie Black, a gifted thief who struggles with the temptation of ''outlaw juice'' (the burning desire to live the fast life of crime and payoffs) even while she regularly attends her probation meetings. It's not that hawking Porsches to newly flush young Hollywood males isn't satisfying, but... well, it isn't. After years away, she returns to her old striking grounds in Las Vegas for one last big mark hoping to pave her way into a new life. But Cassie discovers that her old Las Vegas is a new town with a new skyline and new (and more deadly) bad guys; it is also a place haunted by the ghost of her lover-partner Max. When her take proves to be 10 times larger than she imagined, her road to freedom runs afoul of the Mob while a morally questionable--and openly vicious--PI sniffs her trail. With its attractive central character, meticulous plot, and glitzy packaging, Void Moon seems perfectly poised for the New York Times bestsellers list. That is not to say, however, that Connelly has ''dumbed down'' his usual presentation. The novel displays Connelly's stunning ability to breathe reality into his fiction with the subtle details that can only come from careful research and his years of experience reporting on crime for the L.A. Times . What other author has so lovingly described the aftermath of crime? The jail sentence, recidivism, the numbing visits to the parole officer where ''she held the plastic cup she would have to squat over and fill while an office trainee, dubbed the wizard because of the nature of her monitoring duty, watched to make sure it was her own urine going into the container.'' While we Connelly fans are always eager to read the next Bosch, once again we're not disappointed with Connelly's ''vacation.'' --Patrick O'Kelley From Wikipedia Void Moon is the ninth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly. It was released in the UK in 2000 and was Michael Connely's third book not to follow the character Harry Bosch. It was also his first (and, as of 2009, only) novel to feature a female protagonist, Cassidy ''Cassie'' Black, and a protagonist who is a criminal instead of an investigator of criminals. Read more - Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on Amazon In the article: Plot summary Cassie Black is an ex-con who needs to make one more score in order to fulfill the dream that sustained her in prison.Cassie Black has never looked back. She walked away from her life as a criminal after one disastrous night that left the man closest to her dead and her life in a shambles. Now she's thriving at a job selling Porsches to Hollywood hotshots. Through everything - even her darkest moments - she has been able to keep going by holding on to one perfect thing, her greatest secret, dearer to her than life itself.When that secret is threatened, Cassie tosses her new life away like a bad hand of cards and goes back in a sprint to her old line of work. Her trade was robbing casino gamblers, and she was the very best. Now it's the only way she can make enough money fast to maybe make everything right. Quickly she lines up a mark, a man who has been winning steadily for a week at high-stakes baccarat. The job goes smoothly until she opens his briefcase. And discovers a world of trouble she never dreamed of. Her superstitious friend who lined up the job says it's the bad-luck void moon having its malignant way. Cassie knows it's worse. She's crossed paths again with her life's nemesis, the man who destroyed everything six years before. He's Jack Karch, a private investigator by day who does bloody work for casino owners by night. Walking back into his sights is the worst thing that's ever happened to Cassie. Getting out alive will take all her skill and luck and faith in that one good thing. Suspense fiction. Mystery fiction. Detective and mystery stories. Cassie Black has never looked back. She walked away from her life as a criminal after one disastrous night that left the man closest to her dead and her life in a shambles. Now she's thriving at a job selling Porsches to Hollywood hotshots. Through everything - even her darkest moments - she has been able to keep going by holding on to one perfect thing, her greatest secret, dearer to her than life itself. When that secret is threatened, Cassie tosses her new life away like a bad hand of cards and goes back in a sprint to her old line of work. Her trade was robbing casino gamblers, and she was the very best. Now it's the only way she can make enough money fast to maybe make everything right. Quickly she lines up a mark, a man who has been winning steadily for a week at high-stakes baccarat. The job goes smoothly until she opens his briefcase ... And discovers a world of trouble she never dreamed of. Her superstitio- us friend who lined up the job says it's the bad-luck void moon having its malignant way. Cassie knows it's worse. She's crossed paths again with her life's nemesis, the man who destroyed everything six years before. He's Jack Karch, a private investigat- or by day who does bloody work for casino owners by night. Walking back into his sights is the worst thing that's ever happened to Cassie. Getting out alive will take all her skill and luck and faith in that one good thing Cassie Black has been lured back to the criminal profession she gave up - robbing gamblers of their winnings - by a proposition that is just too good to miss. The job goes as planned, except that the target has too much money. It can only mean someone very powerful is going to be very angry indeed ..