I am an ex crime reporter from the fifties, arizona and orange county, and I have seen evil in all shapes and forms, and i have been reading young michael connelly since he started becoming big time. i had become a copy editor by then, but i never knew him at the lat.
In fact, it was thanks to an NYT article on New Crime writers last year where connelly was listed with Lehane that i discovered Lehane and his Mystic River and other work, and i just saw the masterpiece film of Mystic River today. I really like Connelly. I just have one thing to ask: WHY must he constantly introduce his main sorta crashed but nice detective as being named after quote a weird mystical religious type painter of the middle ages named hieronymous bosch unquote, or words to that effect. and he does it in every book.
Lots of us trooped through the prado in the sixties to see all of Bosch's work. he was hidden on the top floor then, now he is the star of the museum.
He is certainly a name that can stand alone, as they say on copy desks. Does Connelly really think people in L.A. never heard of H. Bosch? Does he think so little of his readers. In a town where about half of the worlds art masterpieces decorate bathrooms? this is speaking from experience. i have shared my life between paris and West L.a. for a long time, andhave seen a lot of private collections.
So it is sort of irritating, book after book, to be treated like a dunce who never heard of such a major figure in European history as Bosch, the Spanish in Holland, etc. Also, Bosch was the opposite of a dried out crazy figure. he was a religious nut. everything he ever painted was a religious prophecy of the wages of sin, in the worst way, sin and damnation and hell on earth.
If you look at Frank Gehry's buildings, including the one in Paris at the Bercy center, they all have a sort of warped leaning aspect. His work is almost a tribute to Bosche.
It is another subject, all that religious art. I just cannot figure it out: Does Connelly really have to introduce Bosch every time like that? Does he really think people in L.A. never heard of Bosch? To be kind, it is fairly naive of him if that is the case. But i wish him the best. He is very good and will keep buying his books. Wayne Stedman. my book pals agree.