Michael Connelly’s troubled but successful detective Harry Bosch comes out of retirement and is back to work with the Los Angeles police department – but this time he is working for a special department set up to close old cases – hence the title. The novel features Kiz Rider, a stalwart partner from other Bosch novels, and as usual features Bosch up against not only the cunning of criminals, but also the incompetence of his fellow cops – in this case the racism and incompetence of cops in a case that happened years ago. As the story of mistakes and tragedy unfolds, Connelly (and Bosch) are there to lead the way, and the aptly named novel brings some closure not only for the case in question, but also for Bosch and the family concerned, although as with all murders it can’t be said that the wounds are healed.
In all I found this a very good Bosch novel, well written and well paced, and the “closers” scenario is one which I think could work well for future novels.
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The best time to quit smoking is now! Well, if you smoke, and are thinking of quitting, don’t delay too long – I am writing this around Christmas as 2007 approaches, and a lot of people think of quitting as a new year resolution. Thank God I won’t have to this year, as I have now been a non smoker for over a year, as I quit just before Christmas last year, maybe to give myself a head start. How I remember the utter dread, the utter panic, the withdrawals, the tantrums, the irritability, the pleading with myself to just have one, one would be all right, but then I’d be hooked again, wouldn’t I?! But what I remember more than all the horrible things is the sense of achievement, the pride in knowing that I was refusing to yield to the temptation, that I was making it. I had tried many times before, using gums, patches, dummy cigarettes, lozenges, pure will power, and combinations thereof, but never quite managed it. In December 2005, I found the correct ingredients (and the experience of failing before certainly helped).
I think the key is motivation. A lot of people think, “Well, I have to give up because it’s bad for my health” but that’s the wrong attitude. If you really want to give up because you want to be healthy, that’s a better starting point (the mind is our best friend and our worse enemy!). I think if you really want to quit, you will quit sooner or later. It’s not easy, and that’s why you should use all the resources available to you. Quit with a friend (maybe one you like to beat!), try the patches or gum, maybe even get a life coach to assist you with your goal!
Hypnotherapy is one method that works for a lot of people, but maybe we’re not all rich enough to be able to pay a therapist (although they are good, and it does often work!) – this is where audio hypnotherapy recordings come in very handy, and bestselling hypnotherapist Glenn Harrold has produced The Ultimate Guide to Quitting Smoking Forever which could prove to be a crucial tool in your battle to give up smoking. Remember the mind is a powerful thing, the unconscious mind even more so – and Glenn Harrold’s audiobook uses advanced clinical techniqes together with relaxing music and sound effects to calm your body and mind and enable you to use the resources deep within yourself. With post hypnotic suggestions and layered affirmations, the two sessions on the CD safely and effectively reinforce your own desire to quit and help your mind to focus on and stick with your resolution. It might not work for everyone (nothing ever does) – but it’s got to be worth a try, and I have used Glenn Harrold’s recordings before with great success – see my review of his Motivation recording as well 
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Stephen King has been my number one storyteller ever since I read Carrie way back when I was 10 years old; to a large extent, it was Stephen King who switched me on to the world of books as I sat, wide eyed, reading a very grown up book. Carrie wasn’t his best novel, but it was his first, and my first, so to speak. Ever since then, I have spent hundreds of happy hours immersed in Stephen King’s stories. Sometimes, the stories have not been believable – but the storytelling has made them so, and it has always been the storytelling that switches things on for me, rather than the the story itself. For sure, the stories have been and are intriguing, but what I have relished is the voice, the narrator, the sensual language that creates such rich thoughts and feelings in my head. King’s characters, too, have been part of the rich tapestry of his fiction, but always the language, the attention to detail, the sense that I am not reading a book but listening to an old friend, bringing the characters to life, really feeling a sense of how King believes he uncovers a story rather than creates it.
I was quite surprised to read some of the reviews on Amazon of Lisey’s Story, finding a lot of readers disappointed. Personally I have never been disappointed with a King book, as I always come to them with an open mind, and respect a writer who doesn’t churn out fodder for the bestseller lists, but who writes from the heartmind. Every King book is going to be a little different, he tries new things which may or may not disappoint the constant reader, and in my opinion it usually works, and even his weaker works are way better than the best most writers can output. Ok, so you know I’m biased, but I loved this story, Lisey’s story…
King has tried his hand at pretty much every genre there is, and Lisey’s Story is essentially a love story – but a love story with Kingian twists, especially so as the love story is told from a posthumous perspective, therefore making it also a story of grief. Through Lisey Landon, widow of bestselling author Scott Landon, we learn of a marriage that has its highs and its lows, its beauties and its terrors, and there are many small touches that give our glimpse into the world of the marriage intimacy and reality. Yet the story is as much about the present as the past, and there is plenty going on in the widow Landon’s life to keep her occupied. As I read I felt that the story is as much a ghost story as it is a romance and a thriller – for Scott Landon, although two years deceased at the the start of the novel, has a presence through Lisey’s memory that makes him as much a central character as Lisey.
Lisey’s Story is not a thrill a minute roller coaster ride as some King novels can be, nor is it filled with gore and insane characters (although there are some!) But the novel is haunting, and progresses at a quiet, unhurried rate, and as always with King novels, I come to care about Lisey very quickly, for it is with the language and the beautiful storytelling that King manages to make his characters so real, so quickly – and this was another old tale by an old friend that I thoroughly enjoyed reading
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