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Harry Bosch Universe #9
Void Moon
New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly writes novels of brilliantly original suspense. In this electrifying tour de force, he takes us into a world of extremes: too much criminality, too much money, and too many ways to die.
In L.A. Cassie Black is another beautiful woman in a Porsche: except Cassie just did six years in prison and still has "outlaw juice" flowing in her veins. Now Cassie is returning to her old profession, taking down a money man in Vegas. But the perfect heist goes very wrong, and suddenly Cassie is on the run--with a near-psychotic Vegas "fixer" killing everyone who knew about the job. Between Cassie and the man hunting her are a few last secrets: like who really set up the job, why Cassie had to take the change, and how, in the end, it might all be a matter of the moon...
In L.A. Cassie Black is another beautiful woman in a Porsche: except Cassie just did six years in prison and still has "outlaw juice" flowing in her veins. Now Cassie is returning to her old profession, taking down a money man in Vegas. But the perfect heist goes very wrong, and suddenly Cassie is on the run--with a near-psychotic Vegas "fixer" killing everyone who knew about the job. Between Cassie and the man hunting her are a few last secrets: like who really set up the job, why Cassie had to take the change, and how, in the end, it might all be a matter of the moon...
416 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 1999
2,505 people are currently reading
8,267 people want to read
About the author
Michael Connelly
377books32.8kfollowersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the ŷ' database with this name.
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing � a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly has followed that up with over 30 more novels.
Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) .
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael is one of the producers and writers of the TV show, “Bosch,� which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Michael lives with his family in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida.
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing � a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly has followed that up with over 30 more novels.
Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) .
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael is one of the producers and writers of the TV show, “Bosch,� which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Michael lives with his family in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,535 reviews
September 4, 2017
Void Moon, which was published in 2000, is another standalone from Michael Connelly, the creator of Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller. The protagonist is Cassie Black, a beautiful young woman who was once a very skilled burglar who specialized in ripping off big marks in Vegas. But then a job went catastrophically wrong; Cassie's partner and lover was killed, and Cassie was arrested and sent to the pen for six years. Now free, she's living in L.A., selling Porches, and reporting regularly to her probation officer.
Cassie has a special reason for now walking the straight and narrow, but she still occasionally feels the outlaw juices flowing, and selling cars to rich guys doesn't do much to calm them. Then Cassie suddenly finds herself in desperate need of big money fast and so, with no other option, she agrees to do a job that will earn her enough money to flee the country and build a new life.
It means going back to Vegas and running some very high risks. It will also bring her into conflict with a very bad operator who has no compulsion whatsoever about killing the people who get in his path, even in a minor way. Inevitably, the best laid plans will go awry, and Cassie will be left to her own wits and considerable talents if she's going to survive and complete her larger mission.
This is a very taut, interesting book that grabs the reader from the beginning. Cassie is a very appealing character, and Connelly obviously did a lot of careful research for the book. The technical details, even though dated now, are especially intriguing, and after reading the book, I'm not going to feel safe in a hotel room again for a good long time. A very good read.
Cassie has a special reason for now walking the straight and narrow, but she still occasionally feels the outlaw juices flowing, and selling cars to rich guys doesn't do much to calm them. Then Cassie suddenly finds herself in desperate need of big money fast and so, with no other option, she agrees to do a job that will earn her enough money to flee the country and build a new life.
It means going back to Vegas and running some very high risks. It will also bring her into conflict with a very bad operator who has no compulsion whatsoever about killing the people who get in his path, even in a minor way. Inevitably, the best laid plans will go awry, and Cassie will be left to her own wits and considerable talents if she's going to survive and complete her larger mission.
This is a very taut, interesting book that grabs the reader from the beginning. Cassie is a very appealing character, and Connelly obviously did a lot of careful research for the book. The technical details, even though dated now, are especially intriguing, and after reading the book, I'm not going to feel safe in a hotel room again for a good long time. A very good read.
September 4, 2017
Excellent read! slow at first but picked up eventually.. both compelling and intriguing and great detective storyline (paperback!)
March 14, 2020
Have to go down the middle here with just three stars (2.5 if I could) since I liked the book enough to finish it and it had an unexpected and redeeming ending. However I have to admit to a fair bit of skimming along the way.
Unfortunately I was never able to connect with any of the characters including the MC, Cassie. It was not because she was a thief herself but just that there was not enough about her to really like. However she does redeem herself right at the end of the book and I was left with a feeling of satisfaction as I closed that last page.
There were plenty of other unpleasant people all double crossing each other and I never worried about who shot who because I did not care for any of them. There was also a huge amount of detail about planning and committing the theft (about a third of the book!) hence my skimming.
So not my favourite of Connelly's books. Think I must go find one that features Harry Bosch. They always seem to be the best!
Unfortunately I was never able to connect with any of the characters including the MC, Cassie. It was not because she was a thief herself but just that there was not enough about her to really like. However she does redeem herself right at the end of the book and I was left with a feeling of satisfaction as I closed that last page.
There were plenty of other unpleasant people all double crossing each other and I never worried about who shot who because I did not care for any of them. There was also a huge amount of detail about planning and committing the theft (about a third of the book!) hence my skimming.
So not my favourite of Connelly's books. Think I must go find one that features Harry Bosch. They always seem to be the best!
February 18, 2022
My Year of (Mostly) Mysterious Women continues with series fiction featuring women detectives. Published in December 1999, Void Moon is a standalone novel by Michael Connelly that's a departure from his L.A. police procedurals as well as my amateur detective jag. It's set firmly in Elmore Leonard territory, featuring an ex-con named Cassie Black whose path to the straight life is complicated by her need for One Last Job. You could fill a shelf at Blockbuster Video with the One Last Job subgenre, but this one is a work of high wire suspense with two terrific adversaries and all the detail I savor in a Connelly novel.
Set on the eve of the millennium, the story introduces Cassie Black acting distracted. She tours a California Craftsman bungalow in Laurel Canyon that's hit the market due to the young owners moving to Paris with their six-year-old daughter. Cassie clearly has no intention of buying the house and seems more curious about the girl. Employed as a saleswoman at "Hollywood Porsche," Cassie's mind isn't on the twentysomething screenwriter she takes on a test run on Mulholland Drive. During an appointment with her tough but fair parole officer Thelma Kibble, Cassie shares her interest in relocating to Paris and nearly has her parole status elevated to High Control.
Cassie phones an associate named Leo Renfro she hasn't spoken to since her five-year prison term in Nevada. She asks for two passports and work. Cash. One job. Leo is half-brother to a man who Cassie was intimately involved with before her imprisonment named Max Freeling. Leo fields Cassie a hot prowl in Las Vegas, burglarizing the hotel room of a mark who's checked in with $500,000 cash in a briefcase. The job would take her back to the "Cleopatra," the site of Cassie's arrest and also the place Max met his fate, falling out--or being helped out--of a penthouse on the twentieth floor. Cassie takes the job and prepares.
She bought screwdrivers, iron files, hacksaw blades and hammers, bailing wire, nylon twine and bungee cords. She bought a box of latex gloves, a small tub of earthquake wax, a Swiss Army knife and a painter's putty knife with a three-inch-wide blade. She bought a small acetylene torch and went to three hardware stores before finding a small enough battery-powered and rechargeable drill. She bought rubber-tipped pliers, wire cutters and aluminum shears. She added a Polaroid camera and a man's long-sleeved wet suit top to her purchases. She bought big and small flashlights, a pair of tile worker's knee pads and an electric stun gun. She bought a black leather backpack, a black fanny pack and belt, and several black zipper bags of varying sizes that could be folded and carried inside one of the backpack's pockets. Lastly, in every store she went to she bought a keyed padlock, amassing a collection of seven locks made by entirely different manufacturers and thereby containing seven slightly different locking mechanisms.
Leo is a superstitious man who consults the stars before making plans. He warns Cassie of a void moon on the night of the job, a sixteen-minute period when the moon will move from Cancer to Leo at four o'clock in the morning. He considers this bad luck time and warns Cassie not to make her move during the void moon. Her bad luck begins in Las Vegas buying special equipment from a contact she used on her last job, a man named Jersey Paltz who works for a lighting wholesaler that supplies the casinos. Picking up on Cassie's desperation and the news she's working alone, Jersey complicates her job.
Using a key card an insider at the Cleopatra leaves for her, Cassie rigs the mark's room with cameras that will allow her to monitor his movements and detect the combination to his closet safe. She's trapped in the closet during the void moon and almost makes her escape before the mark stirs awake. The story then jumps to the aftermath, with the mark shot dead and the hotel's chief of security Vincent Grimaldi hiring private investigator Jack Karch to recover the money, which the boss puts at $2.5 million. Grimaldi wants to keep the cops out of this because the money was a bribe by Cuban gangsters in Florida looking to win a bid on the aging casino.
Karch--a Las Vegas local whose father was a stage magician--has been resigned to missing persons work or burying problems for casino bosses in the desert. Grimaldi did him a favor six years ago when Karch caught Max Freeling on a job and the thief dove out, or was pushed out, a penthouse at the Cleo. Karch sees an opportunity to secure his independence. Using video surveillance from the casino, he tracks the mark to Cassie to the vehicle she parked at a neighboring casino. This leads Karch to Jersey which eventually leads him back to Hollywood Porsche, where Karch gets Cassie alone by pretending to be a customer.
Cassie reached her right hand up and gripped the top of the windshield brace. Her mind was moving as fast as the car as she tried to come up with a plan, an escape.
"Actually, Lankford's not my name," the man next to her was saying. "I got it off a book I found on a shelf at Leo Renfro's last night. It's called Shooters and I started taking a look at it. I thought it was about a guy in my line of work but it wasn't. But, hell, when your boss came up to me in the showroom and asked my name, it's all I could come up with on short notice, you know. My name is Karch. Jack Karch. And I've come for the money, Cassie Black."
Through the terror building inside Cassie a thought pressed forward. Jack Karch, she thought. I know that name.
Void Moon reminded me of those kitchen magnet sets that have keywords you can arrange into the sentences of your heart's content and stick to the fridge. "Woman," "cat burglar," "Porsche showroom," "Mulholland Drive," "Y2K," "sleazy private investigator" and "astrology" are some of these words. Most everything Michael Connelly plugs into the novel was cool or compelling to me. Details are sharply researched. (There's actually far more information here about GPS tracking in 1999 than I wanted). I am a sucker when it comes to lists and could read about Cassie's kit or how she trains for high-line burglary all day.
In the small bungalow she rented on Selma near the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, she spread her purchases out on the scarred Formica-topped table in the kitchen and readied her equipment, wearing gloves at all times when she handled each piece.
She used the shears and the torch to make lock picks from the bailing wire and hacksaw blades. She made a double set of three picks: a tension spike, a hook and a thin, flat tumbler pick. She put one set in a Ziploc bag and buried it in the garden outside the back door. The other set she put aside with the tools for the job she hoped would be coming from Leo very soon.
She cut half a sleeve off the wet suit and used it to encase the drill, sewing the sound-deadening rubber tightly in place with the nylon twine. From the rest of the wet suit she could quietly carry her custom-made burglary kit.
While I swear I've seen this plot done in a Kim Basinger movie called The Real McCoy, Void Moon gets close to being as good as the best Elmore Leonard I've read to date. It's both taut and colorful. Connelly lacks Leonard's facility with dialogue and the novel isn't one I'll reread, but I loved the way he withheld information rather than telling everything about Cassie in the first three chapters. He puts her on a collision course with a terrific adversary in Jack Karch and mines a criminal underworld in which nobody can rely on help from the police. It's a superb western caper in that way and very exciting.
While reading, I imagined Diane Lane as Cassie Black. She was attached to play the character in a movie that almost went before cameras in late 2003 with Mimi Leder directing. Al Pacino was set to play Jack Karch.
Set on the eve of the millennium, the story introduces Cassie Black acting distracted. She tours a California Craftsman bungalow in Laurel Canyon that's hit the market due to the young owners moving to Paris with their six-year-old daughter. Cassie clearly has no intention of buying the house and seems more curious about the girl. Employed as a saleswoman at "Hollywood Porsche," Cassie's mind isn't on the twentysomething screenwriter she takes on a test run on Mulholland Drive. During an appointment with her tough but fair parole officer Thelma Kibble, Cassie shares her interest in relocating to Paris and nearly has her parole status elevated to High Control.
Cassie phones an associate named Leo Renfro she hasn't spoken to since her five-year prison term in Nevada. She asks for two passports and work. Cash. One job. Leo is half-brother to a man who Cassie was intimately involved with before her imprisonment named Max Freeling. Leo fields Cassie a hot prowl in Las Vegas, burglarizing the hotel room of a mark who's checked in with $500,000 cash in a briefcase. The job would take her back to the "Cleopatra," the site of Cassie's arrest and also the place Max met his fate, falling out--or being helped out--of a penthouse on the twentieth floor. Cassie takes the job and prepares.
She bought screwdrivers, iron files, hacksaw blades and hammers, bailing wire, nylon twine and bungee cords. She bought a box of latex gloves, a small tub of earthquake wax, a Swiss Army knife and a painter's putty knife with a three-inch-wide blade. She bought a small acetylene torch and went to three hardware stores before finding a small enough battery-powered and rechargeable drill. She bought rubber-tipped pliers, wire cutters and aluminum shears. She added a Polaroid camera and a man's long-sleeved wet suit top to her purchases. She bought big and small flashlights, a pair of tile worker's knee pads and an electric stun gun. She bought a black leather backpack, a black fanny pack and belt, and several black zipper bags of varying sizes that could be folded and carried inside one of the backpack's pockets. Lastly, in every store she went to she bought a keyed padlock, amassing a collection of seven locks made by entirely different manufacturers and thereby containing seven slightly different locking mechanisms.
Leo is a superstitious man who consults the stars before making plans. He warns Cassie of a void moon on the night of the job, a sixteen-minute period when the moon will move from Cancer to Leo at four o'clock in the morning. He considers this bad luck time and warns Cassie not to make her move during the void moon. Her bad luck begins in Las Vegas buying special equipment from a contact she used on her last job, a man named Jersey Paltz who works for a lighting wholesaler that supplies the casinos. Picking up on Cassie's desperation and the news she's working alone, Jersey complicates her job.
Using a key card an insider at the Cleopatra leaves for her, Cassie rigs the mark's room with cameras that will allow her to monitor his movements and detect the combination to his closet safe. She's trapped in the closet during the void moon and almost makes her escape before the mark stirs awake. The story then jumps to the aftermath, with the mark shot dead and the hotel's chief of security Vincent Grimaldi hiring private investigator Jack Karch to recover the money, which the boss puts at $2.5 million. Grimaldi wants to keep the cops out of this because the money was a bribe by Cuban gangsters in Florida looking to win a bid on the aging casino.
Karch--a Las Vegas local whose father was a stage magician--has been resigned to missing persons work or burying problems for casino bosses in the desert. Grimaldi did him a favor six years ago when Karch caught Max Freeling on a job and the thief dove out, or was pushed out, a penthouse at the Cleo. Karch sees an opportunity to secure his independence. Using video surveillance from the casino, he tracks the mark to Cassie to the vehicle she parked at a neighboring casino. This leads Karch to Jersey which eventually leads him back to Hollywood Porsche, where Karch gets Cassie alone by pretending to be a customer.
Cassie reached her right hand up and gripped the top of the windshield brace. Her mind was moving as fast as the car as she tried to come up with a plan, an escape.
"Actually, Lankford's not my name," the man next to her was saying. "I got it off a book I found on a shelf at Leo Renfro's last night. It's called Shooters and I started taking a look at it. I thought it was about a guy in my line of work but it wasn't. But, hell, when your boss came up to me in the showroom and asked my name, it's all I could come up with on short notice, you know. My name is Karch. Jack Karch. And I've come for the money, Cassie Black."
Through the terror building inside Cassie a thought pressed forward. Jack Karch, she thought. I know that name.
Void Moon reminded me of those kitchen magnet sets that have keywords you can arrange into the sentences of your heart's content and stick to the fridge. "Woman," "cat burglar," "Porsche showroom," "Mulholland Drive," "Y2K," "sleazy private investigator" and "astrology" are some of these words. Most everything Michael Connelly plugs into the novel was cool or compelling to me. Details are sharply researched. (There's actually far more information here about GPS tracking in 1999 than I wanted). I am a sucker when it comes to lists and could read about Cassie's kit or how she trains for high-line burglary all day.
In the small bungalow she rented on Selma near the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, she spread her purchases out on the scarred Formica-topped table in the kitchen and readied her equipment, wearing gloves at all times when she handled each piece.
She used the shears and the torch to make lock picks from the bailing wire and hacksaw blades. She made a double set of three picks: a tension spike, a hook and a thin, flat tumbler pick. She put one set in a Ziploc bag and buried it in the garden outside the back door. The other set she put aside with the tools for the job she hoped would be coming from Leo very soon.
She cut half a sleeve off the wet suit and used it to encase the drill, sewing the sound-deadening rubber tightly in place with the nylon twine. From the rest of the wet suit she could quietly carry her custom-made burglary kit.
While I swear I've seen this plot done in a Kim Basinger movie called The Real McCoy, Void Moon gets close to being as good as the best Elmore Leonard I've read to date. It's both taut and colorful. Connelly lacks Leonard's facility with dialogue and the novel isn't one I'll reread, but I loved the way he withheld information rather than telling everything about Cassie in the first three chapters. He puts her on a collision course with a terrific adversary in Jack Karch and mines a criminal underworld in which nobody can rely on help from the police. It's a superb western caper in that way and very exciting.
While reading, I imagined Diane Lane as Cassie Black. She was attached to play the character in a movie that almost went before cameras in late 2003 with Mimi Leder directing. Al Pacino was set to play Jack Karch.
February 29, 2024
True story: I once had a job offer in Vegas, but I turned it down. This was roughly ten years ago, before the housing market bubble imploded, when houses were being built by the second and spreading across the Nevada desert like some urban sprawl virus. The massive influx of people meant a demand for schools, which meant a demand for teachers.
As a fresh-out-of-graduate-school teacher, I was pretty eager to find a job. My interview for the Vegas school district went like this: Do you want a teaching job? Yes. Do you want a $2,000 signing bonus? Um, is this a trick question? Well, here’s the deal: Do you have a drinking problem? No. Gambling problem? No. Sex addiction? Not that I know of� Okay, you’re hired. If you want it.
That’s not an exaggeration.
I had a job waiting for me in Vegas, but I turned it down. For many reasons, really: the heat, the distance from my family, the fact that everything I knew about Vegas sadly came from CSI episodes and movies about the mafia. I hated Vegas, even though I’d never been there. I had no desire (and I still don’t) to ever visit, let alone live there. But, strangely enough, that’s not why I decided against it.
Actually, my interviewer made my decision for me.
I don’t recall her name, although I recall that she was a tall, blonde, leggy supermodel-gorgeous woman with her hair cut short in what I think is called a “bob�, the kind I always see Keira Knightley sporting. If I recall correctly, she looked like Jessica Chastain with glasses and with slightly bigger breasts. I do honestly remember thinking that if all female teachers in Vegas looked like this, I was ready to accept any position, even janitor. Within two minutes of the interview she had pretty much told me her life story up until that moment.
She told me that she and her husband of less than a year (they were practically newlyweds) moved to Vegas several years before. She, of course, immediately got a job teaching, which she loved. What she didn’t love was that her husband was spending a lot of late nights at the Strip, coming home drunk. He was also spending money like crazy, mostly from gambling (and, she suspected, visiting cathouses). Their marriage ended when she discovered that he had completely wiped clean their joint savings account.
She was in tears at this point. I had to get up and find a box of tissues for her. She calmed down and then proceeded with the afore-mentioned 30-second interview.
I don’t think she was that upset when I said “no� to the job. Or surprised. In fact, I think she may have been relieved. I don’t know for sure, obviously, but--regardless if her story was true or not---I bet she used that opener for every interview, tears and all. It was a test. If people said “yes� after all that, they were brave enough for Vegas.
****
Reading Michael Connelly’s “Void Moon� automatically brought that story to mind, only because it reiterated everything I hate about Vegas.
I’ll be honest: I love noir fiction, but I’m not a huge fan of the “heist� caper. I usually find them pretty boring. To me, there is nothing interesting about thieves standing around blueprints and high-tech cat burglar gadgets, going on endlessly about how the plan has to work flawlessly, without any problems. The score is always ridiculously huge, and the risks are always ridiculously high.
And, of course, something ALWAYS goes wrong.
Needless to say, I wasn’t that excited early on in “Void Moon� when it looked to me like a run-of-the-mill Vegas heist caper. Luckily, it’s a Vegas heist caper written by Michael Connelly, so I shouldn’t have been worried.
Close to the half-way mark, the book goes from heist caper to psychotic killer story, and it kicks into high gear. By the two-thirds mark, when it becomes a high-stakes kidnapping story, I was on the edge of my seat.
Bravo, Connelly. Bra-fuckin�-vo!
I still hate Vegas, and I still have no desire to ever visit. I will live the “joys� of Vegas vicariously through movies like “Showgirls�, “Ocean’s Eleven�, “The Hangover�, and “Leaving Las Vegas�. You don’t have to convince me very hard that Vegas is a hellhole, thank you very much...
As a fresh-out-of-graduate-school teacher, I was pretty eager to find a job. My interview for the Vegas school district went like this: Do you want a teaching job? Yes. Do you want a $2,000 signing bonus? Um, is this a trick question? Well, here’s the deal: Do you have a drinking problem? No. Gambling problem? No. Sex addiction? Not that I know of� Okay, you’re hired. If you want it.
That’s not an exaggeration.
I had a job waiting for me in Vegas, but I turned it down. For many reasons, really: the heat, the distance from my family, the fact that everything I knew about Vegas sadly came from CSI episodes and movies about the mafia. I hated Vegas, even though I’d never been there. I had no desire (and I still don’t) to ever visit, let alone live there. But, strangely enough, that’s not why I decided against it.
Actually, my interviewer made my decision for me.
I don’t recall her name, although I recall that she was a tall, blonde, leggy supermodel-gorgeous woman with her hair cut short in what I think is called a “bob�, the kind I always see Keira Knightley sporting. If I recall correctly, she looked like Jessica Chastain with glasses and with slightly bigger breasts. I do honestly remember thinking that if all female teachers in Vegas looked like this, I was ready to accept any position, even janitor. Within two minutes of the interview she had pretty much told me her life story up until that moment.
She told me that she and her husband of less than a year (they were practically newlyweds) moved to Vegas several years before. She, of course, immediately got a job teaching, which she loved. What she didn’t love was that her husband was spending a lot of late nights at the Strip, coming home drunk. He was also spending money like crazy, mostly from gambling (and, she suspected, visiting cathouses). Their marriage ended when she discovered that he had completely wiped clean their joint savings account.
She was in tears at this point. I had to get up and find a box of tissues for her. She calmed down and then proceeded with the afore-mentioned 30-second interview.
I don’t think she was that upset when I said “no� to the job. Or surprised. In fact, I think she may have been relieved. I don’t know for sure, obviously, but--regardless if her story was true or not---I bet she used that opener for every interview, tears and all. It was a test. If people said “yes� after all that, they were brave enough for Vegas.
****
Reading Michael Connelly’s “Void Moon� automatically brought that story to mind, only because it reiterated everything I hate about Vegas.
I’ll be honest: I love noir fiction, but I’m not a huge fan of the “heist� caper. I usually find them pretty boring. To me, there is nothing interesting about thieves standing around blueprints and high-tech cat burglar gadgets, going on endlessly about how the plan has to work flawlessly, without any problems. The score is always ridiculously huge, and the risks are always ridiculously high.
And, of course, something ALWAYS goes wrong.
Needless to say, I wasn’t that excited early on in “Void Moon� when it looked to me like a run-of-the-mill Vegas heist caper. Luckily, it’s a Vegas heist caper written by Michael Connelly, so I shouldn’t have been worried.
Close to the half-way mark, the book goes from heist caper to psychotic killer story, and it kicks into high gear. By the two-thirds mark, when it becomes a high-stakes kidnapping story, I was on the edge of my seat.
Bravo, Connelly. Bra-fuckin�-vo!
I still hate Vegas, and I still have no desire to ever visit. I will live the “joys� of Vegas vicariously through movies like “Showgirls�, “Ocean’s Eleven�, “The Hangover�, and “Leaving Las Vegas�. You don’t have to convince me very hard that Vegas is a hellhole, thank you very much...
June 28, 2019
Cassie Black; ten months out of prison for manslaughter and living a life that was boring and mundane. Her once-a-month visit to her parole officer sparked memories of what had originally put her in prison � she decided she would do one more job and hightail it out of there. Become lost to the authorities and live life on her terms.
Everything went as it should, until somehow it no longer was. Cassie knew she was in trouble, but she was determined to stay one step ahead. The gunmen who had her in their sights were deadly; how could they possibly know where she was heading? And her life’s secret � was that in danger of coming adrift?
Void Moon by Michael Connelly was originally published in 1999 and to my mind, doesn’t have the class and punch that his later work has. Cassie was a hard person to like, though she did grow on me by the end. There were plenty of twists to the plot, a few things I didn’t see coming and I did enjoy the story; just not as much as I have in the past. I'm glad to have read it too, as the paperback has been on my bookshelf since October 2011. Recommended.
Everything went as it should, until somehow it no longer was. Cassie knew she was in trouble, but she was determined to stay one step ahead. The gunmen who had her in their sights were deadly; how could they possibly know where she was heading? And her life’s secret � was that in danger of coming adrift?
Void Moon by Michael Connelly was originally published in 1999 and to my mind, doesn’t have the class and punch that his later work has. Cassie was a hard person to like, though she did grow on me by the end. There were plenty of twists to the plot, a few things I didn’t see coming and I did enjoy the story; just not as much as I have in the past. I'm glad to have read it too, as the paperback has been on my bookshelf since October 2011. Recommended.
January 7, 2025
3.5/5 Estrellas
Pues me sigo adentrando en el Universo Harry Bosch. En este caso nos ponemos del otro lado de la ley con un personaje nuevo, Cassie Black, que no sé si ha tenido recorrido en algún otro libro, tengo que investigar.
Sustituimos los procedimientos policiales, por los procedimientos ladroniles. Los he echado de menos.
Sustituimos la policía de Los Ángeles, el FBI y asuntos internos, por la el mundo del juego y la mafias en la ciudad del vicio, Las Vegas. También los he echado de menos.
Supongo que se incluye este libro en el Universo Harry Bosch, porque transcurre entre Los Ángeles y las Vegas, paisajes habituales de las novelas de Bosch. No reconozco ningún otro protagonista en común.
Cassie es una expresidiaria que se encuentra en libertad condicional, intentando olvidar su pasado como ladrona de guante blanco en los casinos de Las Vegas. Pero el pasado tiene las manos muy largas y el trabajo de asalariado rinde muy poco en comparación con un buen golpe de varias decenas o centenares de miles de dólares.
Al final la tentación y los tentáculos del pasado la vuelven a empujar hacia el mundo del hampa y se ve involucrada en un gran golpe, cuyas implicaciones sobrepasan todo lo que hubiera imaginado. Ya no tendrá que luchar por su libertad y por el dinero, por un futuro, si no por su vida.
Espectacular el personaje de Jack Karch, asesino implacable con dotes de mago, es lo mejor de la novela. El personaje principal de Cassie, no me lo he acabado de creer.
El libro tiene ritmo y te atrapa, pero me quedo con los de Bosch como protagonista. Su método deductivo me tiene atrapado.
Seguimos con el Universo.
Pues me sigo adentrando en el Universo Harry Bosch. En este caso nos ponemos del otro lado de la ley con un personaje nuevo, Cassie Black, que no sé si ha tenido recorrido en algún otro libro, tengo que investigar.
Sustituimos los procedimientos policiales, por los procedimientos ladroniles. Los he echado de menos.
Sustituimos la policía de Los Ángeles, el FBI y asuntos internos, por la el mundo del juego y la mafias en la ciudad del vicio, Las Vegas. También los he echado de menos.
Supongo que se incluye este libro en el Universo Harry Bosch, porque transcurre entre Los Ángeles y las Vegas, paisajes habituales de las novelas de Bosch. No reconozco ningún otro protagonista en común.
Cassie es una expresidiaria que se encuentra en libertad condicional, intentando olvidar su pasado como ladrona de guante blanco en los casinos de Las Vegas. Pero el pasado tiene las manos muy largas y el trabajo de asalariado rinde muy poco en comparación con un buen golpe de varias decenas o centenares de miles de dólares.
Al final la tentación y los tentáculos del pasado la vuelven a empujar hacia el mundo del hampa y se ve involucrada en un gran golpe, cuyas implicaciones sobrepasan todo lo que hubiera imaginado. Ya no tendrá que luchar por su libertad y por el dinero, por un futuro, si no por su vida.
Espectacular el personaje de Jack Karch, asesino implacable con dotes de mago, es lo mejor de la novela. El personaje principal de Cassie, no me lo he acabado de creer.
El libro tiene ritmo y te atrapa, pero me quedo con los de Bosch como protagonista. Su método deductivo me tiene atrapado.
Seguimos con el Universo.
April 6, 2024
Cassie Black takes on the Cuban mafia!
Cassie Black is a thief and an ex-con, currently on parole, working at a car dealership selling Porsches to the heavy wallet brigade in Los Angeles. To say more about Cassie is to chance spoiling the novel because Cassie's history and the background story is the driving force behind what she has become. Michael Connelly is stingy with the details as he masterfully holds the suspense at unbearably high levels and feeds the reader only enough bits and pieces of Cassie's background for her current behaviour to make sense. Suffice it to say, that she can't handle the straight life and needs one more score -a monster payday that will allow her to retire and disappear to parts unknown.
Her target is a high roller at The Cleopatra, a Las Vegas casino that has seen better days. The ninja style high-tech caper is wildly successful but Black is aghast when she realizes that her haul is easily ten times what she was expecting. "It is possible to steal too much!" Clearly she has stepped into the middle of a mob transaction and she knows that the Cuban mafia will pursue her to the very ends of the earth to recover their money and to kill her as an example to all who might presume to get in their way.
VOID MOON is a fabulous diversion from Connelly's wildly successful Harry Bosch series and works magnificently as a stand-alone novel. Connelly's description of Black's outrageous theft right under the noses of the casino and hotel security safeguards is positively breathtaking. You'll never sleep well at night in a hotel again! Her characters are thrilling - Thelma Kibble, the corpulent, black parole officer with a heart made of a wonderful combination of soft, warm putty and ice, cold steel; Jack Karch, the ruthless, psychopathic investigator who's on the casino's payroll but will do anything to take the money for himself; Vincent Grimaldi, the self-centered casino director whose neck is in a very tight noose unless he recovers the stolen money; and, of course, Jodie Shaw, the beautiful little girl around whom Cassie's life and the entire plot ultimately revolves.
As usual, Connelly's dialogue positively sings with hi-fi clarity and realism! His characters leap off the page with depth and believability! And the plot sizzles from one page to the next through the entire length of the novel. I was grateful to reach the end of the novel so that I could actually take a breath. I think I was turning purple! Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Cassie Black is a thief and an ex-con, currently on parole, working at a car dealership selling Porsches to the heavy wallet brigade in Los Angeles. To say more about Cassie is to chance spoiling the novel because Cassie's history and the background story is the driving force behind what she has become. Michael Connelly is stingy with the details as he masterfully holds the suspense at unbearably high levels and feeds the reader only enough bits and pieces of Cassie's background for her current behaviour to make sense. Suffice it to say, that she can't handle the straight life and needs one more score -a monster payday that will allow her to retire and disappear to parts unknown.
Her target is a high roller at The Cleopatra, a Las Vegas casino that has seen better days. The ninja style high-tech caper is wildly successful but Black is aghast when she realizes that her haul is easily ten times what she was expecting. "It is possible to steal too much!" Clearly she has stepped into the middle of a mob transaction and she knows that the Cuban mafia will pursue her to the very ends of the earth to recover their money and to kill her as an example to all who might presume to get in their way.
VOID MOON is a fabulous diversion from Connelly's wildly successful Harry Bosch series and works magnificently as a stand-alone novel. Connelly's description of Black's outrageous theft right under the noses of the casino and hotel security safeguards is positively breathtaking. You'll never sleep well at night in a hotel again! Her characters are thrilling - Thelma Kibble, the corpulent, black parole officer with a heart made of a wonderful combination of soft, warm putty and ice, cold steel; Jack Karch, the ruthless, psychopathic investigator who's on the casino's payroll but will do anything to take the money for himself; Vincent Grimaldi, the self-centered casino director whose neck is in a very tight noose unless he recovers the stolen money; and, of course, Jodie Shaw, the beautiful little girl around whom Cassie's life and the entire plot ultimately revolves.
As usual, Connelly's dialogue positively sings with hi-fi clarity and realism! His characters leap off the page with depth and believability! And the plot sizzles from one page to the next through the entire length of the novel. I was grateful to reach the end of the novel so that I could actually take a breath. I think I was turning purple! Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
August 14, 2011
As we all know by now, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Unless what happened is that you’re a professional thief and your lover/partner-in-crime gets caught trying rip to off a high roller in a hotel penthouse and ends up flying out the window, crashes through an atrium over the casino and lands on a craps table in front of you. If that occurs, then everyone will know your business, you’ll be leaving Vegas quicker than Sheryl Crow, and your transportation will be a prison bus.
Cassie Black and her lover Max made their living stealing from the rich in Sin City until Max’s luck ran out, and Cassie got sent to jail. Several years later, Cassie is on parole in LA and seems to be on the straight and narrow with a job selling sports cars. But a new development has Cassie wanting to leave the country in a hurry so she needs quick cash and asks her old friend Leo Renfro to set her up with a job.
Leo finds a gig that will pay nicely, but there’s a problem. It’s at the very same casino where Max failed his flying lesson and Cassie got busted. Desperate, Cassie takes the job despite her misgivings, but soon finds herself being pursued by Jack Karch, a shady private detective and amateur magician who has dug several shallow graves out in the desert to solve problems. Jack is also the guy who busted Max before he went out the window.
This is the second Michael Connelly I’ve read, and like The Poet, I found it very OK but nothing spectacular. The guy can come up with some offbeat plots, and his writing gets the job done. But his stuff lacks a certain something that I look for in crime novels.
The idea of a female professional thief specializing in Vegas hotels could have been very cool, but Cassie came across as sloppy. You’d never catch Richard Stark’s Parker forgetting to turn off his taser and run the battery down. I really liked the Jack Karch character at first because he seemed like very slick guy who had Vegas wired, but then in the last half of the book, Karch descends into over-the-top standard thriller villainy and became a lot less interesting.
A decent enough story, but didn’t really live up to its potential.
Unless what happened is that you’re a professional thief and your lover/partner-in-crime gets caught trying rip to off a high roller in a hotel penthouse and ends up flying out the window, crashes through an atrium over the casino and lands on a craps table in front of you. If that occurs, then everyone will know your business, you’ll be leaving Vegas quicker than Sheryl Crow, and your transportation will be a prison bus.
Cassie Black and her lover Max made their living stealing from the rich in Sin City until Max’s luck ran out, and Cassie got sent to jail. Several years later, Cassie is on parole in LA and seems to be on the straight and narrow with a job selling sports cars. But a new development has Cassie wanting to leave the country in a hurry so she needs quick cash and asks her old friend Leo Renfro to set her up with a job.
Leo finds a gig that will pay nicely, but there’s a problem. It’s at the very same casino where Max failed his flying lesson and Cassie got busted. Desperate, Cassie takes the job despite her misgivings, but soon finds herself being pursued by Jack Karch, a shady private detective and amateur magician who has dug several shallow graves out in the desert to solve problems. Jack is also the guy who busted Max before he went out the window.
This is the second Michael Connelly I’ve read, and like The Poet, I found it very OK but nothing spectacular. The guy can come up with some offbeat plots, and his writing gets the job done. But his stuff lacks a certain something that I look for in crime novels.
The idea of a female professional thief specializing in Vegas hotels could have been very cool, but Cassie came across as sloppy. You’d never catch Richard Stark’s Parker forgetting to turn off his taser and run the battery down. I really liked the Jack Karch character at first because he seemed like very slick guy who had Vegas wired, but then in the last half of the book, Karch descends into over-the-top standard thriller villainy and became a lot less interesting.
A decent enough story, but didn’t really live up to its potential.
May 25, 2021
Duodécimo libro en el universo de Harry Bosch y el primero, e imagino que último, de un nuevo personaje: Cassie Black. Por primera vez en la colección vemos la ciudad de Los Ángeles y de Las Vegas desde el punto diametralmente opuesto al de la policía, pues su protagonista es una ladrona de casinos cumpliendo la condicional que se verá arrastrada a dar un último golpe con el cual retirarse.
Destaco de la novela lo bien documentada que está acerca de aparatos de videovigilancia, los casinos y su entorno y lo diferente que es la ley según el estado. No es algo que me sorprenda, pues Michael Connelly sabe bien de lo que escribe cuando se pone a ello. Sin embargo, esta vez sí que me ha gustado que profundice más en un mundo muy peculiar como es el del juego, concretamente en Nevada, y el desierto que rodea a la Capital del Pecado. Allí lo llaman El Desierto que Respira, y no hay nada de exageración en ello, pues cada poco tiempo sale algún cadáver a la luz.
Sobre los personajes, me ha costado empatizar con ellos, y eso que son muy pocos, prácticamente se cuentan con los dedos de una mano. El que me ha conseguido atraer más de los dos protagonistas ha sido Jack Karsh, detective privado y “arregla entuertos�. Realmente he llegado a odiarle y eso es bueno, pues dice mucho de cómo es y cómo está descrito. Sobre Cassie Black…pues bueno, tampoco es que me haya atraído mucho. Toda la novela está narrada en tercera persona por un narrador omnipresente y siempre centrado en el punto de vista de esos dos personajes.
Por cierto, muy bien traído el tema de los juegos de mano y la magia, ha sido un buen detalle del cual se nota también que se documentó bastante y contó con ayuda de algún mago.
Le he quitado una estrella de las cinco principalmente por lo que he comentado sobre los personajes, porque por lo demás se devora en dos o tres tardes. Tiene un ritmo muy bueno y bastantes giros que dejan a un con buen sabor de boca.
Destaco de la novela lo bien documentada que está acerca de aparatos de videovigilancia, los casinos y su entorno y lo diferente que es la ley según el estado. No es algo que me sorprenda, pues Michael Connelly sabe bien de lo que escribe cuando se pone a ello. Sin embargo, esta vez sí que me ha gustado que profundice más en un mundo muy peculiar como es el del juego, concretamente en Nevada, y el desierto que rodea a la Capital del Pecado. Allí lo llaman El Desierto que Respira, y no hay nada de exageración en ello, pues cada poco tiempo sale algún cadáver a la luz.
Sobre los personajes, me ha costado empatizar con ellos, y eso que son muy pocos, prácticamente se cuentan con los dedos de una mano. El que me ha conseguido atraer más de los dos protagonistas ha sido Jack Karsh, detective privado y “arregla entuertos�. Realmente he llegado a odiarle y eso es bueno, pues dice mucho de cómo es y cómo está descrito. Sobre Cassie Black…pues bueno, tampoco es que me haya atraído mucho. Toda la novela está narrada en tercera persona por un narrador omnipresente y siempre centrado en el punto de vista de esos dos personajes.
Por cierto, muy bien traído el tema de los juegos de mano y la magia, ha sido un buen detalle del cual se nota también que se documentó bastante y contó con ayuda de algún mago.
Le he quitado una estrella de las cinco principalmente por lo que he comentado sobre los personajes, porque por lo demás se devora en dos o tres tardes. Tiene un ritmo muy bueno y bastantes giros que dejan a un con buen sabor de boca.
April 8, 2019
This was my sort of palate cleanser book to get me back on track after reading a bunch of misogynistic duds in what feels like a very short period of time, and I can usually count on Michael Connelly for a good'un.
I'm reading his books in Bosch Universe order, and this one is in the universe, but not actually featuring Harry Bosch. Those non-Bosch books have been hit or miss for me, to be honest. A Darkness More Than Night was ridiculously bad, but The Poet was really good. This one is kind of more in the middle. Not terrible, but also not great. It was pretty predictable, which is not something that I usually ascribe to Connelly's books, which is my main point of disappointment with this one. If not for that, I'd say that this was great.
The writing was up to par, the plot was good, the characters kept me engaged... it was really just the predictability that tainted it. I liked that everyone, with the exception of two minor characters, was a "bad guy", and the nuance and interest here was about the type of bad guy they were, and their reasons for doing what they do. I liked that aspect of the book a lot.
Still... for what I needed right now, this was great, and it got me back into the headspace I needed to be in to avoid a slump after a string of meh. So for that, good is enough! :)
I'm reading his books in Bosch Universe order, and this one is in the universe, but not actually featuring Harry Bosch. Those non-Bosch books have been hit or miss for me, to be honest. A Darkness More Than Night was ridiculously bad, but The Poet was really good. This one is kind of more in the middle. Not terrible, but also not great. It was pretty predictable, which is not something that I usually ascribe to Connelly's books, which is my main point of disappointment with this one. If not for that, I'd say that this was great.
The writing was up to par, the plot was good, the characters kept me engaged... it was really just the predictability that tainted it. I liked that everyone, with the exception of two minor characters, was a "bad guy", and the nuance and interest here was about the type of bad guy they were, and their reasons for doing what they do. I liked that aspect of the book a lot.
Still... for what I needed right now, this was great, and it got me back into the headspace I needed to be in to avoid a slump after a string of meh. So for that, good is enough! :)
July 15, 2017
Realmente este escritor sabe cómo enganchar! Lo único que ese final...
October 21, 2018
This is not the best book by Michael Connelly but still a very good one. I can easily imagine making it into a movie.
I have a sweet spot for con artists of all sorts and I totally love heist stories. And heist is a big part of this book. Cassie is out of prison on her probation time living quite life. Then out of sudden everything changes and needs some serious amount of money. She agrees to take a job but nothing goes as it should.
I do really like Cassie, she is a complicated heroine. There is something deeply upsetting about her, she is some kind of a tragic heroine after all. I do really care about her and some part of would love to see her finding some happiness at least or even peace. It looks like she appears in some other book by Connelly, so maybe I will read it one day to meet Cassie again.
The plot is really good. However, I would like to spend more time with Cassie and less with Jack Spade. The plot is full of action and twists and the whole idea is really good, again worth a movie script.
October 15, 2011
4 ½ stars. The last two hours are edge of your seat. Great character development and outthinking each other. Excellent ending.
STORY BRIEF:
Cassie was in prison. She has been out on parole for 10 months. She works for a Porsche dealership selling cars. She is unsettled about something and wants to do another burglary job. She contacts her former buddy Leo who says he has a job needing someone like her - to steal money from a hotel room safe while the mark sleeps. The mark is a gambler in Las Vegas. She takes the job, pulls it off admirably, and gets away. To Cassie’s surprise, not only did she get his gambling winnings but also a briefcase with $2 ½ million in mob money. The hotel manager hires Jack (private investigator/hit man) to find the thief (Cassie) and get it back.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This is a great book for watching two very smart people outsmart each other. Jack is clever, intuitive, has guns, and uses them. Cassie has smart plans, but her most impressive abilities occur when things go wrong, and she instantly comes up with something unexpected to counter and survive. Those parts were great.
Early in the book I was frustrated because I didn’t know who to root for. Just know that this is a story about thieves, killers, and criminals. All of them are after each other. It takes a while to get to know Cassie (a thief), but she’s the one to root for. When Jack comes into the picture a little later, I was hoping the two of them would get together. He was impressed with her. This could have been a great romantic suspense book (with the hit man changing his life after falling in love). (I’m a big fan of romance novels.) But as the story continued, I realized that could not happen. Early on Jack was a good Samaritan when he saw a man abusing a woman, and he stepped in to help her. But later I learned Jack was evil. I could accept Jack killing bad guys, but when he starts killing good guys I realized he wasn’t going to be the romantic hero I wanted. Since we are in the head of the bad guy chasing Cassie, this qualifies as a thriller (crime suspense thriller). It took some time to get going, but boy, the last two hours were edge of your seat! And the ending was very well done. It was a happy ending.
What makes this so good is all the “showing� not telling. We see details of how clever things happen.
NARRATOR:
The narrator L J Ganser was very good.
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 10 hrs and 59 mins. Narrator: L J Ganser. Swearing language: strong, but rarely used. Sexual content: none. Setting: 2000 mostly Los Angeles area, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Book Copyright: 2000. Genre: crime suspense thriller. Ending: Not mushy happy for everyone, but happy from a realistic standpoint.
OTHER BOOKS:
Most of the author’s books are within the four series mentioned below. To date he has written two novels that are not part of these series. He has also done some collections and anthologies that I do not intend to read. The two novels are:
4 ½ stars. Void Moon. Copyright 2000.
(to read) Chasing The Dime. Copyright 2002.
THE FOUR SERIES (Bosch, McCaleb, McEvoy, and Haller):
I recommend reading the Harry Bosch books in order, but it would be ok to try “The Last Coyote� or “Lost Light� first, just to see if you like the style. Then go back and read the rest in order. There is a date flow and the characters interact. See my review for The Fifth Witness for a list of all the books and my recommended reading order (for the four series).
STORY BRIEF:
Cassie was in prison. She has been out on parole for 10 months. She works for a Porsche dealership selling cars. She is unsettled about something and wants to do another burglary job. She contacts her former buddy Leo who says he has a job needing someone like her - to steal money from a hotel room safe while the mark sleeps. The mark is a gambler in Las Vegas. She takes the job, pulls it off admirably, and gets away. To Cassie’s surprise, not only did she get his gambling winnings but also a briefcase with $2 ½ million in mob money. The hotel manager hires Jack (private investigator/hit man) to find the thief (Cassie) and get it back.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This is a great book for watching two very smart people outsmart each other. Jack is clever, intuitive, has guns, and uses them. Cassie has smart plans, but her most impressive abilities occur when things go wrong, and she instantly comes up with something unexpected to counter and survive. Those parts were great.
Early in the book I was frustrated because I didn’t know who to root for. Just know that this is a story about thieves, killers, and criminals. All of them are after each other. It takes a while to get to know Cassie (a thief), but she’s the one to root for. When Jack comes into the picture a little later, I was hoping the two of them would get together. He was impressed with her. This could have been a great romantic suspense book (with the hit man changing his life after falling in love). (I’m a big fan of romance novels.) But as the story continued, I realized that could not happen. Early on Jack was a good Samaritan when he saw a man abusing a woman, and he stepped in to help her. But later I learned Jack was evil. I could accept Jack killing bad guys, but when he starts killing good guys I realized he wasn’t going to be the romantic hero I wanted. Since we are in the head of the bad guy chasing Cassie, this qualifies as a thriller (crime suspense thriller). It took some time to get going, but boy, the last two hours were edge of your seat! And the ending was very well done. It was a happy ending.
What makes this so good is all the “showing� not telling. We see details of how clever things happen.
NARRATOR:
The narrator L J Ganser was very good.
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 10 hrs and 59 mins. Narrator: L J Ganser. Swearing language: strong, but rarely used. Sexual content: none. Setting: 2000 mostly Los Angeles area, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Book Copyright: 2000. Genre: crime suspense thriller. Ending: Not mushy happy for everyone, but happy from a realistic standpoint.
OTHER BOOKS:
Most of the author’s books are within the four series mentioned below. To date he has written two novels that are not part of these series. He has also done some collections and anthologies that I do not intend to read. The two novels are:
4 ½ stars. Void Moon. Copyright 2000.
(to read) Chasing The Dime. Copyright 2002.
THE FOUR SERIES (Bosch, McCaleb, McEvoy, and Haller):
I recommend reading the Harry Bosch books in order, but it would be ok to try “The Last Coyote� or “Lost Light� first, just to see if you like the style. Then go back and read the rest in order. There is a date flow and the characters interact. See my review for The Fifth Witness for a list of all the books and my recommended reading order (for the four series).
July 1, 2019
I don't want to even see the word "void" for a month. It's repeated throughout this book and also moons are shown. I just wanted to finish this so I could count it to Horror Aficionados ABC Challenge. If it wasn't for that, I would have DNFed this thing on Sunday.
"Void Moon" follows Cassie Black. Cassie we find out through a long winding road is an ex-felon. She decides to take one last heist in order to get enough funds to kidnap her daughter who was adopted at birth. I throw in that last part so you can get why I wasn't rooting for Cassie. She's self absorbed and due to her actions causes a lot of damage to people. I found out after the fact she appears in "The Narrows" and is referred to in other Harry Bosch books. That said, she didn't need a standalone. I did not care a whit about her and the other characters in this book were underdeveloped and a mess.
The book takes a really long time to get going. We start off with Cassie touring a house and I was able to put two and two together rather quickly. I didn't get all of the details right, but enough to just hard sigh through everything. I have to say that the twists in this book were just ridiculous after a while. The heist plot didn't work for me and then we found out about a plot towards the end that made zero sense to me.
Of course the heist goes wrong and then the book starts to also follow Jack Karch. Karch is a psychopath. I got nothing else but that. He has a tenuous connection to Cassie and the guy seems to get off on "winning" at all costs. Connelly follows Cassie and Karch as they run around causing havoc in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
I can't say much about anyone else in this book. They were merely there to either be killed or help out Cassie.
The writing was typical Connelly, but without Bosch to ground the book I just didn't care. Reading about how to burgle a room and steal from a mark had me yawning. I should have just rewatched Ocean's Eleven again. The flow was awful from start to finish. Everything read very disjointed because I think that Connelly wanted to throw out surprises/twists to readers. Instead I just hard shrugged through most of it.
The ending just fell flat. I think the biggest issue I had was this book does not matter in the Bosch universe at all. I rather have another Haller book.
"Void Moon" follows Cassie Black. Cassie we find out through a long winding road is an ex-felon. She decides to take one last heist in order to get enough funds to kidnap her daughter who was adopted at birth. I throw in that last part so you can get why I wasn't rooting for Cassie. She's self absorbed and due to her actions causes a lot of damage to people. I found out after the fact she appears in "The Narrows" and is referred to in other Harry Bosch books. That said, she didn't need a standalone. I did not care a whit about her and the other characters in this book were underdeveloped and a mess.
The book takes a really long time to get going. We start off with Cassie touring a house and I was able to put two and two together rather quickly. I didn't get all of the details right, but enough to just hard sigh through everything. I have to say that the twists in this book were just ridiculous after a while. The heist plot didn't work for me and then we found out about a plot towards the end that made zero sense to me.
Of course the heist goes wrong and then the book starts to also follow Jack Karch. Karch is a psychopath. I got nothing else but that. He has a tenuous connection to Cassie and the guy seems to get off on "winning" at all costs. Connelly follows Cassie and Karch as they run around causing havoc in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
I can't say much about anyone else in this book. They were merely there to either be killed or help out Cassie.
The writing was typical Connelly, but without Bosch to ground the book I just didn't care. Reading about how to burgle a room and steal from a mark had me yawning. I should have just rewatched Ocean's Eleven again. The flow was awful from start to finish. Everything read very disjointed because I think that Connelly wanted to throw out surprises/twists to readers. Instead I just hard shrugged through most of it.
The ending just fell flat. I think the biggest issue I had was this book does not matter in the Bosch universe at all. I rather have another Haller book.
May 8, 2012
A great story with an unlikely hero. Like I've seen mentioned a dozen times here, there are no good guys in this story. This is a story of criminals moving in a the criminal life. The best character to hang your allegiances with is your story's central character Cassie Black. Cassie is an ex-con, ex-burglar who goes straight for a while and finds she just can't live that life. She decides to pull one last heist and disappear. But when things go sideways she finds herself stuck between where the desert is ocean and the void moon. You'll understand if you read the book.
A lot of folks get caught in the ripple of her decision and many lives are lost or changed forever. And despite her obvious character flaws, Cassie has heart. And a purpose and as the pieces fall into place you'll find yourself rooting for the bad girl too. The last chapter or two are as moving as anything I've read Connelly write before. Maybe that is due to the fact that we've got a female lead instead of a Harry Bosch or Jack McEvoy (haven't made it to Mickey yet).
So I guess I'm going to add to the wildly varying opinions in this review section and toss my hat in with the folks who think this is one of Connelly's best. I really enjoyed this one.
A lot of folks get caught in the ripple of her decision and many lives are lost or changed forever. And despite her obvious character flaws, Cassie has heart. And a purpose and as the pieces fall into place you'll find yourself rooting for the bad girl too. The last chapter or two are as moving as anything I've read Connelly write before. Maybe that is due to the fact that we've got a female lead instead of a Harry Bosch or Jack McEvoy (haven't made it to Mickey yet).
So I guess I'm going to add to the wildly varying opinions in this review section and toss my hat in with the folks who think this is one of Connelly's best. I really enjoyed this one.
July 25, 2024
2,5 middle-of-the-road stars
I don't generally like thrillers and this was definitely not a book for me, so I shouldn't be too harsh about it.
It was an OK read, but with very bland writing and characters and a cliched storyline. There was nothing here that hadn't been written about before and written much better, I guess.
Bottom line: if a thriller isn't Orphan X, I probably shouldn't read it.
I don't generally like thrillers and this was definitely not a book for me, so I shouldn't be too harsh about it.
It was an OK read, but with very bland writing and characters and a cliched storyline. There was nothing here that hadn't been written about before and written much better, I guess.
Bottom line: if a thriller isn't Orphan X, I probably shouldn't read it.
December 22, 2017
An other ripping yarn from .
Something a bit different this time round. There are no goodies here only baddies just some baddies are worse than others.
I found the book a bit slow to get going but that didn't last long, by the end everything in my life was put on hold until I got to the explosive end.
The main character, Cassie Black an ex convict and once burglar in Los Vegas but now a Porsche car salesperson in L.A. Seems to have turned her life around but for some unknown reason, which will unfold as you progress, decides she needs to do one last heist. She talks to some of her, less than legit, contacts and is soon fixed up with a job in Los Vegas. She has all the skills required for the job and soon finds herself preparing for the work ahead. Things go horribly wrong and she is now being hunted by some very unsavoury characters. There are so many stings going on that its impossible to know who is doing what and to whom they are doing it to.
There are quite few jaw dropping moments as the story evolves, keeping the reader glued to the book.
As usual, the plot is strong and the characters are well drawn. Although Carrie is a real piece of work it's hard not to empathise with her.
Whilst this a stand alone book Connelly still manages to bring characters along from other books, which I find comforting.
A definite 5 star recommend.
Something a bit different this time round. There are no goodies here only baddies just some baddies are worse than others.
I found the book a bit slow to get going but that didn't last long, by the end everything in my life was put on hold until I got to the explosive end.
The main character, Cassie Black an ex convict and once burglar in Los Vegas but now a Porsche car salesperson in L.A. Seems to have turned her life around but for some unknown reason, which will unfold as you progress, decides she needs to do one last heist. She talks to some of her, less than legit, contacts and is soon fixed up with a job in Los Vegas. She has all the skills required for the job and soon finds herself preparing for the work ahead. Things go horribly wrong and she is now being hunted by some very unsavoury characters. There are so many stings going on that its impossible to know who is doing what and to whom they are doing it to.
There are quite few jaw dropping moments as the story evolves, keeping the reader glued to the book.
As usual, the plot is strong and the characters are well drawn. Although Carrie is a real piece of work it's hard not to empathise with her.
Whilst this a stand alone book Connelly still manages to bring characters along from other books, which I find comforting.
A definite 5 star recommend.
November 11, 2018
More Cassie Black!
Still waiting and wanting more Cassie Black.
Still waiting and wanting more Cassie Black.
September 20, 2017
I am a big Michael Connelly fan and wondered how I had missed this book. Well, perhaps it's because it isn't up to his usual standards.
Written in 2000, it describes the efforts of a Las Vegas thief and parolee, Cassie Black, to raise enough money to kidnap her natural daughter and take off for Tahiti.
It starts slow and then slows down. It finally picks up the pace about 150 pages in and in the last 40 pages moves very quickly to tie up all the loose ends. The ending is not very satisfying but somewhat logical. I believe he hasn't written any more stories about Cassie Black and maybe it's just as well.
The major villain, Jack Karch, is a real piece of sociopathic work and his boss Vincent Grimaldi is such a stereotype that it is difficult to find him interesting. Usually, in Connelly's much celebrated Harry Bosch series, even the villains have some redeeming qualities but not in this story. Not a lot of moral ambiguity to be found here except how Cassie is going to live with the knowledge of the large number of people she managed to get killed in her pursuit of her daughter.
Overall, this particular effort was a disappointment,
Written in 2000, it describes the efforts of a Las Vegas thief and parolee, Cassie Black, to raise enough money to kidnap her natural daughter and take off for Tahiti.
It starts slow and then slows down. It finally picks up the pace about 150 pages in and in the last 40 pages moves very quickly to tie up all the loose ends. The ending is not very satisfying but somewhat logical. I believe he hasn't written any more stories about Cassie Black and maybe it's just as well.
The major villain, Jack Karch, is a real piece of sociopathic work and his boss Vincent Grimaldi is such a stereotype that it is difficult to find him interesting. Usually, in Connelly's much celebrated Harry Bosch series, even the villains have some redeeming qualities but not in this story. Not a lot of moral ambiguity to be found here except how Cassie is going to live with the knowledge of the large number of people she managed to get killed in her pursuit of her daughter.
Overall, this particular effort was a disappointment,
May 17, 2016
A different MC for Connelly, Cassie Black is a thief, but still one of the good guys, at least comparatively. This was good, but really a 3.5 star read until the end which seemed as if it would be predictable. I'll simply say that bumped it to a 4 star read for me - power packed & excellent. Again he shows masterful foreshadowing & attention to detail.
Again, I read this in published order, Callie Black #1, which I highly suggest. comes next. It is Harry Bosch #7 & Terry McCaleb #2.
Again, I read this in published order, Callie Black #1, which I highly suggest. comes next. It is Harry Bosch #7 & Terry McCaleb #2.
August 19, 2019
Void Moon is the third time that Michael Connelly steps away from his favorite Los Angeles homicide investigator, Harry Bosch. Published in 2000, it is Connelly’s ninth novel and this time the focus is on Cassie Black, a former criminal out on parole, and currently selling Porsches to Hollywood go-getters. Cassie previously served five years in a Nevada prison for conspiring with her prior partner and love of her life, Max Freeling, to steal from casino winners while they are sleeping in their hotel rooms. Cassie was arrested when heir last con failed big time, ending with Max taking his own life, and leaving Cassie pregnant with their daughter.
When the book begins, Cassie has been released from prison and taken a job selling cars in Hollywood so that she can watch her daughter from a distance, who lives with adopted parents in the San Fernando valley. Cassie discovers that the father has been transferred and they will be taking her daughter with them to Paris. With almost a year left on her parole, Cassie makes the rash decision to take one last illegal job so that she can take her daughter and leave the country.
Cassie approaches the leader of her old team. Leo Renfro, who is also Max’s half-brother. He sets her up with a “special� heist job that requires her to go back to Vegas and the Cleopatra casino � the same place where her failed last job and Max’s untimely death took place. The victim is supposed to be a high rolling gambler carrying up to $500,000 in winnings in his briefcase. Leo thinks that Cassie is very capable of handling the work required � preparing the hotel room in advance and sneaking in while he is asleep � to get the job done successfully. However, Leo is a very superstitious man, and warns her not be in his room during the period of the "void moon" which occurs between 3:00 am and 4:00 am in the morning.
Cassie heads to Vegas, risking being caught and returned to prison if she is discovered by law enforcement. She successfully sets up her victim’s room and later breaks in during the night, but things start to go wrong in many ways. First, the victim wakes up, making her hide in the closet during the “void moon� that Leo warned her about. Second, it looks like she won’t be able to escape without him seeing her� Then things get even worse... The next morning, the victim is found dead, shot in the head, and his briefcase gone. And once Cassie is finally able to get the secured briefcase open, she gets the surprise of her life. She has been set-up in more ways than one, and her life is hanging by the edge of a thread as a psycho is sent to hunt her down and eliminate her at all costs.
I don’t want to describe any more of the plot because it should be read and enjoyed without any knowledge that may spoil the fun. This is a fun, escapist read that provides fun and thrills on every page. It is a complex adventure that is weaved together superbly by a master storyteller. I could use several cliché descriptions - “fast-paced�, “unpredictable�, and “page-turner� - that would all apply whole heartedly in describing this page turner.
This was the third time that Connelly strayed from his famous and successful “Detective Bosch� character, and like the two times before, he pulls off a stunning and entertaining winner. Connelly used a news writer, an ex-FBI agent, and now a female criminal as his lead protagonist, and each time it’s worked. Connelly breathes colorful life into his characters, including personal histories, strengths, and flawed weaknesses that make them real and authentic � both in thought and in action. I also want to mention there’s a special place in my heart for State Parole Agent Thelma Kibble. Although she wasn’t in many scenes, she stole the moment with a shining personality filled with endearing strength that hid a real passionate care for others.
I especially enjoyed the pacing and flow of the story itself. Like an onion, Connelly peeled it one layer at a time, keeping a brisk and focused stride, letting the complex and multi-layered plot unfold one step at a time. Connelly is one of the smoothest writers I have ever read. I can sit for hours and never get thrown by a clunky sentence or description at all. His writing style is lyrical and virtuoso in its spellbinding delivery,
As I have described in my previous reviews, there are so many strengths that Connelly has as a writer. He is a master of plotting, characters, and setting � his plotting is tighter than a steel drum. He unfolds Cassie’s heist and what follows in a methodical, no-nonsense, just the facts Mam focus, that demands and keeps our full attention. In addition, he uses both Las Vegas and Los Angeles settings to breathe vibrant life and ambient energy into his story, adding depth and three-dimensional character that empowers the story.
Overall, after reading nine books by Michael Connelly, I find that I am repeating myself. I made this statement about every one of his Bosch novels, and then his separate outings with Jack McEvoy and Terry McCaleb. And now I am saying it again with Cassie Black because of what a great read it is. The simple truth is that with each book he writes, Connelly continues to get better, and better as a writer.
It feels like every book of his that I read, I found myself feeling immense joy as I devour it. This one was a nice change of pace from the Bosch series and stood tall on its own merits. Although it wasn’t his best, after nine books, I have not found a Connelly book that I didn’t love. This one included.
When the book begins, Cassie has been released from prison and taken a job selling cars in Hollywood so that she can watch her daughter from a distance, who lives with adopted parents in the San Fernando valley. Cassie discovers that the father has been transferred and they will be taking her daughter with them to Paris. With almost a year left on her parole, Cassie makes the rash decision to take one last illegal job so that she can take her daughter and leave the country.
Cassie approaches the leader of her old team. Leo Renfro, who is also Max’s half-brother. He sets her up with a “special� heist job that requires her to go back to Vegas and the Cleopatra casino � the same place where her failed last job and Max’s untimely death took place. The victim is supposed to be a high rolling gambler carrying up to $500,000 in winnings in his briefcase. Leo thinks that Cassie is very capable of handling the work required � preparing the hotel room in advance and sneaking in while he is asleep � to get the job done successfully. However, Leo is a very superstitious man, and warns her not be in his room during the period of the "void moon" which occurs between 3:00 am and 4:00 am in the morning.
Cassie heads to Vegas, risking being caught and returned to prison if she is discovered by law enforcement. She successfully sets up her victim’s room and later breaks in during the night, but things start to go wrong in many ways. First, the victim wakes up, making her hide in the closet during the “void moon� that Leo warned her about. Second, it looks like she won’t be able to escape without him seeing her� Then things get even worse... The next morning, the victim is found dead, shot in the head, and his briefcase gone. And once Cassie is finally able to get the secured briefcase open, she gets the surprise of her life. She has been set-up in more ways than one, and her life is hanging by the edge of a thread as a psycho is sent to hunt her down and eliminate her at all costs.
I don’t want to describe any more of the plot because it should be read and enjoyed without any knowledge that may spoil the fun. This is a fun, escapist read that provides fun and thrills on every page. It is a complex adventure that is weaved together superbly by a master storyteller. I could use several cliché descriptions - “fast-paced�, “unpredictable�, and “page-turner� - that would all apply whole heartedly in describing this page turner.
This was the third time that Connelly strayed from his famous and successful “Detective Bosch� character, and like the two times before, he pulls off a stunning and entertaining winner. Connelly used a news writer, an ex-FBI agent, and now a female criminal as his lead protagonist, and each time it’s worked. Connelly breathes colorful life into his characters, including personal histories, strengths, and flawed weaknesses that make them real and authentic � both in thought and in action. I also want to mention there’s a special place in my heart for State Parole Agent Thelma Kibble. Although she wasn’t in many scenes, she stole the moment with a shining personality filled with endearing strength that hid a real passionate care for others.
I especially enjoyed the pacing and flow of the story itself. Like an onion, Connelly peeled it one layer at a time, keeping a brisk and focused stride, letting the complex and multi-layered plot unfold one step at a time. Connelly is one of the smoothest writers I have ever read. I can sit for hours and never get thrown by a clunky sentence or description at all. His writing style is lyrical and virtuoso in its spellbinding delivery,
As I have described in my previous reviews, there are so many strengths that Connelly has as a writer. He is a master of plotting, characters, and setting � his plotting is tighter than a steel drum. He unfolds Cassie’s heist and what follows in a methodical, no-nonsense, just the facts Mam focus, that demands and keeps our full attention. In addition, he uses both Las Vegas and Los Angeles settings to breathe vibrant life and ambient energy into his story, adding depth and three-dimensional character that empowers the story.
Overall, after reading nine books by Michael Connelly, I find that I am repeating myself. I made this statement about every one of his Bosch novels, and then his separate outings with Jack McEvoy and Terry McCaleb. And now I am saying it again with Cassie Black because of what a great read it is. The simple truth is that with each book he writes, Connelly continues to get better, and better as a writer.
It feels like every book of his that I read, I found myself feeling immense joy as I devour it. This one was a nice change of pace from the Bosch series and stood tall on its own merits. Although it wasn’t his best, after nine books, I have not found a Connelly book that I didn’t love. This one included.
November 10, 2020
3,5 / 5
Bu kitabın Joey Marks bağlantısı dışında H.Bosch Universe serisinden olmasının nedenini anlayamadım. Kaçırdığım, hatırlamadığım başka detaylar mı vardı acaba 🤔
Bu kitabın Joey Marks bağlantısı dışında H.Bosch Universe serisinden olmasının nedenini anlayamadım. Kaçırdığım, hatırlamadığım başka detaylar mı vardı acaba 🤔
April 19, 2012
While not a stellar read, it was an interesting one. Connelly uses his regular crumbs from other books to tie them all in, but this one pretty much moves itself along. Its premise is a great caper within a Las Vegas hotel and the fallout ftom it all. Some good storylines woven into it, though having the main character be the villain is a little harder for me to create a connection. I guess I prefer the white night narrator.
Connelly kind of floats this book out there and leaves it to sail its own path. Usually we get some strong tie ins with other novels, but it took me looking some things up on wikipedia to see some of the crumbs I talk about above. I guess my reading series and not chronological order of things really is not the best way to do things with Mr. C.
Good work Mr. Connelly. One more book and I am completely caught up on the entire Connelly package. At least until November 2012.
Connelly kind of floats this book out there and leaves it to sail its own path. Usually we get some strong tie ins with other novels, but it took me looking some things up on wikipedia to see some of the crumbs I talk about above. I guess my reading series and not chronological order of things really is not the best way to do things with Mr. C.
Good work Mr. Connelly. One more book and I am completely caught up on the entire Connelly package. At least until November 2012.
September 25, 2023
Eché de menos a algún personaje querido. Aparece como novela independiente y como 9° en el universo de Harry Bosch.
Para mí fue sólo una novela independiente. Si tiene alguna relación con el universo Bosch, yo no caí del guindo🤷♀�
Una novela muy entretenida de robos que se lían y se entretejen con verdades tremendas y muertes aún más tremendas y uno de esos finales en que se destapa el verdadero truqui, y luego ¡Ajá! El truqui tenía otro truqui, que tenía otro, etc y al final hubo tal destape y tanto tirón de manta como para acabar acatarrado de tanto destapar. Todos sorprendiendo a todos. Muy bien enredado, pero como dije, eché de menos esa especie de peso específico que rodea a Bosch y sus boschitos. Esta es más "normal" (dentro de lo que cabe).
Para mí fue sólo una novela independiente. Si tiene alguna relación con el universo Bosch, yo no caí del guindo🤷♀�
Una novela muy entretenida de robos que se lían y se entretejen con verdades tremendas y muertes aún más tremendas y uno de esos finales en que se destapa el verdadero truqui, y luego ¡Ajá! El truqui tenía otro truqui, que tenía otro, etc y al final hubo tal destape y tanto tirón de manta como para acabar acatarrado de tanto destapar. Todos sorprendiendo a todos. Muy bien enredado, pero como dije, eché de menos esa especie de peso específico que rodea a Bosch y sus boschitos. Esta es más "normal" (dentro de lo que cabe).
January 15, 2018
I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did! Several Connelly fans whose opinions I respect had said it was good, but they didn't like it nearly as much as the Bosch books. Well, Harry Bosch is admittedly a tough act to follow, but I think this book is just about as good.
A void moon is an astrological phase when the moon is not in any "house" and is supposedly a time of bad luck. It certainly has brought bad luck to Cassie Black, recently out on parole after serving five years of a sentence for an attempted burglary of a Las Vegas casino in which her partner/lover was killed. Shortly after going to prison, she gave birth to their daughter and let her go in adoption. She has now located the young girl and is planning to kidnap her and run away with her, since the girl's family is moving to Paris. Cassie goes back to her old associate, Leo, and asks to be included in a big job to get enough money to run away with the little girl. He assigns her a role in a very big operation coming up in the same casino which was so disastrous for her those years ago. Leo is the superstitious one, by the way, and warns her not to be in the mark's room between a certain time frame. You can imagine how many things go wrong, one disaster leading to another, and Cassie becomes hunted by the casino's private "security" who not only wants to get the missing money back but also wants to kill Cassie and everyone associated with her. Whew!
I was kind of dragged down at first by the descriptions of the techniques and tools of big-time robbery, but it was fascinating, and I found myself amazed at the research done by the author to be able to present so many details. At the end of the book in his Acknowledgements, he says that all the tools used in the book are available to the public. I hope I never need to use any of them! I do love reading about Vegas, though, since I have become slightly familiar with it, having family there. The characters in the story, Cassie, Leo, even the creepy Jack Karch, grab your interest, and you feel compelled to continue to the end just to find out what happens to everybody! All in all, I would have to say this really was as good as a Harry Bosch story after all!
A void moon is an astrological phase when the moon is not in any "house" and is supposedly a time of bad luck. It certainly has brought bad luck to Cassie Black, recently out on parole after serving five years of a sentence for an attempted burglary of a Las Vegas casino in which her partner/lover was killed. Shortly after going to prison, she gave birth to their daughter and let her go in adoption. She has now located the young girl and is planning to kidnap her and run away with her, since the girl's family is moving to Paris. Cassie goes back to her old associate, Leo, and asks to be included in a big job to get enough money to run away with the little girl. He assigns her a role in a very big operation coming up in the same casino which was so disastrous for her those years ago. Leo is the superstitious one, by the way, and warns her not to be in the mark's room between a certain time frame. You can imagine how many things go wrong, one disaster leading to another, and Cassie becomes hunted by the casino's private "security" who not only wants to get the missing money back but also wants to kill Cassie and everyone associated with her. Whew!
I was kind of dragged down at first by the descriptions of the techniques and tools of big-time robbery, but it was fascinating, and I found myself amazed at the research done by the author to be able to present so many details. At the end of the book in his Acknowledgements, he says that all the tools used in the book are available to the public. I hope I never need to use any of them! I do love reading about Vegas, though, since I have become slightly familiar with it, having family there. The characters in the story, Cassie, Leo, even the creepy Jack Karch, grab your interest, and you feel compelled to continue to the end just to find out what happens to everybody! All in all, I would have to say this really was as good as a Harry Bosch story after all!
March 21, 2016
About a month ago, I put out a recommendation request on ŷ which can be found here. The very next day, I received a recommendation from Antonio for Void Moon. I honestly had been looking for a book like this for the past year, so many thanks to Antonio for helping me finally find the story I was looking for.
I have a soft spot in my heart for anti-heroes, those good guys who aren’t all that good but have the best intentions at heart. Those intentions are always selfish in nature, but they’re always better than the villain’s. Cassie Black was exactly this type of hero.
I also have a soft spot for “good� bad villains, and this story definitely had one. Jack Karch was just as interesting and likeable as Cassie Black. I spent a good majority of the story wishing the two would just team up and be partners in crime. However, where Cassie Black explicitly tried not to hurt anyone, Jack Karch could care less who got in his way as long as he got a clear shot. Which he usually did.
The pacing of the story was excellent, and the ending was satisfying like a tasty meal that you just can’t stop nibbling at even after you’re full. The writing style certainly wasn’t literature-level quality and occasionally it was verbose, but it was definitely easy enough to get through.
Overall, the journey the story took me on was very enjoyable. The character development, the last minute twists that actually made sense, and the satisfying finale make this book a great read.
4.75 stars
I have a soft spot in my heart for anti-heroes, those good guys who aren’t all that good but have the best intentions at heart. Those intentions are always selfish in nature, but they’re always better than the villain’s. Cassie Black was exactly this type of hero.
I also have a soft spot for “good� bad villains, and this story definitely had one. Jack Karch was just as interesting and likeable as Cassie Black. I spent a good majority of the story wishing the two would just team up and be partners in crime. However, where Cassie Black explicitly tried not to hurt anyone, Jack Karch could care less who got in his way as long as he got a clear shot. Which he usually did.
The pacing of the story was excellent, and the ending was satisfying like a tasty meal that you just can’t stop nibbling at even after you’re full. The writing style certainly wasn’t literature-level quality and occasionally it was verbose, but it was definitely easy enough to get through.
Overall, the journey the story took me on was very enjoyable. The character development, the last minute twists that actually made sense, and the satisfying finale make this book a great read.
4.75 stars
January 6, 2016
Michael Connelly is one of the best. This is a stand alone novel, it is not part of the Harry Bosch series. A great crime thriller, bad guys in Vegas and Los Angeles. Any books from this author are worth the ride.
April 16, 2011
Out of all the Michael Connelly books I have read up to this point, this has been my least favorite so far. I had a hard time getting in to it, but once I did it was a pretty fast read. There really is no good guy/bad guy in this book. All the chracters are from the wrong side of the law, but out of those there is one character that makes you root for them~and that is Cassie Black. When Jack Karsh enters the scene, the book gets a little graphic and a lot bloody. I am all for mystery/good-guy/bad-guy plots. But Karsh is a downright aweful S.O.B. At the end of the novel, I was wishing he got what deserved and was buried in the desert along with so many victims that he buried out there, including his own mother. If you are a Connelly fan, then you most likely will read this book; in my opinion I truly love his Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series.
July 20, 2011
I am a big fan of Michael Connelly, but this is not his best work. The main character in this book is Cassie Black, not one of his series characters. She had a bad childhood in Las Vegas and ends up getting a job as a dealer. Vegas is not as bad for people who live there as Connelly portrays it. He definitely prefers LA to Vegas! She is tired of that life and gets herself involved with a small time thief. They have a relationship until he is killed in the course of pulling a job. She is convicted of killing him since they were involved in a crime at the time of his death. She spends 6 years in prison. This book starts shortly after she is out of prison.
Cassie isn't a particularly likable character and you don't root for her the way you do for most of Connelly's protagonists. The story is fairly predictable and doesn't have the fast pace and twists and turns of most of Connelly's books. I'm sorry I can't recommend this book as I usually love his work.
Cassie isn't a particularly likable character and you don't root for her the way you do for most of Connelly's protagonists. The story is fairly predictable and doesn't have the fast pace and twists and turns of most of Connelly's books. I'm sorry I can't recommend this book as I usually love his work.
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