Print:1997; Audio: 6/17/2008; Movie: 2002
Series: Terry McCaleb Book 1
Main characters:
Terrell (Terry) McCaleb-Retired FBI criminal profiler.
Graciela Rivers-Potential client
Raymond-Graciela’s nephew and the decedent’s son
Jaye Winston-Sheriff’s deputy

SUMMARY: Terrell McCaleb was forced into retirement by a failing heart. He spends his days repairing his boat, inherited from his father, while recovering from transplant surgery.
Lovely Graciela Rivers, with the aid of a newspaper article reporting on McCaleb’s recent successes and subsequent retirement for surgery, has tracked down his boat, “The Following Sea”, in hopes of finding him to plead her case that he find her sister's killer.
Graciela spends an hour canvasing the Cabrillo Marina docks in ill-suited shoes, finally finding and boarding the boat to wait for McCaleb.
When he arrives and hears her request, McCaleb tries to explain that he’s not in the detective business. He is not interested in getting paid, and even if he were, he is still weak from surgery, and it wouldn’t be legal to look into anything professionally as he is no longer an agent, and not licensed for detective work. Graciela persists, undaunted and unwilling to take "No." for an answer.
Why is Graciela so convinced that Terry can help her, despite his status and unwillingness, when even the police have been unsuccessful?

AUTHOR: Michael Connelly (7/21/56), is a former journalist turned prolific novelist. This, Connelly’s 7th novel, “Blood Work”, is the second outside the Bosche series, and introduces a series based on the character introduced in this novel, Terry McCaleb, who shares that Bosche quality we've come to know (and love) as "cowboying" (Avoiding authority figures and preferring to work alone through hunches about the little details that don’t sync with obvious explanations).

NARRATOR: This novel is narrated with all the right inflections and nuances of character by Dick Hill, who narrates most of the Bosche books, at least the ones I’ve listened to so far.

GENRE: Mystery Thriller
ACTION: Not really
FOUL LANGUAGE: None to speak of.
VICES: None to speak of.
SEX: Not graphic that I recall, but, yes, some intimacy.
LGBT FRIENDLY: Neutral.
VIOLENCE: Yes.
POLITICS: Neutral.
LOCATIONS: Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro and Los Angeles primarily
SUBJECTS: Police procedure, shootings, law enforcement terminology.
FUN REFERENCES: Blood typing; hypnotism; “The Godfather”; a couple of Clint Eastwood references (an incidental character with the first name of Clint, and some line, I think it was “Make my day” that reminded me of an Eastwood movie [but these might have been coincidental since the author was inspired to write this story by a friend who’d had transplant surgery, and might not have known during its writing that Clint would want to purchase movie rights, direct the movie and play the role of McCaleb four years later in 2002]).
DEMOGRAPHICS: The main and minor characters are primarily middle aged - mature adults of multiple races and one child around the age of 10.

EVALUATION: I appreciate the character of Terry McCaleb; that he is flexible and takes risks with his own reputation, being driven by his humanity; I feel all of the characters are realistic and well developed, making me care about them; the story kept me guessing; I enjoyed the descriptions of the Los Angeles landscape; and I like the details that pluck the strings of all the senses.
SAMPLE QUOTATION: (The version I consumed was audio, so forgive improper punctuation, spelling or paragraph structure.)
"McCaleb saw her before she saw him.
He was coming down the main dock, past the row of millionaire's boats when he saw the woman standing in the stern of "The Following Sea". It was half past 10 on a Saturday morning and the warm whisper of Spring had brought a lot of people out to the San Pedro docks.
McCaleb was finishing the walk he took every morning completely around Cabrillo Marina, out along the rock jetty and back. He was huffing by this part of the walk but he slowed his pace even more as he approached the boat. His first feeling was annoyance. The woman had boarded his boat uninvited, but as he got closer, he put that aside and wondered who she was and what she wanted. She wasn't dressed for boating. She had on a lose summer dress that came to mid-thigh. The breeze off the water threatened to lift it, and so she kept one hand at her side to keep it down."

RATING: I gave this book 4 stars because it was well written and kept my interest. I'd probably give 4.5 if it were an option. Why not 5? That’s more about me than about the book. I'm not sure a story with a murder plot can get a 5 from me. Even though I do like Connelly’s stories, it’s more about solving who did it and why. In general, I don’t like violence and creepy people. With Connelly, they are well done and not overdone. But still. ( )

Print:1997; Audio: 6/17/2008; Movie: 2002
Series: Terry McCaleb Book 1
Main characters:
Terrell (Terry) McCaleb-Retired FBI criminal profiler.
Graciela Rivers-Potential client
Raymond-Graciela’s nephew and the decedent’s son
Jaye Winston-Sheriff’s deputy

SUMMARY: Terrell McCaleb was forced into retirement by a failing heart. He spends his days repairing his boat, inherited from his father, while recovering from transplant surgery.
Lovely Graciela Rivers, with the aid of a newspaper article reporting on McCaleb’s recent successes and subsequent retirement for surgery, has tracked down his boat, “The Following Sea”, in hopes of finding him to plead her case that he find her sister's killer.
Graciela spends an hour canvasing the Cabrillo Marina docks in ill-suited shoes, finally finding and boarding the boat to wait for McCaleb.
When he arrives and hears her request, McCaleb tries to explain that he’s not in the detective business. He is not interested in getting paid, and even if he were, he is still weak from surgery, and it wouldn’t be legal to look into anything professionally as he is no longer an agent, and not licensed for detective work. Graciela persists, undaunted and unwilling to take "No." for an answer.
Why is Graciela so convinced that Terry can help her, despite his status and unwillingness, when even the police have been unsuccessful?

AUTHOR: Michael Connelly (7/21/56), is a former journalist turned prolific novelist. This, Connelly’s 7th novel, “Blood Work”, is the second outside the Bosche series, and introduces a series based on the character introduced in this novel, Terry McCaleb, who shares that Bosche quality we've come to know (and love) as "cowboying" (Avoiding authority figures and preferring to work alone through hunches about the little details that don’t sync with obvious explanations).

NARRATOR: This novel is narrated with all the right inflections and nuances of character by Dick Hill, who narrates most of the Bosche books, at least the ones I’ve listened to so far.

GENRE: Mystery Thriller
ACTION: Not really
FOUL LANGUAGE: None to speak of.
VICES: None to speak of.
SEX: Not graphic that I recall, but, yes, some intimacy.
LGBT FRIENDLY: Neutral.
VIOLENCE: Yes.
POLITICS: Neutral.
LOCATIONS: Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro and Los Angeles primarily
SUBJECTS: Police procedure, shootings, law enforcement terminology.
FUN REFERENCES: Blood typing; hypnotism; “The Godfather”; a couple of Clint Eastwood references (an incidental character with the first name of Clint, and some line, I think it was “Make my day” that reminded me of an Eastwood movie [but these might have been coincidental since the author was inspired to write this story by a friend who’d had transplant surgery, and might not have known during its writing that Clint would want to purchase movie rights, direct the movie and play the role of McCaleb four years later in 2002]).
DEMOGRAPHICS: The main and minor characters are primarily middle aged - mature adults of multiple races and one child around the age of 10.

EVALUATION: I appreciate the character of Terry McCaleb; that he is flexible and takes risks with his own reputation, being driven by his humanity; I feel all of the characters are realistic and well developed, making me care about them; the story kept me guessing; I enjoyed the descriptions of the Los Angeles landscape; and I like the details that pluck the strings of all the senses.
SAMPLE QUOTATION: (The version I consumed was audio, so forgive improper punctuation, spelling or paragraph structure.)
"McCaleb saw her before she saw him.
He was coming down the main dock, past the row of millionaire's boats when he saw the woman standing in the stern of "The Following Sea". It was half past 10 on a Saturday morning and the warm whisper of Spring had brought a lot of people out to the San Pedro docks.
McCaleb was finishing the walk he took every morning completely around Cabrillo Marina, out along the rock jetty and back. He was huffing by this part of the walk but he slowed his pace even more as he approached the boat. His first feeling was annoyance. The woman had boarded his boat uninvited, but as he got closer, he put that aside and wondered who she was and what she wanted. She wasn't dressed for boating. She had on a lose summer dress that came to mid-thigh. The breeze off the water threatened to lift it, and so she kept one hand at her side to keep it down."

RATING: I gave this book 4 stars because it was well written and kept my interest. I'd probably give 4.5 if it were an option. Why not 5? That’s more about me than about the book. I'm not sure a story with a murder plot can get a 5 from me. Even though I do like Connelly’s stories, it’s more about solving who did it and why. In general, I don’t like violence and creepy people. With Connelly, they are well done and not overdone. But still.

Merged review:

Print:1997; Audio: 6/17/2008; Movie: 2002
Series: Terry McCaleb Book 1
Main characters:
Terrell (Terry) McCaleb-Retired FBI criminal profiler.
Graciela Rivers-Potential client
Raymond-Graciela’s nephew and the decedent’s son
Jaye Winston-Sheriff’s deputy

SUMMARY: Terrell McCaleb was forced into retirement by a failing heart. He spends his days repairing his boat, inherited from his father, while recovering from transplant surgery.
Lovely Graciela Rivers, with the aid of a newspaper article reporting on McCaleb’s recent successes and subsequent retirement for surgery, has tracked down his boat, “The Following Sea”, in hopes of finding him to plead her case that he find her sister's killer.
Graciela spends an hour canvasing the Cabrillo Marina docks in ill-suited shoes, finally finding and boarding the boat to wait for McCaleb.
When he arrives and hears her request, McCaleb tries to explain that he’s not in the detective business. He is not interested in getting paid, and even if he were, he is still weak from surgery, and it wouldn’t be legal to look into anything professionally as he is no longer an agent, and not licensed for detective work. Graciela persists, undaunted and unwilling to take "No." for an answer.
Why is Graciela so convinced that Terry can help her, despite his status and unwillingness, when even the police have been unsuccessful?

AUTHOR: Michael Connelly (7/21/56), is a former journalist turned prolific novelist. This, Connelly’s 7th novel, “Blood Work”, is the second outside the Bosche series, and introduces a series based on the character introduced in this novel, Terry McCaleb, who shares that Bosche quality we've come to know (and love) as "cowboying" (Avoiding authority figures and preferring to work alone through hunches about the little details that don’t sync with obvious explanations).

NARRATOR: This novel is narrated with all the right inflections and nuances of character by Dick Hill, who narrates most of the Bosche books, at least the ones I’ve listened to so far.

GENRE: Mystery Thriller
ACTION: Not really
FOUL LANGUAGE: None to speak of.
VICES: None to speak of.
SEX: Not graphic that I recall, but, yes, some intimacy.
LGBT FRIENDLY: Neutral.
VIOLENCE: Yes.
POLITICS: Neutral.
LOCATIONS: Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro and Los Angeles primarily
SUBJECTS: Police procedure, shootings, law enforcement terminology.
FUN REFERENCES: Blood typing; hypnotism; “The Godfather”; a couple of Clint Eastwood references (an incidental character with the first name of Clint, and some line, I think it was “Make my day” that reminded me of an Eastwood movie [but these might have been coincidental since the author was inspired to write this story by a friend who’d had transplant surgery, and might not have known during its writing that Clint would want to purchase movie rights, direct the movie and play the role of McCaleb four years later in 2002]).
DEMOGRAPHICS: The main and minor characters are primarily middle aged - mature adults of multiple races and one child around the age of 10.

EVALUATION: I appreciate the character of Terry McCaleb; that he is flexible and takes risks with his own reputation, being driven by his humanity; I feel all of the characters are realistic and well developed, making me care about them; the story kept me guessing; I enjoyed the descriptions of the Los Angeles landscape; and I like the details that pluck the strings of all the senses.
SAMPLE QUOTATION: (The version I consumed was audio, so forgive improper punctuation, spelling or paragraph structure.)
"McCaleb saw her before she saw him.
He was coming down the main dock, past the row of millionaire's boats when he saw the woman standing in the stern of "The Following Sea". It was half past 10 on a Saturday morning and the warm whisper of Spring had brought a lot of people out to the San Pedro docks.
McCaleb was finishing the walk he took every morning completely around Cabrillo Marina, out along the rock jetty and back. He was huffing by this part of the walk but he slowed his pace even more as he approached the boat. His first feeling was annoyance. The woman had boarded his boat uninvited, but as he got closer, he put that aside and wondered who she was and what she wanted. She wasn't dressed for boating. She had on a lose summer dress that came to mid-thigh. The breeze off the water threatened to lift it, and so she kept one hand at her side to keep it down."

RATING: I gave this book 4 stars because it was well written and kept my interest. I'd probably give 4.5 if it were an option. Why not 5? That’s more about me than about the book. I'm not sure a story with a murder plot can get a 5 from me. Even though I do like Connelly’s stories, it’s more about solving who did it and why. In general, I don’t like violence and creepy people. With Connelly, they are well done and not overdone. But still. ( )

Not a lot of action but an excellent read. MC's sense of place is subtle but but the greater LA area pervades the story. from the Bosch universe Terry McCaleb struggles with his sense of place and mission. It dragged in a couple of places and his finding of Graciela and her son at the end of the book was really quick but I am sure he wanted to close the story.. ( )

Very very good police mystery about an ex-FBI agent who is searching for the murderer of the woman whose heart he received in transplant surgery. This writer is good.

I have read more than 3/4 of the Bosch books, all of the Lincoln Lawyer books and have read The Poet and a few short story collections. So far everything the author has written has been great, at least they were great to me.
Blood Work just didn’t work well for me
The story was a great idea but it should have been a novella, to make it 470 pages in paperback meant adding endless levels of completely unneeded detail.
The characters weren’t that interesting, and put the pieces together as to who the killer was way to early in the book.
Again if this were written by any other author it would be a 4 or 5 star book but with Michael Connelly I expected more. Oh well he has plenty more I haven’t read. ( )