Void Moon
   Michael Connelly
  2000 Little, Brown & Co., Boston, USA
   ISBN: 0316154067


Cassie Black paid her dues & walked away from her life as a criminal. Even though she is thriving at a job selling Porsches in Los Angeles, she's still got one more secret & one more bid for happiness.

I first came across Michael Connelly in his Concrete Blonde & Trunk Music - both exhilarating & skin-crawling mysteries - so I was excited to find he'd brought to life a new character - a self-sufficient, on-the-edge erstwhile master criminal - a woman with a mission.

Cassie Black's trade was robbing casino gamblers & she was very good at it until one disastrous night when everything went wrong & she wound up doing time. Now, after years of trying to be a model parolee, something crops up that sends her siraling off into panic & she sets about honing the only skills that ever made her money to spare. She seeks out an old friend for a fast, goof-proof job.

The job goes off perfectly until she inspects her haul. Then she crosses paths with the anonymous nemesis who destroyed her life six years before. A private investigator with very dirty hands & murder on his mind.

With fascinating details of how casinos handle their security, how the mob handles their money & how the parole system handles its clients, Void Moon takes you into the under belly of that glittering world of fast cars, fast death & fast money.

In Void Moon, we get a different persective on evil & good. We find ourselves rooting for unlikely people & loathing we should respect, maybe. We watch as a feisty & thoughtful woman comes to grips with greed, betrayal & honor.

In the final twist of a riveting plot, Cassie Black steps out of the shadows & does the right thing. A satisfying read!

Do check out Michael Connelly's other books: The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, The Poet, Trunk Music, Blood Work & Angels Flight.

For more on the Moon do catch Thoughts about Mooning the Moon.
(03/11/01)

Rebecca