Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Publication Day Review: Ironwood: A Catalina Novel by Michael Connelly
As Ironwood: A Catalina Novel
by Michael Connelly begins, it is approximately one year after the events of Nightshade.
While it is always preferable to have read the first book in a series first,
one could start here as there are minimal references to the past events.
In the aftermath of a police operation
gone horribly wrong, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Detective Sergeant
Stilwell of the Catalina substation, is in a world of trouble. At least he is
alive and relatively uninjured. Not that he cares. One of his deputies is dead.
Another is very seriously wounded and may not survive the emergency medical
helicopter ride to the mainland.
Making things worse, if that is
possible, is the fact that the suspects got away. The Department will conduct
an extensive investigation. Every decision and action by Detective Sergeant
Stilwell will be heavily scrutinized and second guessed.
That process begins with the arrival
from the mainland of his immediate boss, Captain Corum, accompanied by members of
a team of investigators. After he is questioned by a number of people over a
multi hour period where he has to go through everything over and over, detail
by detail, Captain Corum finally tells him that he is in the clear, for now. He
is grounded to the substation and on the bench. When he is on duty, he is to
confine himself to the substation for his shift, and to take care of paperwork,
storage concerns, and other issues. He isn’t to involve himself in the investigation
of the events out on the tarmac which allowed a drug plane to escape and left
one deputy under his command dead and another one near death.
As if being told to stay out of it is
going to ever happen. Detective Sergeant Stilwell is used to working around the
bosses. Part of the reason he is out on Catalina Island is the fact that the
Department sends problematic folks out there for various disciplinary reasons. The
posting is supposed to be a punishment. For him, it has grown into a very
positive situation for many different reasons. At his heart, he is still law enforcement,
and isn’t just going to sit around and do nothing.
He knows he chased a suspect down a
hillside even though there is very little proof of that fact. He also has a
pretty good idea of what the suspect looked like. That suspect is probably
still on the island and holed up waiting for the first ferry of the day. Obviously,
staking out the ferry and its passengers is the way to go.
His work leads him to a suspect, an
arrest, and then an incident that gets him deeper into trouble. It also leads
him into a separate cold case murder investigation, a serial killer, and work with
Ballard and her team.
I’m intentionally skimming the surface,
if that much, of this read in order to avoid spoilers. Simply put, Ironwood:
A Catlina Novel is a might good read from the intense beginning right
to the last sentence. Well worth your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4sPe4h9
My digital ARC reading copy came from
the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, by way of NetGalley, with no expectation
of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Publication Day Review: Nightshade by Michael Connelly
For Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective
Sergeant Stilwell, the posting to Catalina Island was supposed to be a
punishment for not playing well with others and failing to play politics
correctly. After all, sending deputies that annoyed the leadership out to the
island has always been the way of handling those who could not be terminated,
for whatever reason. While it may have started out as a punishment, these days
Stilwell likes being out there a lot. He is charge, isolated from the political
garbage on the mainland, likes the folks under his command, and the scenery can’t
be beat.
What isn’t great is the fact that recently a buffalo
was killed at the preserve. Its head was cutoff. A local reporter, Lionel
McKey, is hounding him for updates and Stilwell has nothing to say. It is one
thing to have a good idea who did it. It is another to prove it and he is
working the case.
He has a lead, a search warrant, and progress is
being made. It is the start of the first full weekend of summer and that means
the place will be packed. Tourists will be on the island in huge numbers. That
means things will happen when you bring in large numbers of people together for
gambling, drinking, and more.
It also includes at least one murder as a body is
soon discovered hooked by a chain and lodged under a sailboat on the harbor.
She certainly didn’t commit suicide, wrap herself up in a bag for a sail, and
then wrap a chain around herself, before affixing it all to the underside of
the boat. The mayor might be more focused on the tourism aspects of such a
discovery, but Stilwell is focused on the murder.
Solving the murder case, his first since leaving the
mainland, and others, is at work in Nightshade by Michael
Connelly. It is a complicated read with a lot of backstory and character development
as well. None of that slows down the read. In fact, that character development
and backstory gives the read considerable depth while creating an excellent
first novel of a series. There is one heck of a foundation should the author
start another series. One hopes he made that choice as his website
indicates this is the start of a new series.
Even if it is only a standalone, it is a great read, and well worth your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3EkIBiH
My digital ARC reading copy came from the publisher,
Little, Brown and Company, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Posts
