Seeking with Groans

In his article “Seeking with Groans: The moral universe of film noir” Thomas Hibbs explores the cultural and moral implications of the detective movie genre in Books & Culture, March/April 2007, pages 41-43. If you are interested in movies or crime dramas, this is an excellent article to give you a fresh perspective. There is no consensus on a unifying definition of film noir. One of the main features of film noir is its pessimism that is a counter to the optimistic, progressive vision of postwar America that turns the American dream into a nightmare. It also counters the Enlightenment vision of the city as the locus of human bliss, where human autonomy and rational economics combine to satisfy human desire. In film noir, however, the city is dark and foreboding that frustrates the fulfillment of human desire.

Noir films focus on characters who try to live decent, peaceful, domestic lives until some chance event pulls them back into their dark past and the history of violence repeats itself, engulfing the protagonist. Traditional detective fiction provides a clear sense of public justice and offers a clear solution to the struggle between the detective and the criminal. In film noir, however, there is no clear sense of justice and presents a “puzzle of character” and the struggle is between the detective and himself. The city becomes not a place of light and pleasure but the tall buildings block out the light and trap the characters in a labyrinth that frustrates their desires. Film noir offers no clear way out of the trap.

Hibbs sees film noir offering the main character a type of redemption, not in the sense of cheap grace, but offers an “authentically penitential” path of “difficult spiritual growth.” The end of the film tends to combine physical brutality with the lingering possibility of love and fidelity, suggesting that even in a corrupt world, a certain kind of integrity is still possible and that in certain circumstances, defeat can be victory. The protagonist discovers that he must live by some other code than brute force in a world with a loss of clear moral codes. When a character tries to violate the limits of the human condition, it is rarely successful. And redemption, while present, is usually partial, yet personal. Film noir, then, seems to be an attempt to discover the lost moral code while truthfully speaking about eh human condition. While it repudiates old-fashioned American optimism, it doesn’t succumb to nihilism, but, in Pascal’s words, “seeks with groans” looking for redemption.



You can read this article at: http://www.ctlibrary.com/43011

Closers

The Closers is Michael Connelly’s eleventh Harry Bosch novel. This is the fourth Harry Bosch novel I have read and I would place it a close second to his first novel, The Black Echo. Detective Harry Bosch of the Los Angeles Police Department retired from the Homicide department three years earlier only to be called out of retirement by his old partner to join the Open/Unsolved Unit investigating unsolved murders from the past thirty or so years in Los Angeles.

On his first day back on the job he and his partner are given a seventeen-year-old murder of a high school girl with mixed blood. New DNA evidence found on the murder weapon links the gun that killed the girl to a small-time criminal. Harry soon discovers that the case had been mishandled, evidence and records lost, and a looming suspicion that the case was shelved for internal political reasons.

Connelly does an excellent job in making every page feel real, each nuance ringing true and life-like. I especially appreciated the insights into the procedures and methods of solving such an old murder case. In a murder case, time is your greatest enemy. The longer the crime goes unsolved, the more likely the murder will never be caught. The near impossibility of solving the case adds enough suspense while the process Harry has to go through to investigate the case opens a window on police procedures that are fascinating and enlightening. Following one of the best detectives through this process is an exercise in logic and deduction as well as inspiration and creativity. I also appreciated Harry’s philosophy of police work: “Get off your butt and knock on doors.”

Connelly also gives more insight into Bosch’s psyche and motivations. He also illuminates the psychological drives of the other characters as well. This is another well-written novel that not only entertains but also instructs.

The Poet

Michael Connelly’s crime novel, The Poet, falls short of his other works that I have read. The characters are not as fully developed, the plot is thin and there is not as much detail or insight into police investigation. I felt I didn’t profit as much from this story as I did from Dark Echo, which gave extensive detail on police detective work or from A Darkness More Than Night, where Connelly gave detailed descriptions of psychological profiling.

Jack McEvoy is a newspaper reporter whose twin brother, a policeman, commits suicide while investigating a high profile case. Jack doesn’t believe it was suicide and begins digging deeper, finding six other policemen who had committed suicide under similar circumstances. One important link is that all seven had left behind suicide notes that were quotes from Edgar Allan Poe.

Jack gets involved in the investigation and works along side the FBI. There are enough plot twists to keep the story interesting, and Connelly does a good job of hiding the identity of the real perpetrator to the very end.

A Darkness More Than Night

Detective Harry Bosch is a key witness in a murder trial seeking to convict a movie producer for the strangulation death of a young actress. While he is testifying he is also being investigated for a gruesome murder of a man who had been arrested by Bosch several years earlier for murdering a prostitute but was released. Bosch becomes the main suspect as the FBI suspects he has crossed the line and has become an avenging angel.

Harry enlists the help of a retired FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb, who actually was helping the Sheriff’s department with the stalled investigation. While McCaleb was the one who initially identified Bosch as the most likely suspect, he is kicked off the case and then persuaded by Bosch to help him find the real killer before the news breaks and destroys his credibility in the murder trial for which he is the key witness. Pressed for time, McCaleb looks at the evidence from a new perspective and begins to track down the real killer.

I won’t reveal any more because it will ruin the suspense of the story. What I found interesting about this story was watching McCaleb, as a topnotch profiler, tease valuable information out of seemingly useless clues. It was also interesting to see that McCaleb’s initial conclusions were wrong, showing that psychological profiling is not an exact science.

Much of the evidence in the case revolves around the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, a 15th century Dutch painter known for his dark portrayals of judgment and damnation. McCabe makes the link to Detective Harry Bosch, whose first name is actually Hieronymus as well, because the crime scene was set up to resemble Bosch’s paintings. Connelly gives us some good art history and appreciation as McCabe investigates the connection between the paintings and the murder.

Michael Connelly is a good writer and knows how to keep the pace moving, revealing important clues at just the right time while adding enough twists to keep you guessing. The heroes are also very human, well rounded and believable. Harry Bosch has enough dark tendencies to keep his halo from glowing too brightly. Connelly clearly shows the demands of police work and how they can destroy relationships, especially marriages. When an officer becomes consumed by his work, those closest to him, especially his family, suffer.

It is easy to see how police and those who deal in the dark underside of society can become jaded, disillusioned and bitter. It is not easy living half of your life in the “darkness” of the streets of our cities and the criminal justice system, so we shouldn’t take what our public defenders do for granted. Nor should we vilify then or put them on pedestals since they are regular human beings like us thrust into extraordinary circumstances that most of us would not put up with.



This is the seventh novel in the Harry Bosch series which includes the following books(“x” indicates those I have read so far):
The Black Echo (1992) (x)
The Black Ice (1993)
The Concrete Blonde (1994)
The Last Coyote (1995)
Trunk Music (1997)
Angels Flight (1999)
A Darkness More Than Night (2001) (x)
City Of Bones (2002)
Lost Light (2003)
The Narrows (2004)
The Closers (2005)
Echo Park (2006)
The Overlook (2007)

Black Echo

The Black Echo is Michael Connelly’s first detective novel and it won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel awarded by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly is a good writer with an easy style and he paces the plot very well, adding new twists throughout so that the reading is kept guessing all the way to the end. Connelly has done extensive research on police procedures and culture and the novel rings true on every page. If you enjoy mysteries and detective novels, this is a good choice.

The main character is Harry Bosch, a homicide detective in Los Angeles, known for his lone-ranger style and already demoted after being investigated by internal affairs for shooting to death a high profile serial murderer. Harry investigates a dead Vietnam vet who appears to have overdosed and died in a pipe by Mulholland Dam. There are a few things that don’t fit and Harry begins investigating when he identifies the dead man as someone he knew back in Vietnam. The story takes off when it becomes clear that the dead man was involved in a high profile bank robbery that has never been solved.

One of the interesting aspects of the story revolves around Harry’s role as a tunnel rat during the war in Vietnam. Since the dead man was also a tunnel rat in Harry’s unit, there is a lot of discussion of what these men did during the war. This is one aspect of the Vietnam war that I haven’t heard much about and I found it interesting. Connelly makes you feel like you are there in the tunnels, feeling the fear and anticipation that Harry felt while reconnoitering enemy tunnels while the enemy was inside waiting for him.


This is the first novel in the Harry Bosch series which includes the following books:
The Black Echo (1992)
The Black Ice (1993)
The Concrete Blonde (1994)
The Last Coyote (1995)
Trunk Music (1997)
Angels Flight (1999)
A Darkness More Than Night (2001)
City Of Bones (2002)
Lost Light (2003)
The Narrows (2004)
The Closers (2005)
Echo Park (2006)
The Overlook (2007)