Ironwood by Michael Connelly

It’s the middle of the night on Catalina Island and Detective Sergeant Stilwell and two of his deputies are acting on a tip-off. A plane is coming in to land on a remote mountain airstrip, and a pickup truck arrives to meet it. Things take a bad turn.

Back at the substation afterwards, an internal inquiry leaves Stilwell kicking his heels. Cleaning out a storage room one day, he finds an expensive-looking backpack that was never claimed from lost and found. He traces it to a hiker who went missing nearly four years ago. Why had it only just been handed in?

Welcome back to Catalina

Ironwood is the second book in what is becoming known as the Catalina series, following Stilwell's introduction in the excellent Nightshade. That book established the island as a deceptively idyllic setting, so arriving here feels like returning somewhere familiar — the rhythms of the place, the geography, the cast of locals already half-known to us. As we discovered last time, being separated from the mainland by twenty-two miles and drawing in tourists by the boatload does not make for a quiet posting.

It's a setting I've grown genuinely fond of. Everyone on the island knows everyone else and everything is connected. That cuts both ways — it might make cases easier to crack, but it also means toes are very easy to tread on. Some of these families carry serious influence, and Stilwell has to navigate that carefully.

Only two books in and a vandalism case already has threads running back to Nightshade. This is one of the quiet pleasures of reading Connelly in order — the universe rewards patience, and the connections accumulate in ways that feel earned rather than contrived.

Old friends and one very welcome cameo

I do love it when Connelly's universe overlaps. Renée Ballard turns up here, and she and Stilwell work a case together. There's an immediate connection between them — a mutual recognition of how each approaches the job — and I can definitely see more collaborations ahead for this pair.

There's also a fleeting appearance from Maddie Bosch. And then — well. Look who it is. The mighty Harry Bosch himself, described as an old man but still very much above ground, though just about as we meet him in a graveyard. which may or may not be Connelly doing a spot of foreshadowing. I won't spoil the encounter, except to say that Ballard shares one of her mentor's methods with Stilwell — a technique that has served her well before — and the scene has a warmth and a weight to it that only years of accumulated storytelling can produce.

On which note: more Harry is coming. The Hollow is out on October 27th and it's already a preorder in this house. From what the blurb suggests, it goes back to when Harry's mother died and he was a ward of the state at MacLaren Children's Center — a fellow resident's death was covered up, and Harry is looking for justice all these years later. Sounds like the old dog has plenty of life left in him yet.

Stilwell

I'm liking him more with each book. There's something old-fashioned and decent about Stilwell — that same quiet commitment to proper police work and genuine justice that runs through the best of Connelly's characters. He fits the lineage without feeling like a copy of anyone who came before. We even get his first name in this one, though nobody ever uses it. Pay attention or you'll miss it entirely.

Negatives?

A few minor ones. Tash doesn't get a great deal to do here, though I suspect we'll see more of her as the series develops. One of the case resolutions feels slightly less tight than we've come to expect — though it's possible it's laying groundwork for the next instalment rather than tying everything off cleanly. And the book felt short. Though maybe that's mostly because I wanted more of it, which is not really a complaint at all.

The pace never relents. I had it finished in a couple of days. Few writers are this addictive.

The standard-bearer

Tightly plotted, cases detailed and nuanced, the prose pared back to the absolute minimum. I'd love to know how much editing goes into a Connelly novel, but I can't imagine there's much wastage. He is a completely controlled writer — always in command of his material — and his ability to reveal character through dialogue alone remains one of the best in the business.

The Catalina series is a welcome addition to the Connelly universe. Only two books in and I'm already happily settled on the island with Stilwell. Already looking forward to my next visit.

(Welcome news that we are going to get an adaptation of ‘Nightshade’ entitled ‘Welcome to Catalina’. It’s currently underdevelopment at HBO Max, with David E. Kelly at the helm, who also adapated The Lincoln Lawyer for Netflix).