Void Moon

by Michael Connelly

2001

Status

Available

Publication

Vision (2001), Edition: Reissue, 480 pages

Description

Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: In L.A., Cassie Black is another beautiful woman in a Porsche: except Cassie just did six years in prison and still has "outlaw juice" flowing in her veins. Now Cassie is returning to her old profession, taking down a money man in Vegas. But the perfect heist goes very wrong, and suddenly Cassie is on the run - with a near-psychotic Vegas "fixer" killing everyone who knew about the job. Between Cassie and the man hunting her are a few last secrets: like who really set up the job, why Cassie had to take the chance, and how, in the end, it might all be a matter of the moon....

User reviews

LibraryThing member imsodion
I'll admit, I am a Michael Connelly fan and am at the point with him, that if he wrote a phone book - I'd read it. He is a master in this genre; from the first paragraph I'm beguiled and swept overboard into the familiar home of mermaids, completely immersed in someone else's world. I detest Las
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Vegas, gambling offends me and magic tricks are near the top of things that produce catatonia AND all of it is Void Moon. Yes, I recommend the book; the story is captivating, the characters feel right, no-one is superhuman, everyone is loaded with flaws and he kept me wondering almost to the end. He understood who Cassie Black really was and pulled her through a bowl of spaghetti to reach her destiny. Good read.
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LibraryThing member dad7455
I must be drawn to these types of character here is another man fighting his demon of alcholism who seem to end up a loner always antagonising his superiors but getting the job done. Again I have read all of the Harry Bosch novels and to me they are all good reads for there genre. I would highly
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reccomend any of them for reading if you like this genre.
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LibraryThing member bookappeal
Connelly's standalone crime thriller stands up pretty well over time. Cassie Black is only 10 months into a 2-year parole but she's already bored with her job selling expensive cars. She needs the adrenaline of a well-planned heist and, even more, she needs the money. But the "mark" turns out to be
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more than she bargained for and triggers events that endanger not only her plans, but her life. The only flaw in this page-turner is Connelly's pedantic description of the preparation and execution of crimes. His criminal tradecraft contains no flair or glamour and reads more like an instruction manual. But his plotting is in excellent form as Cassie and the psychopath searching for her outwit and outmaneuver each other. The characters are given some depth by the gradual revelation of their emotional motivations and the ending is appropriately cinematic.
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LibraryThing member HenryKrinkle
"Void Moon" is one of the best "Vegas heist gone south" thrillers you'll ever read. Ex-con Cassie Black needs one last big score to start a new life. An old friend arranges a job, and it goes horribly wrong. Connelly does a great job of describing technical details without sounding like he's
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copying them from a textbook. The characters, including the psychopathic hit man, are fully realized. "Void Moon" has several secrets it hints it and reveals at the perfect moments. I read one of Connelly's Harry Bosch books a long time ago, and didn't think much of it. I think I'll try again.
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LibraryThing member jmcclain19
Honestly just could not get into this book whatsoever. The main character is about as unappealing as can be - and there is just no action or pick me up, no hook to suck you in. I expected more from Connelly and enjoy his other works. Perhaps this one just didn't work for me.
LibraryThing member Darrol
This is the best Michael Connelly book I have read so far. I like Bosch as a character, but this book is superior to any of the Bosch series.
LibraryThing member raizel
Degrees of evil are explored through the book's characters.
LibraryThing member jrtanworth
As a fan of the Harry Bosch series, I put off reading this book for a while because I figured that it would not be as good as the books in that series. (I didn't especially like The Lincoln Lawyer, for example.) This book is different in pace and style from the Bosch series, but it is very good. It
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is more thriller than mystery, and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. The description of the planning and execution of the hotel room heist by protagonist Cassie Black is a masterpiece of suspense writing. I'll never feel safe in a hotel room at night again. Good thing I'm not a high roller.
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LibraryThing member debavp
A bit of a departure of Connelly's other books. I could see where this, if done properly, could be developed into a worthy series. I liked that it gave you a little look at old school Vegas, mainly from some of the characters' perspective, but wasn't boo-hoo nostalgic. The story moves along quickly
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and has some interesting characters and quirks. I think I'll be haunted for a while trying to decide if Max really did say what he said about being a father.
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LibraryThing member infjsarah
This was my only remaining unread Michael Connelly book. I'd put off reading it cos I'm not that fond of his non Bosch books. I quite enjoyed it although the whole heist plot thing I'm not that keen on. Quick read.
LibraryThing member buffalogr
Another great book by Michael Connolly. It would be a page-turner if I'd gotten it on paper. Fine use of technology and the gambling industry in Vegas.
LibraryThing member creighley
Cassie Black has just been released from prison for manslaughter. In Nevada a participant in a crime can be convicted of manslaughter if anyone gets killed in the course of the crime. Cassie's lover, Max Freeling was killed during their robbery at the Cleopatra in Las Vegas. Once again, Connelly
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has written a fast-paced thriller, but one without Harry Bosch.
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LibraryThing member crazybatcow
I had a hard time putting this one down... it was very engaging and suspenseful and I was always wondering what Cassie would do next.

At the start, I thought it was one kind of story (a woman trying to rebuild her life after jail) but it ended up having a much larger scope than that. Guess I should
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have known that Connelly wouldn't have made the novel straight-forward.

There are a lot of plot components but they are nicely tied together (full-circle) by the end of the story. The origins and motivations of all the characters are explained.

I liked how the bad guy (well, the baddest guy) was, on one hand, a very bad guy but on the other hand, just wanted what he thought was his due. He even had a couple redeeming features (trying to help a stranger type thing).

And the big change in Cassie in the final scene of the book was believable and redeeming.
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LibraryThing member JohnGrant1

This is a standalone title, not one of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, and it's an out-and-out suspenser rather than a mystery or a psychological thriller. Years ago Cassie Black acted in collaboration with her lover Max Freeling to rob Vegas casinos, until one terrible night when they were caught
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and Max was killed. Now on probation after serving her time in jail, Cassie dreams of the day she'll be able to reclaim -- or steal -- her and Max's daughter Jodie from the child's adoptive parents and make a new life for them both somewhere far away. To this end she allows herself to be persuaded to take on the customary "one last job" . . . and of course it goes awry, bringing her back into the sights of the casino-employed private-investigator-cum-wetwork-operator responsible for Max's death, the sociopathic Jack Karch. Karch in effect goes on a sanctioned killing spree to eliminate all those involved in Cassie's latest heist and recover the dough, yet he too is being doublecrossed -- as he eventually discovers.

This is a real humdinger of a thriller which had me reading later than intended a couple of nights and, during the intervening day, sneaking quick reads when I was supposed to be doing other, more important things. To be honest, the plotting seems to fall apart a bit -- to rely too much on the implausible -- during the final stages, when it has to engineer the mechanics of Cassie getting into a hotel suite to rescue Jodie therefrom, but by that point in the book the momentum of my reading was at such a feverishly high level that I didn't really care.
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LibraryThing member ecw0647
Connelly is the excellent creator of the Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch series of police procedurals. His latest works have been a little different. [book:A Darkness More than Night] brings together two characters, Bosch and McCaleb (another Connelly character) in a story that pits one against the other,
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and this one that has neither. It concerns Cassie Black, ex-con on parole, who works at a car dealership in Los Angeles. She is haunted by the specter of the death of her lover and father of her child, who died during what was to be their last caper. She and Max had specialized in burglarizing the hotel rooms of Vegas high rollers while they were asleep in their rooms. Using sophisticated surveillance tools, they had been quite successful until the owner of the Cleopatra, an aging casino, hired Jack Karch, a local detective, to trap the thief. About to be caught, Max commits suicide by throwing himself through a window of the hotel he was about to burglarize, falling spectacularly to his death on the crap tables below. Their child, born to Cassie in prison, had been put up for adoption, and Cassie, learning that the adoptive family is about to move to France, wants to do one last score to have enough money to escape the country and take her daughter with her. Unfortunately, she doesn' realize that she is being maneuvered into a much more complicated scenario that will again involve Karch, the Mafia, two-and-a-half-million dollars and the deaths of several people. The key word, synchronicity, helps to unravel the plot. A great page-turner, but quite different from the Bosch series.
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LibraryThing member dara85
This is a departure from Harry Bosch where the bad guys come out ahead.
LibraryThing member glennfeole
Fast paced, exciting, and characters you become attached to.
LibraryThing member sakismom
Disappointing thriller. Main character is a female ex-con who returns to a life of crime, but we're supposed to be on her side. Unlikeable characters. Ending has the feel of a sequel coning on - unsatisfying.
LibraryThing member christinejoseph
good — thriller Vegas Scene — twists + turns

In L.A. Cassie Black is another beautiful woman in a Porsche: except Cassie just did six years in prison and still has "outlaw juice" flowing in her veins. Now Cassie is returning to her old profession, taking down a money man in Vegas. But the
Show More
perfect heist goes very wrong, and suddenly Cassie is on the run--with a near-psychotic Vegas "fixer" killing everyone who knew about the job. Between Cassie and the man hunting her are a few last secrets: like who really set up the job, why Cassie had to take the change, and how, in the end, it might all be a matter of the moon...
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LibraryThing member skinglist
I needed to read this more quickly than I did. Not because it wasn't good - it was - and I devoured it but over the two and a half weeks I lost track of the details as there were a lot of moving pieces. Leo Renfro, the Shaws, Cassie, Max, Thelma... But a solid read and I didn't find myself looking
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fo Bosch as much as I thought I might.

I liked the ties into the Bosch series especially with Joey Marks and the character development of Black. She was a much more believable character than Barch, Grimaldi and while I loved the early and middle chapters, I felt the ending contrived and rushed. I wish there were more Cassie Black books as I like that fallen hero.
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LibraryThing member christinejoseph
mystery — set in LA + Vegas

In L.A. Cassie Black is another beautiful woman in a Porsche: except Cassie just did six years in prison and still has "outlaw juice" flowing in her veins. Now Cassie is returning to her old profession, taking down a money man in Vegas. But the perfect heist goes very
Show More
wrong, and suddenly Cassie is on the run--with a near-psychotic Vegas "fixer" killing everyone who knew about the job. Between Cassie and the man hunting her are a few last secrets: like who really set up the job, why Cassie had to take the change, and how, in the end, it might all be a matter of the moon...
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LibraryThing member gac53
Excellent! Unexpected turns.
LibraryThing member lbswiener
Void Moon is a difficult book to read. It takes most of the book to figure out who is who in the book and to see that something is actually happening. In fact one could call this book boring until the last three chapters. It is interesting to learn the astrological reason for a void moon and its
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bad luck ramifications. Unfortunately only three stars were awarded in this review.
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LibraryThing member DaveWilde
Overall, it is a quick-paced modern-era crime thriller that is quite detailed and nuanced. It is an enjoyable read. Cassie Black is on parole in Los Angeles, having found a job as a saleswoman for a Porsche dealer. She is quite the saleswoman, but she is bored and longs for more action. Leo is her
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contact, her middleman. He sets up action and he has something for her that is guaranteed to have a large pay-off. Cassie initially doesn't want this job because the last time she did a job at "the Cleo" (which is a thinly disguised pseudonym for the Luxor), she ended up in prison and her boyfriend/ fiancé ended up dead. She absolutely does not want to go back, but the payoff is so large that she can't turn it down. Cassie is the consummate professional and one of the more interesting things about this book is the exquisite detail about Cassie's preparations including what items she needs to pull off the job and how she practices her craft. You would think that with this much detail the book would be tedious. It's not. Connelly provides fascinating details about how a pro would go about ripping off a mark in a Vegas hotel room. The entire book takes place over the course of just a few days in Cassie's life, but every second of the job is infused with excitement and anticipation. And yes, a void moon is apparently something astrological that occurs between the changing of the signs and it is something that Leo advises Cassie to avoid by all means. Although some of the plot devices might be clichés and some of the characters as well, Connelly is professional enough to pull it off and this is a very worthwhile read.
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LibraryThing member darylanderson
In this novel Connelly tells his story from the other side of the law. His protagonist Cassie Black is a recent ex-con and former scam artist who with a debt to settle and a few ghosts to be laid to rest. While the action is compelling--one expects nothing less from Connelly--I didn't entirely buy
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Cassie's character or the choices she made. I also found the bad guys a bit too formulaic.

Still, it's a good read.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1999-12-06
1999

Physical description

480 p.; 4.25 inches

ISBN

0446609145 / 9780446609142

Barcode

1600341
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