Hard boiled crime novels are a bit of a guilty pleasure, for me and not too many do it as good as Michael Connelly. All the books he writes captures a certain panache to his characters and to his settings, where everything is interconnected. Much like his character, Harry Bosch, a hardnosed detective, whose life is riddled with personal conflicts, family drama and questions about his past that remain unresolved. He also gets involved with the people surrounding his cases and often sees a lot of himself in them.

Characters like Bosch, although messy in the way he does business, from the outside, it becomes personal to him, which is why we root for Bosch even though he doesn’t follow the rules. Heroes that don’t follow rules like Bosch and Jack Bauer, are focused, determined and justice is their primary cause. Even if this type of behavior in real life may be irrational, it is still being admirable. This what I thought about Inspector Nestor Burma, when I read Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge.

It is 1950s Paris, and Burma, has been brought to a hospital morgue to help identify someone he is being told, was a friend of his. He discovers it was old friend from almost 30 years ago, someone he lost touch but was very much close to. As Burma, gets deeper into why his friend was killed, an old colleague gets killed as well. By book’s end, everything ties to a robbery, and the person pulling the strings finally meets his maker.

Overall, an excellent book which feels like the beautiful love child of the Two Jacks and The Mighty Quinn. The story by Leo Malet and Jacques Tardi is intricate, flourished with eater eggs and suspenseful. The art by Jacques Tardi is gorgeous. Altogether, Malet and Tardi, prove they can do hard boiled crime just as good as their American counterparts.

Story: Leo Malet and Jacques Tardi Art: Jacques Tardi
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy