"The LeBron James of crime fiction" - review of IRONWOOD

IRONWOOD by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company, 2026)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.

 

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.

 

An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.

Michael Connelly has been entertaining readers and impressing reviewers and awards judges for more than thirty years now, and thankfully shows no signs of easing up. With new audiences also coming to his Los Angeles-set tales through the Ballard and Lincoln Lawyer screen series, alongside ten outstanding seasons of Bosch and Bosch: Legacy starring Titus Welliver as Connelly’s relentless investigator and first-ever series hero, Connelly last year introduced a new series detective. 

We first met LA County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell in Nightshade, where he was serving on scenic Catalina Island, among the other ‘broken toys’, and doggedly pursuing the truth behind the body of an identified young woman being pulled from the local harbour - despite being sidelined from the murder investigation being led by his nemesis. Now in Ironwood, Stilwell is confronted by a murder that hits very close to home, after he and his deputies Ramirez and Quigley are ambushed when a tip-off about late-night drug trafficking at a remote airstrip goes horribly wrong. Benched while an internal inquiry is underway, Stilwell can’t sit still. Determined to find out who set up his deputies, he starts his own off-the-books investigation, while also looking into an item of recently turned in lost property that he ties to a woman who reportedly went missing on Catalina Island four years ago. 

Both new and longtime fans of Connelly’s storytelling will find plenty to savour in Ironwood, which expands and adds extra threads to the ‘Bosch universe’ he has built over the past 30+ years on page and screen. It’s a propulsive, one-sitting kind of read that doesn’t feel ‘thin’ or breeze by too quickly; there’s depth to the characters and sense of place, alongside intriguing storylines. Stilwell has many of the qualities we’ve come to admire in Connelly’s other key heroes – Harry Bosch, ‘Lincoln lawyer’ Mickey Haller, crime reporter Jack McEvoy, and Renee Ballard – in terms of his determination to uncover the truth and find justice, no matter the personal cost, while also having his own traits. 

In Ironwood, Stilwell is fully welcomed into the Connelly universe, briefly encountering Bosch, then working on the case of the missing hiker with Detective Ballard and her LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit. Both cases get increasingly complicated, and dangerous. Meanwhile Stilwell must still deal with other policing and political matters on the island, including spraypainted monuments and vandalised grapevines. Less life-and-death, perhaps, but vital to his tenure nonetheless. Overall, Connelly spins another very fine yarn, blending cases and characters into a propulsive, satisfying tale and a climax that will have readers wanting another Stilwell book asap. 

The 2023 recipient of the MWA’s Grand Master Award, Connelly in a way is like the LeBron James or Tom Brady of American crime writing – continuing to not only perform at a high level, but evolve and lead the way even as younger, exciting new voices are welcomed to the mystery and thriller genre, and ‘change the game’. A masterful story from a masterful storyteller. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.