In September 2013, in a post, The Murder Book, I talked about a fictional detective who constantly reads and re-reads what is called a murder book, which contains all the facts gather on a particular case. That post follows. Please let me know what you think. I really like your feedback, i.e., comments. (email if you desire: wil@jonahzsong.com)
Michael Connelly writes crime thrillers. The desire to write was born while attending the University of Florida. He studied journalism and creative writing. After working on several newspapers in Florida, on the crime beat, he moved to Los Angeles to cover crime for the LA Times. After three years there, his first novel was published, Black Echo. It introduced the character Harry Bosch, who would become a main character in a series of books. There are now twenty books in that series.
In the first book of the series, the main character, Harry Bosch, is already a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, with many years on the job. We learn Bosch’s background early on in the series: Born in 1950 in Los Angeles to Marjorie Phillips Lowe, Bosch was named Hieronymus Bosch after the 15th century Dutch artist and nicknamed “Harry.” He became an orphan at 11 when his mother, a prostitute, was murdered. He grew up living in a youth hall and foster homes. He joined the army and did two tours in Vietnam. Harry returned to Los Angeles and joined the LAPD in 1972. He became a detective after five years in patrol.
One of the key pieces of an investigation, we learn from Connelly’s Detective Bosch, is the Murder Book. It is a complete record of one particular investigation. We learn that not only does the book contain interviews with witnesses, records of evidence discovered, and reports from scientific analysis, but it contains comments by the detectives. These comments are invaluable, according to Connelly’s character Bosch, as they show the detectives’ minds, tie the evidence together, and give direction to the investigation.
In one of the novels, Connelly’s character Bosch describes going through a particular murder book from a four-year-old unsolved case. He goes over and over the book letting the facts and analysis of the case soak into him. Bosch tells us that the key to any case lies within the details of the Murder Book and doesn’t readily just pop out. He says that the more familiar he is with the book, the easier new pieces of the investigation will fit together. The end result is a moment in which he, the investigator, understands the significance of various details in the book and is able to come to a conclusion about the case.
It occurs to me that this is exactly what we as Followers of Y’shuaJesus do when we read and reread the Bible on a daily basis. I know for myself there are days in which I simply read a book. Yesterday I read Obadiah. It’s not a long book. I wasn’t “studying” it, looking for anything particular. I was just reading. But like Bosch’s Murder Book, the more I read, the more familiar various pieces of the whole work of G-d become to me. It seems to me that throughout my daily life, I’m confronted with new situations. The more familiar I am with the situations and the lessons gleaned from the Bible, the better I am at handling the situations encountered daily.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
Esra 7:10
Additionally, there is something that changes within me the more I engage with the Bible. It’s no accident that it is called the Living Word. For the Bible, to those whose names are written in the Book of Life, is food that we consume and digest and it becomes part of us. Now that doesn’t mean I’m done. For every day is a day in which I know I am a work in progress. The Lord is our Potter, making us into the person we are to become. And one day, Thank You Lord Y’shua, we will feast with Him at the Great Supper of the Lamb.
In the meantime, we are here and one of our missions is to absorb the Word of G-d so, as the Ezra put it, do the Word and teach it.
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
JonahzSong 