This is the seventh novel to feature Mickey Haller, the "Lincoln Lawyer" who works out of the back seat of his Lincoln rather than having an office liThis is the seventh novel to feature Mickey Haller, the "Lincoln Lawyer" who works out of the back seat of his Lincoln rather than having an office like virtually every other attorney. Haller is a criminal defense attorney with a great record of securing acquittals for his clients.
Earlier, Haller had a case in which he secured the release from prison of a man who had been wrongfully convicted of a crime. In the wake of that case, scores of imprisoned men and women have been pestering Haller, claiming that they too are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted and begging him to get them out of prison as well.
The deluge of these requests has become so great that Haller hires his half-brother, retired LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, to sort through the appeals to see if any of them might have merit. But the principal reason for hiring Harry is that the aging former detective has a rare form of cancer. Working for Haller gives him health insurance. Even more important, Haller uses his connections to get Bosch into a clinical trial that may slow if not eliminate altogether the progress of his cancer.
Digging through the convicts' requests, Bosch finds the case of Lucinda Sanz, a woman who pleaded no contest to the charge of murdering her husband, a sheriff's deputy. Sanz claims that she did not shoot her husband to death and only took the plea deal because her attorney warned her that if she went to trial, she would almost certainly be convicted and her sentence would likely be much worse.
Digging into the case, Bosch notes some troubling irregularities in the investigation--enough to convince him that Haller should meet with Sanz at the prison to judge her argument in person. Haller agrees; the two meet with Sanz, and Haller decides to take her case.
As soon as he does, it becomes clear that his action has upset some very dangerous and powerful people. Both he and Bosch will receive thinly veiled warnings, and the attempt to secure Sanz's release will be fought fiercely, both in and out of court.
This is an entertaining story and the legal aspects are very interesting, but I didn't find it to be as compelling as most of the earlier Haller books. There doesn't seem to be as much tension, and the courtroom scenes didn't seem as dramatic as those in some of the other novels.
My real concern, though--and I confess that this may not be a fair criticism--is the character of Harry Bosch. Ever since I read the first Bosch novel, The Black Echo, thirty years ago now, I have loved this character and have eagerly awaited every novel in which he is featured. For most of that time, Bosch has been one of the best-imagined and most compelling figures in crime fiction.
Bosch first appeared as a veteran of the Vietnam War and early on, Michael Connelly decided to age the character in real time. This meant that he would ultimately reach mandatory retirement age and have to leave the LAPD. Connelly finessed this for a while by having Bosch become a PI and by then having him brought back to the department to work cold cases. But this could only go on so long, and instead of letting go of the character and giving him a proper sendoff, Connelly decided to let him hang around working as an advisor to another, younger detective named Renee Ballard or, occasionally for Haller.
While this tactic has worked to keep Bosch somewhat "in the game," for me, at least, it's been very hard to stomach. Watching a character that I've loved for all these years as an elderly man playing second fiddle to someone like Ballard or even Haller just doesn't seem right. I miss the real Harry Bosch, and at this point I can only be grateful for the fact that I still have a shelf full of novels featuring the character that are much better than this one. 3.5 stars, rounded up to four....more
In the world of crime fiction there are several authors of long-running series who introduced a protagonist and let him or her age in real time for a In the world of crime fiction there are several authors of long-running series who introduced a protagonist and let him or her age in real time for a while but let them get into early middle age and then held them there while the world around them continued to move on. Think Robert B. Parker's Spenser, for example. When first introduced in 1973, Spenser was already in his early forties. By the middle 1980s, the character was in his fifties and he basically just stayed there. The author stopped describing Spenser as a veteran of the Korean war, and virtually all of his readers were perfectly happy to go along with the program so that a character they really liked could remain relatively young and vital as opposed to someone who would have been somewhere in his early nineties in his latest outing.
I sincerely wish that Michael Connelly would have taken the same approach with Harry Bosch. I would have happily overlooked the fact that Bosch was a veteran of the Vietnam War and would have loved to continue seeing him working homicide cases for the L.A.P.D. for years to come while while remaining in his middle fifties. I've been reading this series since the very beginning, and I hate to see Harry becoming ever older, beatup, and increasingly irrelevant, shuffeled from one temporary assignment to another, and left to play second fiddle to a detective half his age.
I also confess that, for whatever reason, I have never warmed up to the character of Renee Ballard. I enjoy reading books featuring any number of other female detectives, but there's something about Ballard that just puts me off. Perhaps this is because she feels to me like something of a placeholder without nearly the depth of character posessed by Bosch or Connelly's other principal progtagonist, Mickey Haller.
All of which is a very long explanation for the reason why I have not enjoyed the later books in what has now become the Bosch/Ballard series nearly as much as I did the earlier ones which featured Bosch alone. That said, I do think that Desert Star rises above the other books that have featured the two characters together.
As the book opens, Ballard has taken charge of a small open/unsolved unit that relies mostly on volunteers to investigate the cases. The unit is sponsored by a powerful city councilman who is particularly anxious to have the murder of a family member solved after years have gone by without the killer being identified and punished. Ballard recruits Harry to join the squad and he agrees, but only upon the condition that he can also investigate one of his cold cases from much earlier, the murder of an entire family that has haunted him for years.
As the book progresses then, Ballard and Bosh investigate the two cases, both of which are fairly interesting. The book is well-plotted and very suspensful, with a number of interesting twists and turns, leading to a great and not-entirely-unexpected conclusion. Overall, it's a good read, but it still leaves me yearning for the Harry Bosch of old and grateful for the fact that I still have all those excellent earlier books sitting on the shelf to return to from time to time.
I've been a huge fan of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosh series since the first book, The Black Echo, appeared in 1992, and I've eagerly looked forward tI've been a huge fan of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosh series since the first book, The Black Echo, appeared in 1992, and I've eagerly looked forward to each new installment in the series. Bosh was introduced as a veteran of the Vietnam war and was in his middle thirties when he first appeared, and Connelly made the decision to age the character in real time so that Harry is now in his late sixties. This decision has presented the author with some significant problems, principally in that Harry was forced to retire from the L.A.P.D. and is obviously not the man he used to be, physically at least.
Connelly kept the character relevant by allowing him to investigate cold cases, by having him get his license and do some work as a P.I., and by temporarily detailing him to a small police department outside of the city. But several years ago, he introduced a new and younger detective, Renee Ballard, who is as much an outsider in the L.A.P.D. as Bosch was. This is now the fourth novel to feature Ballard and along the way, she has managed to team up with Harry who serves as a mentor to Ballard and who assists her off the books with her investigations.
This book begins on New Year's Eve as 2020 turns into 2021. Ballard is soon working two cases and, like Bosch before her, is managing to antagonize her superior officers and a number of her fellow cops as well. One of the cases involves two men, known as the Midnight Men, who have committed a series of rapes. The other involves the murder on New Year's Eve of an auto shop owner. Ballard soon discovers that the gun that was used to kill the man ties back into an old, unsolved case that Bosch once worked. Naturally, she turns to Harry for the details of his case and in short order, the two are working together again with Bosch as Ballard's silent partner.
The investigations play out against the backdrop of the Covid Pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the Capitol insurrection. Much of the book moves pretty slowly, and it doesn't really pick up speed until the last quarter of the book.
Part of my problem with the book is that I love the character of Harry Bosh but I still have not been able to warm up to Renee Ballard who seems to be a pale imitation of Bosch. And in my humble opinion, the author is having something of the same problem. Bosh has always been a riveting character and the stories Connelly created around him were always charged with tension and pulled the reader along at a breakneck pace. With Ballard, it often seems to me that Connelly is basically going through the motions, giving us a lot of police procedure without much spark. Back in the day, when I opened a typical Harry Bosch novel, I was basically out of circulation until I finished it. But I don't find Ballard or these stories to be nearly as compelling. I read this book over the space of four days and had no problem at all frequently putting it aside and going on to other things.
In the end, this may simply come down to the fact that I hate the idea of an iconic character like Harry Bosch being reduced to the role of somebody's sidekick. I realize that Connelly basically painted himself into a corner by letting Bosch age in real time, but I wish he had come up with a better approach to keeping the character relevant. Perhaps at this stage of the game, he might have gone back in time to tell a story from earlier in Bosch's life when Harry was a younger and more vigorous man. Lawrence Block did this once with his series character, Matthew Scudder to very good effect.
Ultimately, I don't know if I really care to read any more "Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch" novels, but I'm comforted by the fact that I have a shelf full of real Harry Bosch novels that I can return to whenever I need a great read....more
There's a famous old adage suggesting that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. But when L.A. attorney Mickey Haller--the Lincoln There's a famous old adage suggesting that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. But when L.A. attorney Mickey Haller--the Lincoln Lawyer--is arrested on a trumped up charge of murder, he refuses to place his fate in anyone's hands other than his own.
One night after leaving a party celebrating his latest courtroom triumph, Haller (who is completely sober) is pulled over by a traffic cop. He knows he hasn't violated any laws, but when the cop walks him around to the rear of the car, he sees that his rear license plate has mysteriously gone missing--hence the traffic stop. When the cop sees something dripping from the trunk, he opens the trunk and discovers the body of one of Haller's former clients who has been shot to death, apparently in the trunk.
There's evidence linking Haller to the crime and he quickly finds himself in the L.A. County Jail with bail set at $5 million. That's out of the question and so Haller will have to remain in jail at risk of life and limb, while he tries to plot out his defense. He's assisted by the usual team, and his half-brother, former L.A.P.D. homicide detective Harry Bosch, also lends a hand. If Haller doesn't want to be dogged by this stigma for the rest of the life, he can't just get himself off on a technicality; he has to rely on the "Law of Innocence" and prove who really did commit the crime for which he has been framed.
Inevitably, the plot and Haller's defense will both take a lot of interesting twists and turns. As usual in a Michael Connelly novel, the action is very propulsive, pulling the reader along and making this one, at least, stay up deep into the night to finish the novel. Connelly is best known for his great police procedurals, but he's proved that he has the chops to write great legal thrillers as well. The court scenes are very good, and all the legal maneuvering sounds totally credible.
If I have any complaint about the book, it's a very minor one, and involves the fact that Harry Bosch is used very sparingly in the story. Connelly has written several novels that feature the two half-brothers working together and when Bosch was first introduced here, I expected that his role would be larger. I regret that it wasn't, but again that's a very small concern and I enjoyed this book a lot....more
Retired L.A.P.D. homicide detective Harry Bosch again teams up with Detective Renee Ballard in another entertaining novel from Michael Connelly. AfterRetired L.A.P.D. homicide detective Harry Bosch again teams up with Detective Renee Ballard in another entertaining novel from Michael Connelly. After Bosch attends the funeral of John Jack Thompson, the detective who mentored him as a rookie, Thompson's widow presents him with a murder book that Thompson had taken with him when he left the force years ago. The case involved the murder of a young man who was apparently killed in a drug deal gone bad twenty years earlier. But why did Thompson take the murder book, especially when it doesn't appear that he had ever done any work on the case in the years since his retirement? The mystery--and the murder--now belong to Bosch.
Meanwhile, Harry's half brother, attorney Mickey Haller, is representing a man accused of murdering a judge. The case against Haller's client seems like a slam-dunk, but Bosch attends the trial one afternoon and notices something amiss that apparently hasn't occurred to anyone else. Naturally, he'll have to dig into this case too.
Finally, Renee Ballard is, as usual, working the "Late Show," the L.A.P.D.'s overnight shift, when she gets a call about a homeless man who has apparently fallen asleep, kicked over a lantern, and burned himself to death. Ballard is curious, though, about the circumstances surrounding the man's death and begins digging into it. She also begins working with Bosch on the cold case involving the apparent drug killing.
The story alternates between Bosch's point of view and Ballard's, and as the three investigations progress, things get increasingly complex and dangerous as well. This is another taut, gripping story from Connelly. All three of the cases are interesting, and it's especially fun to watch the evolving relationship between Bosch and Ballard. There's lots of action and another great climax--all in all, a very good read....more
Dark Sacred Night unites Michael Connelly's long-running protagonist, Harry Bosch, with newcomer Renee Ballard, whom Connelly introduced in The Late SDark Sacred Night unites Michael Connelly's long-running protagonist, Harry Bosch, with newcomer Renee Ballard, whom Connelly introduced in The Late Show. Ballard is a detective working the night shift--the late show--and late one night she encounters Bosch rifling through the filing cabinets at the Hollywood station where she works. Bosch, who is now working cold cases as a reserve for the San Fernando P.D., is looking for records relating to the murder of Daisy Clayton, a fifteen-year-old runaway who was killed nine years earlier.
After some initial sparring, the two join forces to work the case in their spare time. Bosch is also investigating an old gang murder for the San Fernando department while Ballard is otherwise occupied by the usual calls that come in on her shift. But in and around their other responsibilities, the two will try to find justice for Daisy Clayton.
I'm a huge fan of Michael Connelly's novels, but this book just did not work as well for me as most of his others. For some reason, I'm having trouble warming up to Renee Ballard. After two books, I still don't find the character as interesting or as compelling as most of Connelly's other protagonists. The structure of the story didn't help either. It's told in alternating sections, one from Ballards P.O.V. and then the next from Bosch's. I found it disorienting, and it also seemed to drain some of the tension out of the story. Just as things were heating up from one character's P.O.V., it switched to the other's and the tension was dissipated.
Another problem was the fact that the two detectives were working this case in and around their other responsibilities. So, in effect, the search for Daisy's killer is constantly interrupted, particularly by the other incidents that Ballard is sent out to investigate. Some of these are interesting in and of themselves, but again they distract the reader's attention away from the main story.
The end result is that, at least for me, the book is not nearly as compelling as most of Connelly's other novels. Once one of his books gets its hooks into me, I usually can't bear to put it down until I've finished it. I had no problem putting this book down fairly frequently, though, because Connelly gave me plenty of opportunities to do so with all the breaks he inserted into the action. Dark Sacred Night is really not a bad book; I certainly enjoyed reading it, but it won't rank as one of my favorites among Connelly's many great books....more
I concluded long ago that Michael Connelly is incapable of writing a bad book, and Two Kinds of Truth demonstrates once again that no one writes betteI concluded long ago that Michael Connelly is incapable of writing a bad book, and Two Kinds of Truth demonstrates once again that no one writes better police procedurals than he. Connelly has now written some thirty novels, most of which feature his main protagonist, Harry Bosch. For most of his career, Bosch worked as a homicide detective in the L.A.P.D. He was a gifted investigator, dedicated to his mission. But he often found himself at odds with his bosses for one reason or another, and after almost forty years of service, he left the department under less than amicable circumstances.
Now in his middle sixties, Harry is working part-time for the tiny San Fernando P.D., specializing in cold cases. But when two pharmacists are brutally murdered in their small, independent farmacia, Harry is pressed into service. Given that he has far more experience than anyone else on the force, he is asked to take charge of the investigation.
At virtually the same moment, two L.A.P.D. detectives, one of them a former partner of Harry's, show up and tell him that one of his old cases is being reopened. Thirty years earlier, Bosch investigated the murder of a young woman who had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Harry found evidence in the killer's home that linked him solidly to the crime and that evidence and Harry's testimony sent the perpetrator away for life.
Now, though, the killer is claiming that Harry planted the evidence and framed him. Much more important, re-examination of the physical evidence in the case has turned up a DNA sample showing that the woman's assailant was actually a man who had been convicted of a similar crime and who has recently died. The man Harry put behind bars is now demanding his release and intends to sue everyone in sight for false imprisonment. The police and prosecutors are content to take the new evidence at face value and will not contest the man's release.
Bosch must handle both of these very difficult challenges simultaneously, and his livelihood, his reputation and even his very life will wind up on the line. The pharmacy murders pull back a curtain on the opioid crisis that is having such catastrophic effects on the country and which involve some very dangerous characters. The challenge from the imprisoned killer is a personal affront to Bosch and takes on the characteristics of a locked-room murder mystery. Both cases are exciting and compelling and as Bosh weaves back and forth between the two, the reader can only race along beside him, anxiously awaiting the resolution of both. Once you've started this book, putting it down is not really an option....more
The eighth Harry Bosch novel, published in 2002, opens when a dog unearths a human bone in Laurel Canyon in the hills above Hollywood. The dog's ownerThe eighth Harry Bosch novel, published in 2002, opens when a dog unearths a human bone in Laurel Canyon in the hills above Hollywood. The dog's owner, a retired doctor, recognizes the discovery immediately and calls the police. Harry Bosch responds, climbs the hill where the dog had been playing, and discovers the bones of a child that had been buried in a shallow grave more than twenty years earlier.
An autopsy reveals that the boy had been murdered, but there are precious few clues apart from the bones themselves. A case this cold will be almost impossible to solve, but for Bosch, this case, like virtually all his others, becomes personal and he simply won't let go of it.
Harry is, ultimately, able to identify the victim, but tracking down the killer will take all of the skills he has honed through the years. Along the way, he will acquire a new love interest, and, as is almost always the case, will find himself in conflict with the department's brass who are, at least in Harry's view, much more interested in protecting the department's image than they are in achieving some sort of justice.
This is another very good entry in the series, featuring the level of detail and insight into police procedure that readers have come to expect from Connelly. One of the particular joys of this book lies in the minor characters, beginning with the doctor whose dog discovers the bones, all of whom are very well-drawn and unusually interesting. The book ends with a particularly shattering climax which will leave readers very anxious to get to the next book in the series....more
Harry Bosch has finally left the L.A.P.D. behind for good, but his mission as a homicide detective remains in his blood--it still defines who he is. AHarry Bosch has finally left the L.A.P.D. behind for good, but his mission as a homicide detective remains in his blood--it still defines who he is. Accordingly, while he's now working as a P.I., he's also volunteering as a reserve officer in the small, understaffed and underfunded police department in San Fernando. Harry is basically the department's Cold Case unit, investigating still unsolved crimes. There's no paycheck, but Harry still gets to carry a detective's badge and he still gets to do the work that gives meaning to his life.
In his capacity as a P.I., Harry is summoned to the mansion of an elderly tycoon named Whitney Vance. Vance is now a billionaire in charge of a huge company. But when he was a young college student in Southern California, he had a brief affair with a Mexican girl who became pregnant. But Vance's father drove the young woman away and Vance never saw her again. He also never knew whether she had his baby and if so, what might have happened to it.
Now on the verge of his death, Vance is embarrassed by the cowardice of his youth and wants, at long last, to make amends if at all possible. He hires Harry to find out if he does have an heir. He warns Bosch that powerful forces would be upset if this should turn out to be the case. If he has no heir, his board of directors effectively inherits his company, and the board members would not look kindly on any competition to their claim. Vance swears Bosch to secrecy and sends him on his way.
At the same time, in his capacity as a reserve detective in San Fernando, Harry has discovered a disturbing pattern in some old case files, suggesting that a serial rapist was working in the area and may, in fact, still be attacking women there. The attacker becomes known as the "Screen Cutter" because of the way in which he gains entry into the women's homes. And finding the man and getting him off the streets is a must.
As the novel progresses, Harry bounces back and forth between the two cases and each is extremely urgent. The rapist must be caught before any more women are victimized, but Vance's heir--if, indeed, there is one--must be found before the old man dies.
Connelly tells this story as only he can, and the reader is engrossed in both cases practically from the opening paragraph of the book. Bosh remains one of the most compelling characters in modern crime fiction, and no living crime writer captures the city of Los Angeles as well as his creator. Twenty-six books into the world of Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly has solidified his claim as the logical heir of Raymond Chandler, and this is a book that will certainly appeal to anyone who loves great crime fiction....more
The twenty-third entry in this excellent series is among the very best, and that's saying quite a lot. As an L.A.P.D. homicide detective, Harry Bosch The twenty-third entry in this excellent series is among the very best, and that's saying quite a lot. As an L.A.P.D. homicide detective, Harry Bosch has pretty much always gone his own way, often alienating his bosses, partners and others, but almost always producing results in the end that no one else could have achieved. Finally, though, he goes a step too far and, although he solves a particularly complex case, his methods give his snarky boss a chance to finally get rid of him. Harry pulls the pin and takes retirement before that can happen and he then sues the department for its actions against him.
Harry is now off the job and rebuilding a vintage motorcycle, when his half-brother, Mickey Haller--the "Lincoln Lawyer"-- tries to hire him. Mickey has a client who's about to go on trial for a particularly viscous rape and murder. Haller insists that his client is innocent, even though the evidence against him seems a lock.
Haller wants Harry to join the defense team and investigate the case in an effort to save his client. To do so goes against the grain of everything Bosch has stood for in his career and he has no interest in helping his brother get a guilty man off on a technicality because of something he might discover. Harry thus refuses, but Mickey convinces him to at least take a look at the Murder Book--the log of the investigation that the police have turned over to the defense. Reading the material, Harry notes a number of minor inconsistencies in the evidence, and once he does, he's hooked. Against his better judgement, he agrees to investigate the case and the deeper he gets, the more complex and dangerous things will become.
This is a very well-written and well-plotted novel. Nobody does police procedural as well as Connelly, and it's a lot of fun watching Harry attempt to pursue the case from outside the police department. It's a standard trope in this sort of novel that the P.I. always has a "friend" in the P.D. who looks things up in the computer and who does other favors for him. There's always another "friend" in the phone company and so on and so forth, enabling the P.I. to gain access to information that no other outsider could get.
Connelly doesn't cheat that way. Harry asks one favor of his old partner who gets him some inside info, but otherwise Harry is on is own and is hugely inventive in developing ways to get the material he needs. He basically starts by pulling at one small loose thread and then follows where it leads him. Watching Bosch work is always a lot of fun, but watching him do so with these limitations is even more so.
The plot is gripping and moves like the proverbial runaway train, and it's interesting to see Harry Bosch working at odds against the institution he has served for his entire life. It's also very intriguing to see the two half brothers at work and to watch Harry struggle with his conscience throughout the book. All Mickey really needs is for Harry to find something that will raise a reasonable doubt with the prosecution's case. But Bosch will never forgive himself if that's all he does. If Mickey's client isn't guilty, then someone else is, and Harry Bosch won't rest until he finds him. A great read....more
Ten years ago, a mariachi musician was shot and critically wounded in what the police then assumed was a drive-by shooting, perhaps a stray bullet froTen years ago, a mariachi musician was shot and critically wounded in what the police then assumed was a drive-by shooting, perhaps a stray bullet from a gang-related incident. When the musician dies, with the bullet still lodged against his spine, his death is ruled a homicide and the ten-year-old case falls to Detective Harry Bosch of the LAPD's Open-Unsolved unit and Bosch's young new partner, Lucy Soto.
Harry is still getting to know Soto, who is known as "Lucky" Lucy and whose rapid rise through the department was accelerated by her heroic action in a shoot-out with armed robbers that left her partner dead. He's not yet sure whether she's detective-grade material or not and will be watching her closely.
Their only real chance of solving the murder rests on the hope that new technology will provide them leads that were unavailable to the team of detectives that first investigated the shooting. In particular, will it be possible to enhance the video that was taken that day so as to provide additional information about the crime?
As Harry and Lucy begin digging into the investigation, Harry discovers that Lucy is secretly conducting an investigation of her own into another old cold case involving a fire that took the lives of several children and a caretaker at an unlicensed day-car center. The case has great personal relevance for Soto, and Harry has to decide whether to shut down her efforts or assist her in attempting to solve this case as well. All of this is of tremendous personal importance to Bosch as well, because he's coming up against his mandatory retirement date and in less than a year will have to leave the LAPD for good. He is determined to go out on a high note.
The result is another excellent entry in what is probably the best police procedural series being written today. By now the Bosch character has been firmly set and Harry remains as grimly dedicated to the cause of justice and as fiercely determined to do things as he sees fit as he has been for some time now. Soto is a great addition to the cast and is one of the most interesting people with whom Bosch has ever been partnered. The cases involved are complex and interesting and the sum of it all will keep readers turning the pages of this book long into the night. One closes the book desperately hoping that Michael Connelly will somehow be able to keep Harry on the job for years to come in spite of his looming retirement date....more
During the course of the L.A. riots in 1992, Harry Bosch, then a young detective, was the first investigator on the scene of the murder of Anneke JespDuring the course of the L.A. riots in 1992, Harry Bosch, then a young detective, was the first investigator on the scene of the murder of Anneke Jespersen. Jespersen, an attractive photo-journalist from Denmark, was found executed in a dark ally in the middle of the riot zone by national guardsmen who were attempting to provide crowd control. But at the height of the rioting, Harry had no opportunity to do anything more than make a cursory examination of the scene before he was ordered away to another homicide. In the wake of the riots, the Jespersen killing was assigned to a special task force and the case was never solved.
This is one of those cases that has always haunted Harry and now, twenty years later, the same gun that killed the young journalist is used in another murder. Bosch, who is now assigned to the department's Open-and-Unsolved Unit, jumps at the chance to reopen the Jespersen case and finally provide a very belated justice for the victim.
It will not be easy. The chain of evidence is almost hopelessly murky and would frustrate any detective less tenacious than Bosch. In addition to confronting an almost impossible case, Harry is also soon up against department bureaucrats who are interested only in posting statistics that make them look good, who do not share Harry's sense of the Mission of a homicide detective, and who for their own nefarious reasons, would rather this particular case not be solved.
Bosh will not be deterred. He makes an end run around his supervisors and doggedly pursues the case as he believes he should. He's desperately searching for the "Black Box," which will provide the solution to the case, but in the end, the term will become much more than a metaphor as Harry uncovers a particularly dark and disturbing series of crimes.
As he investigates the case, Harry continues to grapple with the complex challenges involved in raising a teenage daughter by himself. He also has a new woman in his life and this relationship is difficult as well, but watching him juggle all of these responsibilities is a treat, as always. All in all, this is an excellent entry in one of the best crime series in the history of the genre. Twenty-five years after first introducing Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly just continues to keep getting better and better....more
Trunk Music is Michael Connelly's sixth novel and the fifth of those books to feature L.A. homicide detective, Harry Bosch. It remains my favorite of Trunk Music is Michael Connelly's sixth novel and the fifth of those books to feature L.A. homicide detective, Harry Bosch. It remains my favorite of Connelly's books and my favorite of all police procedurals--an inspiration to me and, I assume, to a good many other authors who write crime fiction.
Harry has been serving time on an administrative leave, which resulted from actions he took in The Last Coyote. He's just returned to the Homicide Desk when he's called to the scene of an apparent murder. Tony Aliso, a Hollywood producer who turns out low-rent, titillating, straight-to-DVD movies, has been found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his Rolls Royce, which has been left in a wooded area in the Hollywood Hills.
While Harry was on leave, the homicide teams were reorganized. Each team now consists of three detectives rather than two, and so in addition to his long-time partner, Jerry Edgar, Bosch is now also teamed with a female African American named Kizmin Rider. As the senior detective, Harry is the team leader and must direct the effort to find Aliso's killer.
This is Harry's first crack at a homicide in a while, and he desperately wants the case. However, the style of the killing clearly suggests that this might have been a mob hit and so Harry has no choice other than to call the department's Organized Crime Investigative Division and inform them of the crime. He fully expects that the O.C.I.D. will examine the case and almost certainly move in and take it away from him, but they insist that they have no interest in the case at all. Harry is relieved, but the fact that O.C.I.D. doesn't even want to look at it sets off the first alarm bell suggesting to Bosch that there may be more to this case than a simple murder.
And, of course, there is. Before long the trail will take Harry and his team back and forth between L.A. and Las Vegas, where the victim was a frequent visitor. And before long, Harry will be butting heads with his perennial nemeses, the F.B.I. and the department's Internal Affairs Division, as well as the Vegas P.D. and, ultimately, the O.C.I.D., which decides that maybe it is interested in the case after all.
Happily, though, he won't be in conflict with his immediate supervisor. Harvey Pounds, the lieutenant who was such a thorn in Bosch's side in the earlier books, has been replaced by Lieutenant Grace Billets, who is much more supportive of Harry and his team. This is a very good thing, because Harry is going to need all the help he can get.
It's a byzantine case, with all kinds of angles and competing interests playing out against each other, and against Bosch. This remains, I think, the best of all of Connelly's plots--very cleverly designed, and populated with one of his best casts. Bosch is at his peak here, and by this book is a fully-formed character--tough, smart, prickly, and single-minded in the pursuit of his mission. This book grabs me from the first paragraph every time I read it, and it never lets go....more
The fourth Harry Bosch novel finds the L.A.P.D. homicide detective depressed and in a world of trouble. In a fit of anger, he pushed his boss's head tThe fourth Harry Bosch novel finds the L.A.P.D. homicide detective depressed and in a world of trouble. In a fit of anger, he pushed his boss's head through a window and has been suspended from the force. His badge and gun are gone and he's forced to undergo counseling if he has any hope of getting his job back. To make matters worse, the woman he's been involved with recently has left him, and his house has been badly damaged in an earthquake. The building inspector has condemned the house.
Angry and depressed on several fronts, Harry is using some of his free time to try to make repairs to the house and save it from destruction. He also decides to investigate a very cold case--the murder years earlier of his own mother, who was working as a prostitute. Her death was the turning point of Harry's life. He knew his mother loved him but had never met his father. As a young boy, he was thus condemned to a life in an orphanage and a series of foster homes until he could finally escape into the Army.
Harry goes to the department archives and pulls the material relating to his mother's case. In and around his visits to the police psychologist who is assigned to work with him, he begins digging into the case and before long has stirred up a veritable hornets' nest.
This is another gripping story in the Bosch saga, one that goes a long way in explaining how Harry turned in to the man he has become. One would think that a thirty-year-old case would be too cold ever to clear, and it's fun to watch the inventive approaches that Bosch takes as he attempts to solve the crime.
If I have a complaint about this book and about the character, it is that Bosh sometimes seems to go deliberately out of his way to insult or anger people when there's no good reason to do so. Sometimes these are people who are actually trying to help him, but Harry treats them like crap, which is pretty much the same way he treats everyone. I understand that Connelly is trying to create a hard, dark character here--a loner with a chip on his shoulder who is reminiscent of the last coyote--but he may overdo it just a bit. Sometimes Harry reacts in a way that takes the reader, or at least this one, right out of the story, wondering why in the hell Harry would act that way when there was simply no cause to do so.
It's always fun to watch Bosch give some jerk exactly what he's got coming to him, but it's mystifying when he turns around and does it to someone who clearly doesn't deserve it. Still, this is a relatively small complaint and on the whole, I really enjoyed reading this book again....more
The Brass Verdict is, I think, one of Michael Connelly's best books, and it reinforces the notion that in this genre, virtually nobody does it better.The Brass Verdict is, I think, one of Michael Connelly's best books, and it reinforces the notion that in this genre, virtually nobody does it better. It's Connelly's eighteenth book and is significant because it is the first to feature both his long-time L.A. homicide detective, Harry Bosch, and the defense lawyer, Mickey Haller. It's principally Haller's book, but Bosch plays a prominent role.
As the book opens, Haller is just returning to work after a prolonged absence. At the close of the last book in which he appeared, The Lincoln Lawyer, Haller was wounded. He then wound up addicted to drugs following his surgery and has been through rehab, and is now making a comeback. He intends to do so slowly, but then another attorney, Jerry Vincent, is murdered in the parking garage of his office building. Vincent and Haller were friends of a sort and occasionally pinch-hit for each other. Vincent had named Haller as his legal successor, and on the morning of Vincent's murder, a judge calls Haller to inform him that he now has in excess of thirty new cases, including a couple that demand immediate appearances in court.
Among the cases that Haller inherits is an especially high profile murder case. A major Hollywood executive has been accused of killing his wife and her lover. The evidence against him seems fairly strong, and the trial is due to start the following week. Most of Vincent's case notes have disappeared, along with his computer, and Mickey has no idea how Vincent planned to structure the executive's defense.
Logically, Haller wants to file a motion to delay the trial so that he can get up to speed and plan a defense. But his client seems totally unconcerned about all of this and insists that there be no delay. He is innocent, he says, and wants his good name restored ASAP. If Haller can't be ready to go, he will get someone who can. Given no choice in the matter, Haller plunges in, determined to do the best he can.
Meanwhile, Harry Bosch is investigating the murder of Jerry Vincent, which brings Bosch and Mickey Haller into contact and conflict. Bosch suspects that there might be information in Vincent's files suggesting who might have a motive to kill him, but Haller insists on protecting the confidentiality of the clients he has just inherited. Bosch suggest that by doing so, Haller might make himself a target, and thus the dance is on.
Watching these two work their respective parts of the criminal system is great fun. The case is an intriguing one and gives Connelly an opportunity to further develop the Haller character. The legal maneuverings are interesting and it's always entertaining to watch Harry Bosch investigate a murder. I found the combination irresistible and when I first read it, it immediately became one of my favorites of all of Connelly's books. It's hard to imagine that there's any fan of crime fiction that would not enjoy it....more
It's Christmas night and L.A.P.D homicide detective Harry Bosch is eating his Christmas dinner alone at home, with only a jazz CD and the police scannIt's Christmas night and L.A.P.D homicide detective Harry Bosch is eating his Christmas dinner alone at home, with only a jazz CD and the police scanner to keep him company. He doesn't mind spending the holiday alone; in fact, he prefers it. Harry is a loner who identifies with a solitary coyote that hangs out near his house.
Harry's evening is interrupted when he picks up chatter on the police scanner regarding a suspicious death in a down-at-the-heels Hollywood motel. It's clear from the scanner that department brass are assembling at the scene and Harry can't help but wonder what in the hell is going on. He's on call and should have been the first one notified of the death. He calls in only to discover that the brass are taking control of the situation and that he is supposed to stay well away.
Fat chance.
Harry goes to the scene and discovers that the body is that of a missing narcotics cop, Calexico Moore, who may have gone over to the dark side. It appears that Moore has committed suicide in the bathroom of the seedy motel. It's also clear that the brass want to close the case ASAP, sweep the bad news under the rug, and limit any damage to the department's reputation.
Harry is specifically ordered to stay well away from the case, and shortly thereafter his boss assigns him a pile of homicide cases that belonged to a useless detective who has suddenly quit the department. Harry's boss is anxious to see an improvement in the unit's clearance rate by the end of the year, which is only a week away. He begs Harry to pick through the cases in an effort to solve the easiest one or two of them in time to sweeten up the stat sheet.
Reluctantly, Harry begins digging into the cases only to find one homicide that crosses the trail of Calexico Moore, the dead narcotics detective. Even though he's been instructed to stay clear of the Moore case, Harry begins digging into the ties that seem to link the two cases. In the process, he will stumble into a web of intrigue and will also mightily antagonize his superiors. But Harry Bosch serves justice first, and has absolutely no time or respect for a bunch of self-serving bureaucrats.
Harry will follow the trail wherever it leads no matter the dangers to his career or to his personal safety. It's a great ride with lots of surprising twists and turns, a novel that will appeal to a large number of crime fiction fans and that will also further establish the reputation of this series as the best police procedural series of the modern era....more
In this book, published in 2001, Michael Connelly brings together three of the characters he had previously used as lead protagonists: former FBI agenIn this book, published in 2001, Michael Connelly brings together three of the characters he had previously used as lead protagonists: former FBI agent, Terry McCaleb from Blood Work, journalist Jack McEvoy from The Poet, and L.A. Homicide Detective Harry Bosch, whom Connelly had featured in several novels up to that point. McEvoy plays a relatively minor role here, while Bosch and McCaleb are center stage.
As the book opens, Bosch is assisting the prosecution in a high-profile Hollywood murder trial. A movie director is charged with murdering a young actress and then attempting to make the killing look like an accidental death. Bosch was the lead detective on the case and made the arrest.
As the case unfolds in court, L. A. County Sheriff's detective Jaye Winston seeks out Terry McCaleb, looking for help on a case that has dead-ended. McCaleb, who was forced to retire after having a heart transplant, is now living quietly, running a charter fishing boat, and carving out a life with his new wife, their daughter, and his adopted son. But he hasn't lost the drive and the curiosity that once made him a leading FBI profiler.
Winston's case involves a scumbag named Edward Gunn who was once arrested by Harry Bosch for the murder of a prostitute. Gunn managed to beat the charge and has now been found murdered in a ritualistic fashion. Winston's case is going nowhere and she fears that this may be a serial killer who will be targeting victims after Gunn. She appeals to McCaleb who had worked with her previously, to look at the evidence and offer an opinion.
Well, in for a penny....
The reader understands immediately, even if Winston doesn't, that once this case gets its hooks into McCaleb, it's not going to let go. Civilian or not, and whether anyone wants him to or not, McCaleb will wind up in the middle of it. And the deeper McCaleb digs into the case, the more the evidence leads him in the direction of a startling suspect.
Meanwhile, the trial in which Bosch is involved is having its ups and downs. Just when it appears that the prosecution team has pretty much nailed the case against the cocky director, things seems to take a bad turn. And as the case seems to be hanging by a thread, McCaleb's investigation intrudes into it, with potentially dire consequences for everyone involved.
This is another very good novel from Michael Connelly. Caleb and Bosch make a very interesting pairing and the plot takes one surprising twist after another. One might argue that the ending is a little forced, but that's a small complaint, and this is another story from Connelly that kept me turning the pages well into the night. An easy four stars.
The ninth Harry Bosch novel is unique in a couple of ways. To begin with, Harry is no longer a cop. He has abruptly resigned from the LAPD and is now The ninth Harry Bosch novel is unique in a couple of ways. To begin with, Harry is no longer a cop. He has abruptly resigned from the LAPD and is now a private citizen again. Secondly, while virtually all of the other novels in the series are told from the third-person point-of-view, this story is narrated in the first person by Harry himself.
Harry has been off the job for several months by the time the book opens. He has gone through the motions of getting a license as a P.I., but he's not actively pursuing it as a career. Mostly, he's just sleeping late and wondering what to do with himself. He finally decides to get busy by digging into an old, unsolved case that has haunted him for years.
While still a homicide detective, Bosch had been called to the scene of the murder of a young woman named Angella Benton. Benton had been violated before being killed, and in death, she was found lying on the floor with her hands outstretched, as if in prayer. Bosh discovered that the victim was a production assistant for a movie studio, and only a few days after Benton's murder, a brazen gang stole $2 million from a movie set belonging to the studio where Benton worked. The police brass quickly jumped to the conclusion that the young woman's murder was linked to the robbery. Thus the homicide investigation was taken away from Bosch, rolled into the investigation of the robbery, and assigned to other detectives. But neither case was ever solved.
Bosch has never forgotten the image of Benton's body lying on the floor and thus decides to investigate the case on his own in the hope of providing some justice, however belated, for the young victim. He's at an obvious disadvantage, though. Without a badge and the power of the city behind him, the investigation will be much more difficult, if not impossible. But then the task becomes infinitely harder when the Powers That Be in the police department discover that Bosch is nosing around the case and order him to stand down for reasons they will not explain.
Those who've read this series know that Bosch was never very fond of authority while employed by the LAPD and that he often disregarded orders and went his own way in search of the truth. In this case, of course, Harry will will persist in his investigation and soon finds himself in very serious trouble and in very grave danger.
This is a very good entry in the series, and it's especially fun to watch Harry work from outside of the system rather than from within. The book, which was published in 2003, also raises some very troubling questions about civil liberties in the post 9/11 era, and is critically important in other ways to the development of the main character. Lost Light should appeal to anyone who enjoys crime fiction, and no fan of the Harry Bosch series will want to miss it....more
Four years ago, L. A. homicide detective, Harry Bosch, was part of a task force hunting a sadistic serial killer known as the Dollmaker. The killer prFour years ago, L. A. homicide detective, Harry Bosch, was part of a task force hunting a sadistic serial killer known as the Dollmaker. The killer preyed on vulnerable women and was blamed for taking the lives of eleven victims. Late one night, after the rest of the team had gone home, Bosch took a frantic call from a prostitute who said that she had just escaped from the Dollmaker. Harry assumed this was probably just another false lead and decided to meet the woman on his way home, without notifying anyone else.
Upon meeting the victim, though, Bosch concluded that she was credible, especially when she led him back to the small apartment where she said the killer had held her. Through the window, Bosch could see a man moving about in the apartment. He thought about calling for backup, but realized that the Dollmaker might have already lured another victim into the apartment and that he might kill her before reinforcements could arrive. Accordingly, Bosch kicked in the door and found a naked man standing across the floor. Bosch ordered him to freeze, but instead the man reached under a pillow, as if going for a weapon. Bosch fired once, killing the man instantly. Then, lifting up the pillow, he saw that the man had been reaching for a toupee.
Once Harry called it in, reinforcements arrived and found solid evidence linking the victim to nine of the eleven killings. The case was declared closed, and in spite of his role in bringing the case to a successful conclusion, Bosch was demoted from the elite Robbery-Homicide Division for failing to call for backup before entering the apartment.
Now, four years later, the family of the man Bosch killed is suing him and the department, claiming that Bosch acted recklessly and without cause in shooting the man he believed to be the killer. The trial has barely begun, however, when a new victim is discovered--a blonde who had been killed and encased in concrete. The killing bears all the signature touches of the Dollmaker, but this victim has only been dead for two years. Is it possible after all, that Bosch shot an innocent man?
Bosh insists that he did not, and that the new killer must be a copycat. The book thus proceeds along two tracks as Harry stands trial for his actions four years earlier while at the same time hunting a sadistic killer who may or may not have been the real Dollmaker all along. It's a riveting story on both fronts. The courtroom scenes are very well done and will appeal to readers who enjoy legal thrillers. Harry's adversary in court, a female attorney nicknamed "Money" Chandler is a great character in her own right. The hunt for the killer is also edge-of-your-seat stuff, and through it all, Harry is forced to examine the deep, inner darkness of his own soul. All in all, a very solid early entry in a great series....more
Three years ago, Harry Bosch abruptly walked away from his job as an L. A. Homicide detective, largely because he couldn't take the politics and the cThree years ago, Harry Bosch abruptly walked away from his job as an L. A. Homicide detective, largely because he couldn't take the politics and the cynicism of the department any longer. He tried being a P.I., but without his gun and his badge, he felt "out of balance." And so now he's back, taking advantage of an opportunity allowed by a new department program that would allow ex-cops like himself to return. He's reunited with his old partner, Kiz Rider, and is assigned to the Open/Unsolved Unit. They are to be "The Closers," resolving cold cases that, for one reason or another, haven't ever been cleared.
On his first day back, Harry and Kiz are handed the case of a sixteen-year-old girl who was taken from her house seventeen years ago and shot to death. The initial investigation went nowhere, but DNA evidence from the murder weapon has now been linked to an ex-con named Roland Mackey. Mackey is now a tow-truck driver and has long had associates in white supremacy groups. The victim, Becky Verloren, was the daughter of a white mother and a black father. Is it possible that her race was the reason for her murder?
As often happens, Becky's death had catastrophic effects for her parents. Her father, a restaurateur, left home soon after her murder and disappeared into the city's homeless population. Her mother has remained in the house from which Becky was taken and has preserved the girl's room as a shrine, leaving it exactly as it was on the night her daughter disappeared. Harry is determined to give them the justice that has eluded them for so long.
The DNA evidence gives Harry and Kiz a good head start on finally solving the murder. But Harry knows that the DNA alone will never be enough to convict Mackey of the crime, and as the two detectives dig deeper into the case, it's apparent that the original investigation may have been compromised by some of the same forces that earlier drove Harry to retire.
This is a very good book with an interesting plot and a very heavy dose of police procedure. It's good to have Harry back in harness; he just wasn't the same character apart from his mission as a homicide detective. Harry, being Harry, will still make waves and ruffle a lot of feathers, but that's what readers have come to expect and this book should appeal to any fan of the series....more
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