Series: Book 9 in the Harry Bosch series
Rating: ****
Tags: Bosch; Harry (Fictitious character), Los Angeles (Calif.), Police Procedural, Murder, Mystery & Detective, Ex-police officers, General, Harry (Fictitious character), Fiction, Bosch, Lang:en
Summary
Award-winning former crime reporter Connelly (The Black
Echo; City of Bones) hits all the right notes with this
latest in his Edgar-winning mystery series featuring L.A.
detective Harry Bosch. Even though this marks the ninth
outing for Harry, the principled, incorruptible investigator
shows little sign of slowing in his unrelenting pursuit of
justice for all. Disillusioned by his constant battle with
police hypocrisy and bureaucracy, Harry quits the department
after 28 years on the job. Like so many ex-cops before him,
he finds retirement boring: "I was staying up late, staring
at the walls and drinking too much red wine." He decides to
take advantage of his newly minted private-eye license and
get back to work. The case he chooses-one that he had been
briefly involved in four years before-is the puzzling
unsolved murder of 24-year-old Angella Benton. Angella's
death is linked to the theft of $2 million from a film
company foolishly employing real cash as a prop on an
action-movie set. Harry patiently follows the bloody trail
from Angella's violated body through the Hollywood heist to
the disappearance of an FBI computer expert and the shooting
of two LAPD cops. His investigation eventually leads him to
the elite terrorist hunters of the new Department of Homeland
Security. Few will follow every twist and turn of the
labyrinthine plot, but no matter. The fun comes in watching
Harry slowly and brilliantly separate the seemingly
impossibly knotted strands and then knit them back into whole
cloth. This exciting procedural is as good as any in the
series, and Connelly's concluding coda has a kicker about
Harry's private life that will draw gasps of astonishment
from longtime readers.
Adult/High School-After more than 25 years with the L.A.
Police Department, recently retired Harry Bosch decides to
finish the murder investigation of Angella Benton, a case he
had been quickly pulled off more than four years earlier.
Gaining additional background information from a former
colleague, now a quadriplegic as a result of having been shot
during the investigation, Harry begins contacting any and all
of the people who could have facts pertaining to the crime.
He believes that the murder is tied to a film scene and $2
million in cash, and that the entire caper was ingeniously
set up well in advance. With dogged determination, he risks
his life more than once to prove his theory correct. Connelly
expertly weaves the many complex story parts together,
resulting in an action-packed ending. As in real life, all
aspects of the case must be researched thoroughly, and the
bulk of the novel involves the time-consuming,
labor-intensive effort that goes into finding answers.
Several subplots-including ones involving jazz, Harry's
ex-wife, and another murder-help to round out characters,
inject other interests, and relieve the intensity of solving
the murder. Young adults who read true crime and forensics,
or who are interested in police procedures, will surely pick
this one up.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.From School Library Journal
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division
of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.