Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Harry Bosch has jumped from being an LAPD cop to an ex-LAPD cop multiple times throughout the long run of this acclaimed series, but now it appears he's hung up his shield for good, given his latest acrimonious exit and the suit he's brought against the department. Harry's still working, though, both as a volunteer at a suburban cop shop and as a PI, but he's very picky about his cases, which is why when a billionaire of dubious reputation comes calling, Harry is leery. But the mogul, nearing death, has a compelling story to tell: a dalliance with a Latina student decades ago may have produced a child, who may or not still be alive but who may have produced a grandchild. Harry's job is to determine if there is an heir and then to report only to the mogul, not to any of his greedy underlings. The first part goes relatively easily yes, there is an heir but the reporting part, not so much, as the mogul is murdered before Harry has a chance to talk to him. Juggling his investigation with the responsibilities of his volunteer gig, now focused on trying to catch a serial rapist, Harry finds himself caught between the sometimes contradictory demands of finding bad guys and helping victims. Unlike so many authors of long-running series, Connelly continues to discover new depths to his character and new stories to tell that reveal those depths in always compelling ways. Hats off one more time to a landmark crime series. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Harry Bosch is almost as big a success on TV as he is in print, and the resulting shock wave of promotional opportunities continues to reverberate.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Connolly's canny detective, Harry Bosch, remains a compelling lead, but even longtime fans may feel that his creator gives him a few too many fortuitous breaks in his 21st outing (after 2015's The Crossing). Bosch's long career with the LAPD is a thing of the past, and he now divides his time between PI work and pro bono service as a reserve police officer for the city of San Fernando. He gets involved in an apparently impossible case for an extremely wealthy client, Whitney Vance, who pays Bosch $10,000 just to agree to a meeting. The 85-year-old Vance asks Bosch to find out, in complete secrecy, what became of the woman Vance impregnated 65 years earlier and who disappeared from his life almost immediately afterward. The billionaire, who believes he is nearing his end, hopes the investigator can ascertain whether he has a living heir. Though the trail is beyond cold, Bosch lucks into a solid lead. The multiple contrivances significantly diminish the plot. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch is running a private investigations business and working as a volunteer detective for the tiny San Fernando Police Department (SFPD) when he is summoned to the home of billionaire Whitney Vance. Nearing the end of his life, the octogenarian tells a story of young love, an unexpected pregnancy, and a relationship cut short by Vance's father. The old man has decided that rather than leave his fortune to his company's Board of Directors, he'd rather find out if he has an heir-and that's where Bosch fits into the picture. With only a name, he sets out to determine what happened to Vance's lover and her baby. At the same time, Bosch is busy with his SFPD partner Bella Lourdes, trying to track down a serial rapist who cuts screen doors to access his victims' homes. And Harry's half-brother, attorney Mickey Haller, makes a brief crossover appearance. Verdict This solid read will please both Connelly's longtime fans and readers seeking police detective stories. [See Prepub Alert, 5/16/16.]-Vicki Briner, Broomfield, CO © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Harry Bosch, balancing a new pair of gigs in greater LA, tackles two cases, one of them official, one he struggles to keep as private as can be.Now that hes settled the lawsuit he brought against the LAPD for having forced him into retirement, Harry (The Crossing, 2015, etc.) is working as an unsalaried, part-time reservist for the San Fernando Police Department while keeping his license as a private investigator. Just as the San Fernando force is decimated by the layoffs that made Harry such an attractive hire, its confronted with a serious menace: the Screen Cutter, a serial rapist with a bizarre penchant for assaulting women during the most fertile days of their menstrual cycles. Ordinarily Harry would jump at the chance to join officers Bella Lourdes and Danny Sisto in tracking down the Screen Cutter, and he does offer one or two promising suggestions. But hes much more intent on the private job hes taken for 85-year-old engineering czar Whitney Vance, who wants him to find Vibiana Duarte, the Mexican girl he impregnated when he was a USC student, and her child, whod be well past middle age by nowand also wants him to keep his inquiries absolutely secret. Harrys admirably dogged sleuthing soon reveals what became of Vibiana and her child, but his discovery is less interesting and challenging than his attempts to report back to his client, who doesnt answer his private phone even as everyone around Harry is demanding information about the case he doesnt feel he can share. Grade-A Connelly. The dark forces arrayed against the hero turn out to be disappointingly toothless, but everything else clicks in this latest chapter of a compulsively good cops odyssey through the City of Angels and its outlying neighborhoods and less angelic spirits. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
