Review by Booklist Review
The third appearance of L.A. police detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch finds the renegade cop's life in even more of a mess than usual. He's hiding out in his own earthquake-demolished, condemned home, and he's been suspended from the force for sticking his commander's face through a window. He's got time to kill, so he unearths the 30-year-old, unsolved murder of a Hollywood whore named Marjorie Lowe. Harry happens to be the victim's son, and in the midst of his midlife crisis, it becomes necessary for him to find out who killed her. The first step is to interview the surviving investigating officer, Jake McKittrick, who points Harry back into a past of corruption, greed, ambition, and blackmail. Today's self-help literature frequently asks readers to reassess their pasts, but too often what they find becomes an excuse. Harry examines his past, acknowledges the damage, and sets out to heal himself. It's heady territory for a cop novel, but Edgar winner Connelly handles it with style and grace. --Wes Lukowsky
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The latest installment of the Harry Bosch series has the LAPD homicide detective reopening the 30-year-old unsolved murder of his mother. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
After being put on involuntary stress leave for attacking his boss, LAPD detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch tackles the 30-plus-year-old murder case of a Hollywood prostitutehis mother. Bummed out by the failure of his latest romance as well, Harry faces a deeper, psychological crisis: his life's "mission" may end if he solves the case. Harry continues, nonetheless, soon discovering that the police and politically powerful others purposely glossed over his mother's murder. With prose that cuts to the quick, a masterfully interwoven plot, and gripping suspense, Connelly renders a fitting sequel to The Black Echo (LJ 1/92). (c) Copyright 2010. 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
Connelly dishes out another big, satisfying helping of LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch (The Concrete Blonde, 1994, etc.), returning for a fourth time in this dark, angry story of murder and obsession. Bosch--now placed on ``involuntary stress leave'' for attacking a superior--has a history of trouble: He served in Vietnam, has seen 20 years' worth of murder victims, had his house totaled by the last earthquake, and has recently been dumped by his girlfriend. But Bosch thinks he'd be fine if the system would just let him return to work. The LAPD shrink he's forced to see has other ideas, and she's keeping him off the streets until a few of those snakes twisting around in his head get defanged. Meanwhile, Bosch decides that his mission is to investigate the murder of his mother. But that murder happened 31 years ago, when he was 12 years old, and the trail is stone-cold. All he has to go on is the fact that the police file on it seems woefully incomplete--as if someone didn't want the case solved. Bosch meets with one of the murder's original investigators, who confirms his suspicions of a cover-up, and the trail eventually leads to a former LA district attorney and a political king-maker. Throughout, Bosch is haunted by the fact that his mother was a prostitute and that he grew up in institutions because she was judged unfit. The story's center is Connelly's deft characterization of a hostile, almost enraged man who struggles to find some measure of redemption in a world generally indifferent to his pain. Bosch is driven by guilt and self-loathing even while he tries to assert the importance of who he is and what he does. The ending is a surprise, if something of an emotional letdown, as Bosch becomes calmer and more predictable in the final chapters. Brooding, sullen, and on the edge. Bosch grabs you and shakes you--and it feels great. (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection)
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