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In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved. Now Bosch's ballistics match indicates that her death was not random violence, but something more personal, and connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the 'black box,' the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together.… (more)
Another series I started at the end :) First time I heard about Hyeronimus "Harry" Bosch was when friend of mine said there is a great TV show that I should check out. Needless to say I am still to begin with watching it but what I noticed right away was that this TV show was based on a very successful series of novels.
So I picked up first one I could find, "The Black Box".
This is very slow burning novel. After getting involved in a rush investigation of a murder of news reporter during the LA riots in 1992 Bosch finally gets the chance to solve the case 20 years later when assigned to the cold-case squad.
As I said story is a slow at the beginning but again this is what I would expect from investigation of the old case. Scant evidence collected during the street riots, witnesses no longer alive .... all of this frustrates our protagonist who also needs to fight the internal police bureaucracy intent to send him to retirement as soon as possible. I have to say final twist was a surprise but again causes for so many atrocities are usually very simple and base.
Bosch comes to me like a mix between Lucas Davenport and Jack Reacher. He has that sense of justice and is merciless to killers and criminals (scene where he insists his partner writes down the letter for parole hearings of hard criminals paints a picture of a man who does not trust that sentenced criminals can change or repent in any way). Unlike Davenport though he is not setting the criminals up explicitly but sure managers to manipulate them into position from which they can only surrender or die in a gunfight.
All in all good novel. According to the comments and reviews this one seems to be one of the slower books in the series so this makes me feel very good :) more interesting books to read in the future.
Recommended to fans of the crime and police novels. ( )
Very slow to start; but once the plot gets exposed and we get into the gritty details, a great book. Love the back and forth between Bosch and his idiot boss, Lt O'Toole, called "The Tool" by the squad. ( )
To all the readers who have kept Harry Bosch alive for twenty years, Many, many thanks.
And to the men who parted the crowd and led me through that day in 1992 Many thanks as well.
First words
SNOW WHITE 1992
By the third night the death toll was rising so high and so quickly that many of the divisional homicide teams were pulled off the front lines of riot control and put into emergency rotations at South Central.
In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved. Now Bosch's ballistics match indicates that her death was not random violence, but something more personal, and connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the 'black box,' the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together.
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Book description
AUDIO EDITION: May 1992, and after four LAPD officers were acquitted after the savage beating of Rodney King, Los Angeles is ablaze. As looting and burning take over the city, law and order are swept away in a tidal wave of violence. But under the threat of their lives, homicide detectives like Harry Bosch are still stubbornly trying to do their job. With no effective policing on the streets, murder just got a whole lot easier - and investigating them got a whole lot harder.
When he finds the body of a female journalist executed in an alley, he cannot accept that he will never be able to bring her killer to justice and her tragedy starts to eat into his soul. But then 20 years later, the past comes back to haunt him...
So I picked up first one I could find, "The Black Box".
This is very slow burning novel. After getting involved in a rush investigation of a murder of news reporter during the LA riots in 1992 Bosch finally gets the chance to solve the case 20 years later when assigned to the cold-case squad.
As I said story is a slow at the beginning but again this is what I would expect from investigation of the old case. Scant evidence collected during the street riots, witnesses no longer alive .... all of this frustrates our protagonist who also needs to fight the internal police bureaucracy intent to send him to retirement as soon as possible. I have to say final twist was a surprise but again causes for so many atrocities are usually very simple and base.
Bosch comes to me like a mix between Lucas Davenport and Jack Reacher. He has that sense of justice and is merciless to killers and criminals (scene where he insists his partner writes down the letter for parole hearings of hard criminals paints a picture of a man who does not trust that sentenced criminals can change or repent in any way). Unlike Davenport though he is not setting the criminals up explicitly but sure managers to manipulate them into position from which they can only surrender or die in a gunfight.
All in all good novel. According to the comments and reviews this one seems to be one of the slower books in the series so this makes me feel very good :) more interesting books to read in the future.
Recommended to fans of the crime and police novels. ( )