Eleanor Wish is one of my favorite recurring characters, so I was terribly happy to find her doing well, even if she's kept the birth of her daughter a secret from Bosch. Was it the danger of exposing Maddie to Bosch the reason for the secret? Or the danger of exposing herself to Bosch behind the choice? Either way, infusing Bosch's life with a child was a great choice for Connelly, as it forces the issue on Bosch's path to the light. And it sets Bosch up for some difficult decisions, not all he'll get right.

This is the first story for Bosch in his retirement work as a private dick. And he goes to an old, unsolved one from his early days in the LAPD - some of the best novels so far are ones that require Bosch to peer back into his past at mistakes and missed opportunities. But it also highlights his investigative acumen in resurrecting these cold cases. This one features the murder of a Hollywood production assistant, a armored car heist, and a harrowing shooting that leaves one detective dead and another permanently disabled.

Occasionally, Connelly forces us into Bosch's dark interior world with a first person narrative - it's not a place all the books could, or should, live. But the occasional visit gives us a better understanding of the demons that live there in his mind.

5 bones!!!!! ( )

Harry's first case as a PI with himself as the client (more or less). Bosch works to resolve an open case from his time as a detective, the murder of a young woman that has an obvious connection to a $2 million heist. How all the pieces fit together is the goal, but the FBI and the LA police keep getting in his way. A convoluted but good plot and a bit of a surprise ending that has nothing to do with the case. I enjoyed it. ( )

Print:2003; Audio: 10/25/2005; Feature Film: No, but it may have been incorporated into the tv series.
Series: Bosch 9

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Harry Bosch-Retired LAPD detective with Investigator’s license
Elenore Wish-Harry’s x-wife
Kizman Rider-Colleague who worked under Harry Bosch when he was employed in the LAPD and transferred to administration.

SUMMARY:
A former LAPD colleague asks Bosch if he is ever haunted by a case they’d both worked on. Administration had shifted the case from Bosch to the colleague and his partner who were intercepted by fate when a quiet lunch break turned into a lethal attack leaving his partner dead and him a paraplegic, leaving the case to fall by the wayside unsolved. Bosch admits the case, where the young female victim was found dead in a posture of supplication, is one that haunts him and agrees to pursue a resolution in his new status as a Private Investigator.

AUTHOR:
According to his webpage, Michael Connelly (7/21/56) “received the Maltese Falcon Award from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan for Lost Light, which was judged the best private eye novel published in Japan in the previous year. This is Michael Connelly’s second Falcon Award, his first being for The Black Ice.”

NARRATOR:
Len Cariou, who you may know as Henry Reagan, a retired New York Police Commissioner and the father of Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), the current NY Police Commissioner in the tv series, “Blue Bloods”, does a fine narration.

GENRE: Mystery, Crime, Police Procedural

LOCATIONS:
Los Angeles

FUN REFERENCES or FACTS:
This one is written in first person from Bosch’s perspective.

EVALUATION: Another page-turner. This one seemed slightly familiar so I suspect it was incorporated into the Bosch TV series. With Bosch retired, it gave us a good feel for the frustration Bosch felt, no longer having a badge to cut through the red tape.

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
"I think it's the little things I miss most about my former life. For more than twenty years I carried a small bound notebook in my coat pocket. Spiral notebooks weren't allowed--a smart defense lawyer could claim pages of exculpatory notes had been torn out. The bound notebooks took care of that problem and were easier on the jacket lining at the same time.
'I was glad to hear from you,' Taylor said. 'It has always bothered me about Angie. To this day. She was a good kid, you know? And all this time, I thought you guys had just given up on it, that she didn't matter.'
I nodded. I had been careful with my words when I spoke with the secretary on the phone. While I had not lied to her I had been guilty of leading her and letting her assume things. It was a necessity. If I had told her I was an ex-cop working freelance on an old case, then I was pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the box-office champ for the interview."

RATING:
Like all of the books in this series, I gave this book 4 stars because it was well written and kept my interest.

( )

Every now and then I seem to have the need to read a detective novel, and Michael Connelly often hits the spot. This book has its hero, retired detective Harry Bosch, as its narrator. This slightly hard-boiled character finds an old unsolved case has got under his skin, but in post 9/11 America, he finds himself in serious conflict with the FBI who warn him off in no uncertain terms. By the end, so many disparate threads had been introduced I had a job keeping up, and it seemd to have as many special effects as a James Bond movie. A good enough read, but a book I was happy enough to come to the end of. ( )

(2003)Very good police procedural about retired Harry Bosch trying to resolve an old murder case that involved a theft of $2 million from a movie set and involves 2 former cops who also kidnapped an FBI agent who had an angle on solving the theft.