Copyright 2005 by Hieronymus Inc, published by Little, Brown and Company
I had already decided to give this book high marks before learning that it had reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list when it was first published in 2005. It has an intricate plot that kept me guessing until the very end and resolved in a very satisfactory – and very plausible – way. Too often a book I enjoy has ridiculous coincidences or loose ends that are left hanging. None of that here.
This is one of Connelly’s Harry Bosch mysteries. In this one he has returned to the LAPD after several years of retirement. He is assigned to the Open-Unsolved unit and, as his first assignment, is handed a 17-year-old murder of a teen girl. It is a classic “cold case.” So much so that at one point in the book he is approached by writers from the Cold Case TV series for an interview. The reason the case popped to the top of the cold case stack was a new DNA match of blood found on the murder weapon to a man previously unassociated with the case. It isn’t giving much away to tell you that the man whose blood is on the gun is not the killer (how boring would that be?) but his identity is a thread that, when unraveled, reveals the killer and the complex circumstances that surrounded the murder.
There are only two deaths in the book (not counting the old murder), so those looking for a huge body count will have to look elsewhere. But they are both surprising, unexpected deaths and are, in their own way, very satisfying.
A very fine book.
9 out of 10.