Print:2005, ISBN 978-0-316-73494-3, Little Brown, 416 pages; Audio: 10/25/2005, Hachette Audio, 12 hours 13 min.; Feature Film: No, but it may have been incorporated into the tv series.
Series: Bosch 11

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Harry Bosch-Retired LAPD detective with Investigator’s license
Kizman Rider-Once Harry’s trainee, now an old friend turned new partner in solving unsolved cases.

SUMMARY:
Harry learned about a new program where anyone with fewer than three years retirement can return to the LAPD as a “new boot” in the line of seniority. The only way Kiz can convince him to do it is by agreeing to be his partner. They work together on an old case and dig up more than they bargained for in the process.

AUTHOR:
Michael Connelly (7/21/56). This is Michael’s 15th book and his 11th in the Bosch series.
According to his website, “Michael is the executive producer of Bosch, an Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver. Bosch streams on Amazon Prime Video. He is the creator and host of the podcast Murder Book. He is also the executive producer of the documentary films, Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story and Tales of the American. He spends his time in California and Florida.”

NARRATOR:
Len Cariou (9/30/1939). According to Wikipedia, Len was “Born in St. Boniface, today a city ward of Winnipeg, and later moving to East Kildonan, Manitoba, Cariou is the son of Molly Estelle (née Moore) and George Marius Cariou, a salesman. His father was Breton and his mother was of Irish descent. Cariou attended Miles Macdonell Collegiate for grades 10 and 11 where he directed and starred in the school plays, and he later attended St Paul's College.
He did a fine narration here.

GENRE: Crime Thriller, Police Procedural Mystery,

LOCATIONS: Los Angeles

EVALUATION:
I’m always looking for the romance angle, and there wasn’t much of that in this one, but I was glad that Harry came out of retirement and won some battles.
There was a great presentation by the author discussing Harry’s and his own reasons for this.

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
"I wanted to meet you and welcome you back to the department."
His voice was marked by an eastern accent. De-paht-ment. This was fine with Bosh. In L.A. everybody was from somewhere else. Or so it seemed. It was both the strength and the weakness of the city.
"It is good to be back," Bosch said.
"You understand that you are here at my pleasure."
It wasn't a question.
"Yes sir, I do."
"Obvioulsy, I checked you out extensively before approving your return. I had concerns about your . . .shall we say style, but ultimately your talent won the day. You can also thank your partner, Kizman Rider, for her lobbying effort. She's a good officer and I trust her. She trusts you."
"I have already thanked her but I will do it again."

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

52000

Ottima indagine di Bosch, tornato al servizio della LAPD dopo la soluzione del caso del "Poeta" come detective privato.
Trama ben congegnata e buona dose di colpi di scena fino all'ultima pagina, finale magari un po' banale ma comunque inaspettato.
Qualcuno però deve spiegarmi il significato del titolo del libro....io proprio non l'ho capito!
Un appunto alle note di copertina che spoilerano la trama...non leggetele! ( )

That late into a series (this is the 11th Bosch novel), you either like (or at least tolerate) the author's style and the main detective's oddities (and/or the supporting cast) or you had bailed out a long time ago. Technically this one may be a good place to start into the series (old grievances coming into the open notwithstanding) but as with most modern crime series, it works better as part of the series.

Bosch is back into LAPD, partnered again with Kiz but this time not in the Homicide team proper but in the Open/Unsolved Unit - the LAPD name for the Cold Cases. Early in the book, a character notes that the biggest obstacle to working on these is not time but the department itself - things had been lost (intentionally or not; permanently or not) through the years and solving puzzles with missing pieces is never fun (solving puzzles when someone mixed in pieces from other puzzles is even worse and that is often the case with these as well). As is often the case, that's not there just to fill the pages - it tells you where this story is heading early on - see my note above about the author's style.

His return to the force seems to start very well - there had been a positive DNA match in the murder of Rebecca Verloren 17 years ago, back in 1988. Except that nothing in this case sounds right to Bosch. Cold cases novels can be a bit slow - usually noone is in a particular hurry after all those years. The murder may be a cold case or open/unsolved if you will) but the new investigation opens a lot of old secrets and wounds - in ways that a lot of people would rather not see them open.

As usual, Los Angeles, the city and its history, are an important element of the novel - Bosch cannot exist elsewhere and in a different time. That adds some depth to the story but it also is probably one of the weaker novels in the series - some of the topics it covered sounded like a rehash of the same topics in earlier stories. One thing the novel works for is showing Bosch changing even more - he was the lone wolf who did not care about anyone at the start of the series and now almost feels like a team player (until he does not of course). His professional relationship with Kiz is a lot more strained than the last few times we saw them together - and it is not just because Bosch is being himself.

Overall not a bad entry in the series and I like where Bosch is going (and I much prefer him inside the police than outside of it as in the last few novels). ( )

The books in this series are amazing!
You start reading them and the next thing you know you are 100 pages in. All of them are solid well gold stories.
This time Harry is back after a 3 year leave
He works in open unsolved cases, this case is 17 years old and is about a 16 year teenager who was murdered.
Fantastic book. ( )