»“Still the same old Bosch. Your way or the highway.”«

In this instalment, Bosch is back from his involuntary leave and investigates a case of the eponymous “trunk music” - a murdered man in the trunk of his own car. Bosch himself is pretty much as he always was but around him, things changed: His lieutenant, Pounds, is on another kind of involuntary and permanent “leave” and was replaced by Grace Billets.

Bosch: »I’d heard that you didn’t have any actual time on a homicide table while you were coming up,” he said to her.
Billets: “That’s true. My only job as an actual detective was working sexual crimes in Valley Bureau.”
Bosch: “Well, for what it’s worth, I would have assigned things just the way you just did.”
Billets: “But did it annoy you that I did it instead of you?”
Bosch thought a moment.
Bosch: “I’ll get over it.”«

I liked this exchange - which is indicative of their entire relationship in this book - because, yes, he’s still “same old Bosch”: Direct, confrontational, but honest, and willing to move beyond his prejudice.

Billets recognises the old-fashioned cop and is equally direct, sparing him no challenges. She also stands up for him repeatedly. I very quickly took to Billets and greatly enjoyed her character.

»“It’s Bosch.”
“Well, the Michelangelo of murder, the Rodin of homicide.”«

Alas, not everything is as good as usual: There’s a major twist after more than two thirds of the novel that the reader long sees coming. I was impatient with Bosch and colleagues to realise it and that somewhat marred my enjoyment.

Nevertheless, the writing is still very good and there are some very suspenseful parts of the narration. I also enjoyed the reappearance of Eleanor Wish and “that one stop” in Vegas…

3.5 stars out of five, rounded up to 4 stars.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam ( )

Audiobook ( )

[[Michael Connelly]] is back to his best with this Harry Bosch story. Bosch catches a murder with a guy shot, execution style, and left in the trunk of his own car. The victim is involved in money laundering for some seedy Las Vegas fellas - so, mob hit, right. Nope, and it takes him some work to get back to the truth on this one. Eleanor Wish is back, from the first book; she and Bosch dance a bit before getting back to where they were when Bosch sent her up. The last installment was good, with Bosch in mandated therapy, but this one is great.

Highly Recommended!!!!!
5 bones!!!!! ( )

Book on CD read by Dick Hill

Book number 5 in the Harry Bosch series finds the detective back on the job after a previous suspension. He’s also back on homicide and he’s called to the scene of a potential mob hit. The car has been in the woods for a few days and the corpse in the trunk is pretty ripe. Harry and his new partners, Kiz Rider and Jerry Edgar, soon find themselves traveling to Las Vegas to track down leads in the case.

This is a typical Harry Bosch detective mystery. Lots of twists and turns. Lots of Harry battling against the police force bureaucrats that are the bane of his existence. It’s fast-paced and kept me guessing until pretty close to the end. I’m not sure I’m satisfied with the ending, though.

Dick Hill does a great job of narrating. I’ve listened to him voice Harry several times now. However, after the audio arrived from the library I realized it was the abridged version, so I chose to read the book rather than listen. There is an unabridged version that is also narrated by Hill. ( )

Ok I get it, this book series is great, at least it is based on this book. I had never read a Bosch book but saw them all the other night in the bookstore and went with one with an interesting title. Take a realistic cop who is never perfect, and a storyline that even though I figured out at least a quarter of the way in, is very well executed, and you have a great book. ( )