“He knew that occurrences of twenty years ago or
longer were now coming together at an undeniable speed. The hand of the past
was reaching up through the ground, and there was no telling who or what it
would grab and pull down when it finally broke through the surface of the
earth.” (Page 434--Large Print Version)
As Los Angeles burned in 1992 Detective Hieronymus “Harry”
Bosch and Detective Jerry Edgar, along with two police officers as protection,
were sent from one location to another as the bodies dropped. With the city in chaos and the National Guard
as backup, little could be done at each body besides the briefest of investigation
and detailing the scene. It was a war
zone in south central and latest casualty is a woman in an alley.
By the time Bosch and Edgar get to the dead woman it
is clear that she died a number of hours to a full day ago. It is also clear
she was shot through the head and died right there so the debris filled alley
is the crime scene. It is also a crime scene that they will have only minutes
to work before moving on to the next one.
It will be twenty long years before the case of
Anneke Jespersen, foreign correspondent, makes it to Bosch’s desk in the Open-Unsolved
Unit. That happened because the Police
Chief, always thinking of the media and politics, ordered a new look at all the
open cases from 1992. Labeled as the “Snow White” case, Bosch wanted it back because
he didn’t have a chance to do right by her the first time. He isn’t going to
let it go wrong again despite the efforts of others within and outside the Los
Angeles Police Department.
Michael Connelly’s twenty-fifth book and the latest one
in the Harry Bosch series is another good one. A series that began with The
Black Echo continues here in a novel that again features Bosch’s quest
for justice running head on into politics and agendas of others. Harry doesn’t
see race as he sees victims and their families. Families that need answers
regardless of the politics involved.
Politics, race, moneyed interests, and more Michael
Connelly staples are all here in The Black Box. So too is Harry Bosch, the dad and the
detective, trying to do the best he can at work and at home. The result is a
complex and very human mystery that works on all levels to provide yet another
satisfying read in this series.
The
Black Box
Michael
Connelly
Little,
Brown and Company (Hatchette Book Group)
November
2012
ISBN#
978-0-316-06942-7
Large
Print Hardback (also available as e-book, audio, regular type hardback)
550
Pages
$29.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano,
Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
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2 comments:
Kevin,
Thanks for the well-written review of Michael Connelly's latest novel. My husband and I both enjoy reading his novels.
Thank you! I do too.
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