Reviews

Closer to a 3.25 than 3. Plodding writing at times. I listened to the audio book, and the narrator is the worst. Maybe one who can pronounce regular words and has a better tone. And, of course, a cop can not be tried and found guilty, even if he is because this society sees certain people of deserving any treatment they get no matter what the circumstances. Of course, the white man, no matter how open-minded he thinks he is, can see or understand why a people group not like him can still be angry about how the social- political- legal system can be unjust.

fosterwalrus's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

topdragon's review against another edition

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4.0

When I'm in the mood for a contemporary police procedural it's hard to beat a Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly. I'm reading these in order, and trying to splice in the other Connelly characters as they come into play as well. With this 6th book in the series, Connelly continues the high quality realism of police investigations that I've come to expect. Additionally, I wanted to read another Bosch book before the upcoming season of the excellent "Bosch" TV show hits Netflix later this month.

lesserjoke's review against another edition

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4.0

This 1999 novel is interestingly (and depressingly) timely two decades on, as it plays out against a backdrop of police brutality and an ensuing race riot. Author Michael Connelly may have been drawing on the recent high-profile Rodney King and OJ Simpson cases, but his lurid tale of a murdered attorney who had been suing the city on behalf of a black man tortured by cops interrogating him about a missing white girl almost feels like it could have pulled from today's headlines instead. The characters voice a lot of arguments that sound familiar as well, and it's to the writer's credit that protagonist detective Harry Bosch is both more enlightened than his average peers and willing to listen to the African American colleagues who challenge his biased perspective further. That's a step up from his attitude in the last book, and while the series may be 'copaganda' overall, at least in volumes like this it's not afraid to call out the problems in law enforcement that systemically enable and protect abusers.

The procedural element is fairly straightforward, but that conventional plot still throws a decent number of red herrings at us to disguise the ultimate solution to the lawyer's death. The main flavor of the text, though, is in the fraught atmosphere of a people fed up with racist misconduct and poised on the verge of boiling over as the department investigates and potentially exonerates its own officers. And that's why this works so well as a Bosch story, with the investigator continuing to come into focus as a man determined to find justice for every victim who crosses his path, no matter the political fallout. It won't win him career advancement from the higher-ups looking to sweep everything under the rug, but he's the ideal agent to uncover the truth of a crime at any cost.

[Content warning for child sex abuse, gun violence, homophobia, and racism including slurs.]

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