15 May 2021 (18:30)
Back in the saddle at the LAPD, after a short-lived retirement, Harry Bosch reboots some ground rules with his erstwhile partner, Kizmin Rider and tries to avoid the impression that he’s a dinosaur. But, though some faces have changed in the Robbery Homicide Division, Deputy Chief Irvin Irving’s presence lingers like a bad smell and he’s lying in wait for Bosch, confident that the errant detective will make a mistake. By contrast, the ‘Open-Unsolved Unit’ is where the new Chief of Police is hoping Bosch will make his mark and help address the rhetoric around his department’s ‘greatest shame’. “A city that forgets its murder victims is a city lost…”
The murder of teenager Becky Verloren in 1988 is the first investigation allocated to Bosch and Rider in their new assignment and with the scientific advances made in the interim, on the face of it, the forensic possibilities of DNA might just make the case a slam dunk formality. Only Bosch and Rider also need to overcome errors in the original investigation and the apparent loss of key evidence from a secure police archive. Notwithstanding the ‘newbies’ have been allotted the period with the most unsolved cases, Bosch is content and almost reverential in the realisation that he is back, in his most natural environment, immersed once again in what amounts to a ‘blue religion’.
The original detectives in the Verloren case had surmised the hallmarks of a murder disguised as suicide, but the challenge for the current investigators is to revisit the evidence and generate more, despite the passage of years. Yet, while the machinations of the investigation are compelling, what makes the series of books stand out, for me, are the story arcs that link key characters and other books in the series. For example, Kizmin Rider has helped facilitate Bosch’s return to duty, but whilst an admirer of his skills as a detective, she has also taken a risk with her own career and is nervous about her partner’s capacity to attract trouble. There is also an awkward reunion with Jerry Edgar, Bosch’s former partner and a passing reference to Cassie Black (key character in “Void Moon”, published in 2000). In that sense, the reader is invited to consider this next piece in a far grander puzzle, created by Michael Connelly. Each piece/book can stand alone, but it also fits neatly into a larger examination of Bosch and his contemporaries across an impressive sweep of time.
Intriguingly the author adds familiar and obscure markers to the passage of years, through his reference to real-time events and developments. In this case, not only the emergence of DNA as a forensic tool, but also the changed regulation of wire taps. Thus, Connelly’s attention to detail has contributed to another graphic snapshot of his hero that can also be appreciated in the evolving ‘scrapbook’ that is emerging within the Bosch series. Albeit this is the eleventh book in the sequence, there is also no sign that the series is losing any of its pace or momentum. “The Closers” is another in the quite prolific output of an author ‘in the groove’, another page-turner that impels the reader inexorably on to the next book (“Echo Park”). Michael Connelly continues to consistently deliver a refreshing brand of crime novel that may well push Harry Bosch into the pantheon of iconic detectives, with the likes of Holmes, Poirot and Morse.
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