ECHO PARK by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown), 416 pages, $34 cloth. Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
It’s 1993, and lapd detective hier onymus (Harry) Bosch is on the trail of a young woman who’s gone missing. Her abandoned car is found in the parking lot of a riding stable, her clothes folded neatly on the passenger seat. Her killer is never found.
Skip to 2006, and Bosch is back with the open-unsolved unit after a brief retirement, still fighting many of the same demons as his artistic namesake.
When a confessed serial killer admits to murdering Marie Gesto and offers to lead police to the body, Bosch is skeptical but can’t resist the chance to close a case that’s been haunting him.
When evidence comes to light suggesting that Bosch and his old partner flubbed the case, he becomes more determined than ever to bring Marie’s killer to justice. Connecting with his ex-lover, FBI agent Rachel Walling, he agrees to the deal.
The fast-moving plot travels up and down the hills of the city, unearthing a mound of municipal corruption. As Bosch says, in L.A. the fix is always in. The outcome is bad, and Bosch soon realizes he’s been set up, and by someone close to him.
Connelly’s Harry Bosch series is a long-standing one, and I’m hooked. Bosch operates on Zen-like instinct “like a surfer waiting for the right swell before starting to paddle, he felt his wave was coming in.” He’s a true detective, one of the guys who takes it all in and cares. It makes him good at his job but also vulnerable.
There’s an intensity and rhythm here that carries through to the final page. Echo Park is a great police procedural and a worthy addition to a terrific series.
