The Drop

Starred review from September 26, 2011
In Edgar-winner Connelly’s compulsively readable and deeply satisfying 17th Harry Bosch novel (after 2010’s The Reversal), Harry, still a member of the LAPD’s “Open-Unsolved Unit,” pursues two investigations. A recently unearthed DNA hit connects the 1989 murder of a young woman with Clayton Pell, a convicted sexual predator. But Pell couldn’t have committed the crime because he was eight years old at the time. Meanwhile, Irv Irving, a city councilman and LAPD nemesis, wants Harry to look into the apparent suicide of his 46-year-old son, George, a well-connected lobbyist. The case smacks of politics (“high jingo,” Harry calls it), but he and partner David Chu do a by-the-book investigation to determine whether George fell from the seventh floor of the Chateau Marmont or was pushed. All of Connelly’s considerable strengths are on display: the keen eye for detail and police procedure, lots of local L.A. color, clever plotting, and—most important—the vibrant presence of Harry Bosch.

October 15, 2011
Harry Bosch, the LAPD detective who insists, "I don't want to be famous. I just want to work cases," gets his wish times two. Assigned to the Open-Unsolved Squad, Bosch catches a cold case with an impossible twist. Now that the lab can analyze DNA evidence from the 1989 rape and murder of Ohio student Lily Price, it's linked conclusively to Clayton Pell, a known predator whose long history of sex crimes has already landed him in prison. Pell would be perfect as the killer if only he hadn't been eight when the victim was slain. Before Bosch can start looking beyond the physical evidence for an explanation, he's pulled out of past crimes and into the present by an old enemy. City Councilman Irvin Irving, the ex–deputy chief whom Bosch played a supporting role in bouncing from the LAPD years ago, demands that Bosch take charge of the investigation into his son George's fatal plunge from his seventh-story room at the Chateau Marmont. It looks like suicide, but the Councilman claims it's murder, and he doesn't want it swept under the rug, even if it takes the hated Bosch to ferret out the truth. Hamstrung between two utterly unrelated cases, Bosch tries to work them both, with predictably unhappy results: scheduling conflicts, treacherous leaks to the media, trouble with his bosses and even his old partner, Lt. Kizmin Rider. Even so, it's not long before he's worked out pretty convincing explanations for both crimes and can begin the slow, patient process of winding them up before a pair of nasty surprises gives both of them a bitter edge. Not by a long shot Bosch's finest hour, but a welcome return to form after the helter-skelter 9 Dragons (2009).

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Starred review from November 1, 2011
Harry Bosch, who's been given three years until he must retire, is yet again deep in high jingo, the LAPD's special version of power politics, in which a combination of cover-up, corruption, and the good of the department gets in the way of justice. This time, the jingo is tied to the apparent suicide of George Irving, son of Bosch's longtime nemesis, former cop Irvin Irving, now a city councilman. Why does Irving handpick his enemy, Bosch, to take the case? The ploys and counterploys run deep as Bosch works the suicide while simultaneously following up on a 1989 rape and murder. As that trail seems to be leading to a serial killer, Bosch finds he's setting himself up to face double jeopardy: break both cases, and invite departmental crossfire. Readers love to root for the antiestablishment, bureaucrat-hating Boschthere's some high jingo in every office, after allbut where Connelly really excels is at giving us both sides of the equation. Does Harry's complete unwillingness to bend cause more harm than it saves? Connelly makes us think about that, even though we'd much rather celebrate Harry's never-give-an-inch approach to life. Crime fiction with a dose of the ambiguity-sodden real world. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Connelly's Mickey Haller novels have consistently topped best-seller lists, but the author's longtime devotees love Harry Bosch above all. A new Bosch novel is always headline news, and Connelly's publisher will be spreading the world in print and online (don't forget to download the new Michael Connelly app!).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)