The Burning Room

Starred review from September 8, 2014
An autopsy opens Edgar-winner Connelly’s superb 19th Harry Bosch mystery (after 2012’s The Black Box). Orlando Merced, a mariachi musician, was transformed into a symbol for urban violence by an opportunistic mayoral candidate when he was wounded a decade earlier, a random victim of a drive-by shooting. Merced’s death prompts a reexamination of the case, and Bosch and his young new partner, Lucia Soto, get to work. With his usual deftness, Connelly links the Merced shooting to an act of arson—an apartment fire that killed nine on the same day—and returns to his perennial themes: local politics, the media, the LAPD’s internecine warfare, and, of course, Los Angeles itself, from the wealthy enclaves of Mulholland Drive to the barrios of East L.A. Bosch is very much of the old school in this high-tech world, but his hands-on
tenacity serves him and the case well—just as Connelly serves his readers well with his encyclopedic knowledge and gifts as a storyteller. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary.

February 23, 2015
In this latest entry in Connelly’s long-running Harry Bosch series, the driven detective, with only a year left before retirement, is assigned a new partner—a rookie named Lucia Soto—whose dedication to the job convinces Harry to become her mentor. Together they take on the cold case of a man who died of a lodged bullet from a gunshot 10 years earlier. But over the course of the investigation Harry discovers a hidden agenda of Lucia’s. Reader Welliver, who stars as Harry in the upcoming TV series, presents the third-person narration in a strong, no-nonsense manner, while catching every obsessive, blunt, impatient, hard-charging, department politics-hating, justice-demanding aspect of Harry’s dialogue and attitude. He distinguishes among side characters through their moods rather than creating unique voices or accents for each. There are disgruntled beat cops, angry captains, aggressive criminals—a cool female coroner here, a sly politician there. For the novel’s other main character, Lucia Soto, Welliver lightens his tone only slightly, adding an affected eagerness that, on occasion, can harden into an iron determination to get the job done. Just the type of partner Bosch can appreciate. A Little, Brown hardcover.

As the new voice of Harry Bosch in this nineteenth volume of the series, Titus Welliver brings some formidable skills to the narration. His deep, resonant voice fits the atmosphere and the vocalization of Bosch, and his pacing makes the story accessible even for new listeners. A slightly raised pitch makes the female voices pleasant and believable, as do the subtle Mexican accents he gives several characters. Bosch and rookie detective Lucia Soto, who work in the Open Unsolved Unit, investigate what was believed to be a random shooting 10 years earlier while also taking on a case from Soto's childhood. This police procedural, as delivered by Welliver, will pull listeners deeply into the two cases. M.L.R. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine