In brief: Stripped of his badge and kicking his heels on indefinite ‘stress leave’, maverick LAPD detective Harry Bosch finds himself restless and bereft. Between trying to salvage the wreckage of his earthquake-ravaged home and the counselling sessions ordered by his superiors, Bosch is determined to face down the demon that has haunted him since he was an eleven-year-old boy: the unsolved brutal murder of his mother.

In detail: In the fourth in Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series the professional becomes intensely personal for Detective Hieronymus Bosch, just as it did in The Black Echo when he found himself investigating an old Vietnam buddy’s murder. Faced with an enforced period of leave after assaulting his boss, his home condemned thanks to earthquake damage, and abandoned by his girlfriend, Bosch finds himself confronting the event that has determined the course of his life since he was a boy: the unsolved murder of his mother. This tightly plotted novel explores the troubled Bosch’s psyche as he relentlessly strips away the many layers of subterfuge surrounding his mother’s murder, from political intrigue to police corruption, until he lays bare the shocking truth, wrestling with the consequences for his own life.

As part of his punishment for assaulting Lieutenant Pounds, Bosch must visit a psychiatrist. At first resistant to her probing, Bosch begins to understand that if he is to find any sort of resolution in his life he must solve the murder of his mother, which had left him orphaned over 30 years ago. Stripped of his LAPD badge, he embarks on an illicit investigation that finds him skating on the thinnest of ice and facing his own culpability in a string of murders. His mother Marjorie had been a prostitute. She and her best friend Meredith had worked for Johnny Fox, an opportunist with his eye firmly fixed on the main chance, who had introduced both women to Conklin, an up-and-coming, somewhat naïve attorney helped in his bid for political power by the unscrupulous Mittel. When Bosch begins to penetrate the murky duplicity surrounding his mother’s case he discovers police corruption, political intrigue and a loyalty stretched shockingly thin by jealousy. Ultimately, once he has solved this most troubling of crimes, Bosch must decide what is most important to him: his quest for vengeance in his work or the hope of a new life.

About the author

Michael Connelly was born in Pennsylvania in 1957 and moved with his family to Florida when he was twelve years old. On discovering the work of Raymond Chandler while studying at Florida University, Connelly decided on a career as a writer. He majored in journalism while also taking courses in creative writing, and graduated in 1980. After working as reporter in Florida specialising in crime reporting, Connelly became a police reporter for the Los Angeles Times. After three years he started work on his first novel, The Black Echo, which saw the debut of Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The Black Echo was published in 1992 and was voted Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Michael Connelly now lives in Tampa, Florida with his wife and daughter.

For discussion

• Harry Bosch’s rule – ‘Everybody counts or nobody counts’ – appears frequently at the beginning of the novel. What does he mean by it? Why is it so important to him?
• Bosch describes Pounds as ‘a bureaucrat with a badge.’ (page 183). What kind of cop is Bosch? How does he compare to his colleagues? What is his attitude to his work? Why has he chosen to be a cop?
• ‘It’s perhaps the most obvious symptom of a self-destructive nature,’ says Carmen of Bosch’s smoking (page 4). Would you describe Bosch as self-destructive? What other character traits does he have? How had his mother’s murder affected his life, his work and his character? What other events have contributed to his character?
• How important are his sessions with Carmen to Bosch? Does he take them seriously? What do we learn about him from those sessions?
• There are few female characters in the novel. How does Bosch relate to women? How important is his relationship with Jasmine?
• At what point did you suspect the identity of Marjorie’s killer and what made you suspect them? Were others culpable in the events surrounding her murder and if so who and why?
• To what extent have things been resolved for Bosch by the end of the novel?
• What is the significance of the novel’s title?
• If you have read any of the preceding novels in the Harry Bosch series, how would you say his character has developed?
• How does Michael Connelly build suspense throughout the novel?
• Michael Connelly’s books are described as ‘hard-boiled crime’, a description associated with American crime writing. If you are a regular crime reader, how would you compare British and American crime novels? How does Connelly’s work compare with that of other American crime writers?
  

Suggested further reading

Fiction
Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Back Story by Robert B. Parker
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin

Non-fiction
My Dark Places by James Ellroy