This is the fifth in the series built around L.A. homicide detective Harry Bosch, in my humble opinion the best of his kind in contemporary crime fiction. This particular episode isn't the best in the series I would concede, but it's still a well-written story and Bosch is such a magnetic and appealing character that his trials and tribulations are always good value for reading money. The essence of the tale is that a man has been found dead in the boot (trunk) of his own car and the murder bears the hallmarks of a mob assassination, as the victim is a known money-launderer for the Mafia with strong connections to Las Vegas organised crime. Immediately, Harry Bosch is assigned to the case to find out who did it and why. There are some twists and surprises on the journey.
There are two good reasons to pick out Trunk Music as landmark reads in the series, and those reasons are both female. First, this is the story that introduces us to Kiz Rider, who will play such a key role in future novels, and then there is Eleanor Wish, who appeared in Connelly's debut novel THE BLACK ECHO as an FBI agent but whose circumstances are very different five years on. The relationship between Wish and Bosch in this novel is appealing and shows a slightly different side to Harry's personality, but we see rather less into the mind of the slightly enigmatic Eleanor. The conclusion of their love affair (within the context of the story) is a little unconvincing, and if anything seems improbable. But this is nit-picking on my part, as the relationship is really just the 'love interest' aspect to a tale that is otherwise focused entirely on the investigation and which develops into another confrontation between Bosch and the Internal Affairs Department. It does puzzle me that for all Bosch's past successes in solving crimes spreading back 15 years, the IAD is constantly on his tail with a determination to have him ousted from the force at every opportunity. It makes for great reading though, and adds to the sense of pressure and tension.
This is another Connelly-Bosch book without conventional chapters by the way; instead the tale is broken up into a total of ten 'parts', some of them 100 pages long or more, so if you like to read in quick bursts then in the case of this novel you may need to plan it in advance. And if you are thinking of reading all of the Bosch stories, then don't miss this one, indeed I would recommend that you start at the beginning and read every single one - once again I would claim that there's no better crime fiction series than this one. In my opinion!
