The Closers (Harry Bosch) (Mass Market Paperback)

Harry came back to the Open-Unsolved Unit (aka "cold case" squad). This excited him. He had so many unsolved crimes in his career, and in his mind he could picture many of them. On his first day at the squad he was obtaining coffee for his partner when his old nemesis, Deputy Chief Irvin S. Irving, gave him a warning, "Watch your step, Harry, there are many watching you!" This threat didn't bother Harry, but the fact that Irving sought him out made Harry wonder what the real story was all about. Later that day, Harry and Rizen were given their first case. Rebecca Verloren, 16, was discovered missing from her Chatsworth home many years ago, and now, there was a new DNA clue to help them solve this mystery.

Along the way Harry relies upon his skills, sometimes a bit rusty, but his "gut" is so sure that he knows what clues to look at and what is real and what is sometimes false. He gets back to his research, and the people he knew before he quit the job. Often, a long ago name or profile will surface, and we wonder how long will it be before this person shows up. A next door neighbor from Las Vegas from one of his last cases bears a remarkable resemblance to one of the people seen in a newspaper article that has a close relationship to this new case. Michael Connelly often inserts small clues about previous stories into his novels, and I find this piece of detective work thrilling. I look forward to each novel to find the most unlikely clues inserted in the most unlikely places.

Harry Bosch has arrived in this novel. He feels at home. He knows his job, he is a seasoned partner, but all the same, this is a new beginning. Harry does his best job and his best reasoning in this novel. Michael Connelly has found the heart of the man in this novel. "The Closers" is the best of the best and highly recommended. prisrob

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It's a case, with uncomfortable political and racial undercurrents, that sees Harry Bosch back in his element, and Connelly writing close to the top of his game.

Let's face it: Bosch is always at his best when he's getting down and dirty righting wrongs, fighting for justice for those who can no longer get it for themselves. He is, unfailingly, at his best in the thick of a case, usually one that has lain cold for a long time. Connelly is at his best, too, with these kinds of cases, and he is even more able to render the keen and sharp sting of injustice when it's a state of affairs that has stood for a long time. He's at his best when race is an issue, too, even a tangential one as here. The Closers is near his best, then? Without a doubt, in my opinion.

While The Narrows was a great thriller, it wasn't really such a great detective novel. Seems that way a year later, anyway. Looking back, the impression is that it went very fast, seemed to be over almost too quickly. Enjoyable and high-class fiction, indeed, a thrilling thriller indeed also, but lacking that vital something which makes a good Bosch novel a great one, which this new one is. Back in LA, back in Homicide, Harry is where he really belongs, and you feel it. Harry seems wonderfully at home, less restless, more content than he's been in a while, and you're only able to feel glad about it. His new boss isn't out to get him, either, which is a refreshing change: there's a great potential new relationship here that could prove fertile ground in future novels.

With Harry back where he belongs, Connelly's able to do what he's always been so good at: atomise Los Angeles, a city where, despite its name, no one seems to be entirely innocent, and a city full of contrasts:

"It was a city full of haves and have nots, movie stars and extras, drivers and the driven, predators and pre. The fat and the hungry and little room in between. A city that despite all of that would still have them lining up and waiting every day behind the bomb barricades to get in."

Like its real-life counterpart, Connelly's L.A. has a fascinating, hypnotic pull that keeps me coming back, glad to be there every time.

Though the plot threatens to drag for a little while in the middle, largely due to lack of progress on the case (and thus in the book), in the end the whole thing pays off as satisfyingly (hugely so) as the first pages would suggest, with a truly excellent close. Another huge success, complete with a couple of deep punches to the gut.

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