From Publishers Weekly
The latest installment of the Harry Bosch series has the LAPD homicide detective reopening the 30-year-old unsolved murder of his mother. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
After being put on involuntary stress leave for attacking his boss, LAPD detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch tackles the 30-plus-year-old murder case of a Hollywood prostitute?his mother. Bummed out by the failure of his latest romance as well, Harry faces a deeper, psychological crisis: his life's "mission" may end if he solves the case. Harry continues, nonetheless, soon discovering that the police and politically powerful others purposely glossed over his mother's murder. With prose that cuts to the quick, a masterfully interwoven plot, and gripping suspense, Connelly renders a fitting sequel to The Black Echo (LJ 1/92).Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
On leave for attacking his commanding officer, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch has time on his hands. He decides to spend it on a case that cuts close to his angst-ridden heart, the 30-year-old unsolved murder of his mother. When Harry smells a cover-up, he pushes on. Connelly is at the top of his form in this brilliant mystery. Dick Hill does an outstanding job capturing Bosch's cynicism and anger, confusion and hurt. Hill changes his voice well to portray the other characters, most notably the female police psychiatrist. One gimmick is annoying: the producers switch to a tinny tone whenever a voice on the phone is needed. Still, this is a first-rate production. P.B.J. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
The third appearance of L.A. police detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch finds the renegade cop's life in even more of a mess than usual. He's hiding out in his own earthquake-demolished, condemned home, and he's been suspended from the force for sticking his commander's face through a window. He's got time to kill, so he unearths the 30-year-old, unsolved murder of a Hollywood whore named Marjorie Lowe. Harry happens to be the victim's son, and in the midst of his midlife crisis, it becomes necessary for him to find out who killed her. The first step is to interview the surviving investigating officer, Jake McKittrick, who points Harry back into a past of corruption, greed, ambition, and blackmail. Today's self-help literature frequently asks readers to reassess their pasts, but too often what they find becomes an excuse. Harry examines his past, acknowledges the damage, and sets out to heal himself. It's heady territory for a cop novel, but Edgar winner Connelly handles it with style and grace. Wes Lukowsky


Review
"Grabs you and shakes you-and it feels great." --Kirkus Reviews

"A powerful book." --Houston Chronicle

"Prose that cuts to the quick...A masterfully interwoven plot and gripping suspense." --Library Journal



Book Description
Harry Bosch's life is on the edge. His earthquake-damaged home has been condemned. His girlfriend has left him. He's drinking too much. And after attacking his commanding officer, he's even had to turn in his L.A.P.D. detective's badge. Now, suspended indefinitely pending a psychiatric evaluation, he's spending his time investigating an unsolved crime from 1961: the brutal slaying of a prostitute who happened to be his own mother.

Even after three decades, Harry's questions generate heat among L.A.'s top politicos. And as the truth begins to emerge, it becomes more and more apparent that someone wants to keep it buried. Someone very powerful...very cunning...and very deadly.

Edgar Award-winning author Michael Connelly has created a dark, fast-paced suspense thriller that cuts to the core of Harry Bosch's character. Once you start it, there's no turning back.

ANNOTATION

The bestselling author of The Concrete Blonde delivers another Harry Bosch book, one that delves more psychologically into Bosch's past. In 1961, 12-year-old Harry lost his murder in a brutal murder. As he begins his relentless investigation, Harry uncovers a trail that leads upward, toward prominent people who want to protect their reputation.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Harry Bosch's life is a mess. His new house has been condemned because of earthquake damage. His girlfriend has left him. He's drinking too much. And he's even had to turn in his badge: he attacked his commanding officer and is suspended indefinitely pending a psychiatric evaluation. At first Bosch resists the LAPD shrink, but finally he recognizes that something is troubling him, a force that may have shaped his entire life. In 1961, when Harry was twelve, his mother was brutally murdered. No one was ever even accused of the crime. Harry opens up the decades-old file on the case and is irresistibly drawn into a past he has always avoided. It's clear that the case was fumbled. His mother was a prostitute, and even thirty years later the smell of a coverup is unmistakable. Someone powerful was able to keep the investigating officers away from key suspects. Even as he confronts his own shame about his mother, Harry relentlessly follows up the old evidence, seeking justice or at least understanding. Out of the broken pieces of the case he discerns a trail that leads upward, toward prominent people who lead public lives high in the Hollywood hills. And as he nears his answer, Harry finds that ancient passions don't die. They cause new murders even today.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In his fourth outing, LAPD Homicide Detective Harry Bosch (The Concrete Blonde, et al.) confronts deep family, police and political secrets as he probes an unsolved murder of decades earlier. Smart, tough, laconic and, under all that, compassionate, Harry lives by a code according to which ``Everybody counts or nobody counts... whether [the victim is] a prostitute or the mayor's wife.'' He begins this case in a departmental shrink's office, after having been suspended for attacking his commanding officer; his girlfriend has left him, and he's living in a house that's been condemned after an earthquake. In the enforced freedom from his job, he reopens the 30-year-old unsolved murder of an L.A. call girl-his mother. Skirting illegality along the way to the resolution, he unearths a lot of buried secrets and pain-not least to his own 11-year-old self. Nobody here is pure (a couple of people are truly nasty), but all the characters are believable, as are even the quirkier plot turns. Edgar-winner Connelly smoothly mixes Harry's detecting forays with his therapy sessions to dramatize how, sometimes, the biggest mystery is the self. BOMC alternate. (June)

Library Journal