Book Review: City of Bones

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

City of Bones     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Michael Connelly
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Harry Bosch # 8

Harry Bosch sees himself as a man with a mission - one case at a time, the Los Angeles cop strives to put law breakers and evil doers behind bars. He is impatient with beaurocratic niceties, and refuses to "go along to get along."

When a man walking his dog calls the police to report that the dog has found a human bone, Bosch is assigned to investigate. The bones of a young child are recovered from a shallow hillside grave, and a forensic anthropologist identifies them as the remains of a young boy, who died about 25 years earlier, and who had been the victim of continuous, vicious abuse for most of his life.

In post Rodney King, post OJ Los Angeles, the police department struggles continuously with public relations issues, and when one of the residents of the area where the bones were found is identified publicly as a sexual offender, top brass is immediately anxious to name him as a suspect, and close the case quickly.

But as in all of Connelly's books, readers never find themselves where they expected to be as events unfold. Bosch's investigation takes him across much of Southern California, involves personal loss and tragedy, misdirection, frustration, and a growing unease in his working relationships within the police department itself.

After he has followed the investigation to it's conclusion and identified the actual killer of the little boy, his long simmering dissatisfaction with his job and working environment come to a head.

Connelly is one of the best - and this book is one of his better efforts.

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM