Book Review: Echo Park

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Echo Park     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Michael Connelly
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Serial Killer   Thriller
Series: Harry Bosch # 12
Little, Brown, Oct 2006, $26.99

When Harry Bosch retired from LAPD, one cold case haunted him. In 1993, twenty-two years old equestrian, Marie Gesto vanished; the assumption being she was kidnapped; ten days after her disappearance, her car containing clean folded clothing inside was found in an apartment building garage with no trace of her; the case went cold.

Harry has returned to LAPD having joined the Open-Unsolved Unit that brings back on duty former cops to work cold cases. Harry remains preoccupied with the Gesto disappearance and still believes that Anthony Garland, the son of an influential oilman, killed the young woman though he could never prove it. When the cops bust window cleaner Raynard Waits driving a vehicle carrying the body parts of two people he killed, he confesses to other murders including that of Gesto. Homicide Detective Freddy Olivas and prosecutor Rick O'Shea buy the confession as Waits knows things only the killer could know about the Gesto homicide; Harry feels otherwise that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts especially one odd entry in the case log from thirteen years ago that he swears was not there until a few days ago.

Michael Connelly is at his best with this exhilarating Bosh thriller that grips the audience from the moment that Waits confesses and never slows down until the final not obvious twist. The story line is action-packed and loaded with in fighting as Bosh does not trust the ethics of Olivas or O’Shea. Fans will appreciate this superior police procedural, one of the best of the year.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner