The Burning Room
On sale
8th October 2015
Price: £9.99
Los Angeles Detective Harry Bosch tackles a cold case unlike any he’s ever worked, in the new legal thriller from the bestselling author of THE LINCOLN LAWYER and THE BLACK ECHO, Michael Connelly.
In the LA Police’s Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other evidence is virtually non-existent.
Now Bosch and his new partner, rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case. Starting with the bullet that’s been lodged for years in the victim’s spine, they must pull new leads from years-old information, which soon reveals that this shooting may have been anything but random in this gripping police procedural.
In the LA Police’s Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other evidence is virtually non-existent.
Now Bosch and his new partner, rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case. Starting with the bullet that’s been lodged for years in the victim’s spine, they must pull new leads from years-old information, which soon reveals that this shooting may have been anything but random in this gripping police procedural.
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Reviews
As ever in Michael Connelly's work, Los Angeles - a city in which 'no matter how close it something looked, it was still far away' - is a character in its own right. And the jazz soundtrack - 'plaintive and sad but ... with an undeniable underlying hope' - makes The Burning Room a superb swansong.
Connelly has lost none of his fire, nor his desire to take his readers by the throat and never let them go
a master of narrative tension, complex but believable plotting and three-dimensional characters ... his latest novel maintains the same high standard and relentless impetus that keeps one turning the pages.
Connelly weaves his story as deftly as always, never slackening the tension
A master at construction, Connelly finds a way to link the two cases, which burrow deep into Los Angeles's Latino community. As often happens in Connelly's police procedurals, Bosch's meticulously built case is undermined by political corruption in high places, leaving him 'suddenly sick to death of everything'.
It's a good story, but crucially The Burning Room shows Bosch on top form, his age no impediment to his stubbornness nor his professional insights
a taut and believable tale set in a grimly recognisable world where those at the top - be they career politicians or career criminals - share a disregard for the lives of those they exploit.
what Connelly delivers here - as ever - is a slice of classy, clever, page-turning stuff, as Bosch and his excellent new sidekick trace the shadows of years-old crimes whose tendrils stretch through the echelons of LA society and across the sprawl of its geography. The detective is described by his boss - 'the one that knows the most in the troop. Has all the experience.' Connelly, too, is a pair of eminently safe hands, and The Burning Room is a pleasure to read.
