The Black Box by Michael Connelly

In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved. Now Bosch's ballistics match indicates that her death was not random violence, but something more personal, and connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the black box, the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together. Riveting and relentlessly paced, THE BLACK BOX leads Harry Bosch, one of the greats of crime fiction (New York Daily News), into one of his most fraught and perilous cases. Editorial Reviews Bosch is one of the best detectives in crime fiction, and Connelly continues to amaze with his latest effort. - Jeff Ayers - Associated Press Staff Connelly is superb at building suspense. - Tom Nolan - Wall Street Journal PRAISE FOR THE DROP: Connelly inherits the mantle of Raymond Chandler.... Their books share a kind of ambitious artistry that strains to reach beyond genre fiction. - Chuck Leddy - Boston Globe I decided several years ago that this is the finest crime series written by an American, and nothing in [this] book changes my mind...As always, Bosch's painstaking investigation reflects Connelly's unsurpassed grasp of police work. -Patrick Anderson - The Washington Post Bestseller Connelly's excellent 18th Harry Bosch novel (after 2011's The Drop) opens in 1992, a few days after the acquittal of the cops who beat up Rodney King incited an eruption of violence in Los Angeles (Flames from a thousand fires reflected like the devil dancing in the dark sky). In a South-Central alley, Bosch and his partner, Jerry Edgar, briefly examine the body of a Danish photojournalist, Anneke Jespersen, who's been shot dead. There's not enough time or police will power to enable Bosch to pursue the case--though he does retrieve a single spent 9mm brass shell casing. Twenty years later, while working cold cases in the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, Bosch gets a second chance to answer for Jespersen. Contemporary forensic technology connects the shell casing to a gun and to the first Iraq war. The tenacious detective finds himself caught in a maelstrom of departmental politics and personal danger as he searches for the black box of the title (a piece of evidence, a person, a positioning of fact that brought a certain understanding and helped explain what happened and why). Connelly draws on all his resources--his thorough knowledge of police work, his ability to fashion a complex tapestry of plot, and his ever deepening characterization of Bosch--to craft a mystery thriller sure to enthrall fans and newcomers alike. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. (Nov.) - Publishers Weekly PRAISE FOR THE DROP: Connelly inherits the mantle of Raymond Chandler.... Their books share a kind of ambitious artistry that strains to reach beyond genre fiction.-Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe Connelly is superb at building suspense.-Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal Bosch is one of the best detectives in crime fiction, and Connelly continues to amaze with his latest effort.-Jeff Ayers, Associated Press - From the Publisher How can Michael Connelly get better at his craft of writing! Just when you think he has reached the pinnacle of his career with a certain novel he comes along with a new one that is even better. Such is the case with THE BLACK BOX, a crime thriller that is pretty near perfection . . . Michael Connelly just keeps getting it right . . . He is at the top of the mountain . . . none exceed his abilities. - Huffington Post Starts with a bang and stays strong all the way through. - New York Times - Janet Maslin Bosch employs highly unorthodox but extremely entertaining methods for getting results, making sneaky end-runs around the sclerotic bureaucracy of the LAPD . . . It's fun to watch an old war horse like Bosch navigating the new technology (or, more often than not, getting younger officers to do it for him). - New York Times Book Review Oh well, just another superb, ambitious murder mystery from one of the best writers in the business, featuring perhaps the best fictional detective in crime fiction. It has been 20 years since Michael Connelly published his first novel, The Black Echo, and in all that time he hasn't put a foot wrong. THE BLACK BOX keeps his streak alive. - Toronto Globe and Mail [Bosch] is as formidable as he ever was . . . we see how far he has come and get a glimpse of the intriguing direction the series may take. - New York Daily News Continues [Connelly's] streak of telling stellar crime stories . . . one of the top detectives in crime fiction. - Chicago Sun-Times Four stars! Crime writer Michael Connelly is a reliably good storyteller and his novels' endings invariably pack a satisfying punch. Though I've said it before about some of his other novels, THE BLACK BOX [could] be the best yet . . . portrays Harry at his dogged, ingenious best. - USA Today Connelly has added one more to the apparently inexhaustible supply of cases that challenge Detective Harry Bosch of the Los Angeles Police Department. This one is a tightly knit tale . . . It's classic Connelly, who has a gift for narrating criminal investigations from the inside and bringing them to life. - San Jose Mercury News Few crime writers are as prolific or as successful as Michael Connelly . . . Connelly has always excelled at building suspense while paying careful attention to police procedural detail . . . will tantalize fans of the series. - Los Angeles Times Connelly's lean, just-the-facts style makes for crisp dialogue and a brisk, info-driven plot....A haunted quality has always been one of the chief attractions of Connelly's series and of Bosch's character. - Art Taylor - Washington Post Starts with a bang and stays strong all the way through. - Janet Maslin - New York Times LAPD Det. Harry Bosch is back, smart enough to connect a current murder with the 1992 killing of a young female photographer during riots in Los Angeles. That killing, never solved by the Riot Crimes Task Force, now seems a whole lot more personal than anyone ever thought. Look for special promotions this year for Connelly, who's releasing his 25th book in 20 years of publishing. - Library Journal In a politically charged cold case, Harry Bosch asks whether the execution-style shooting of a Danish photojournalist during the 1992 Los Angeles riots was a random gang killing or part of a darker conspiracy. When delivering third-person narrative passages, narrator Michael McConnohie gives a flat and uninspired performance. But he rises to the task when reading dialogue, infusing characters with energy, passion, and personality. Listeners acquainted with central California may be rattled by McConnohie's pronunciation of Manteca, where much of the action takes place. This title isn't one of the strongest of Connelly's excellent series, nor is McConnohie's reading in top form. But, all told, this reviewer feels no loss for the time spent listening. S.E.S. AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine - NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile Harry Bosch (The Drop, 2011, etc.) returns to yet another cold case--one that was taken out of his hand 20 years ago when it was still red hot. Assigned to an emergency rotation in South-Central LA during the Rodney King riots, Harry's sent out to an alley off Crenshaw Boulevard, where National Guard troops have found a body. The victim turns out to be Copenhagen journalist Anneke Jespersen, executed by a bullet to the head. With the city in the throes of a violent crisis, there's no time to work this case or any other, and the death gets tossed into the deep freeze till it's defrosted 20 years later by the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit. Now, however, some remarkable developments are waiting to be discovered. The Beretta handgun used in the crime has been traced to long-imprisoned gangbanger Rufus Coleman, whose brief off-the-record statement allows Harry to link the gun to at least two other murders in the intervening years. If the search for information about the weapon, mostly carried out by Harry's long-suffering partner David Chu, seems almost too easy, the questions that stymied Harry back in 1992--what brought a Danish reporter to America, to riot-torn LA and to the alley where she met her death, and why was she killed?--prove just as hard to answer, especially since Harry's new boss, Lt. Cliff O'Toole, makes it clear that on the 20th anniversary of the LAPD's darkest hour, he doesn't want the only case from that sorry chapter cleared to be the one that involved a white woman. Harry naturally meets O'Toole's opposition by raising the stakes. The resulting tension lifts this sturdy but uninspired procedural above most of its competition, though nowhere close to the top of Connelly's own storied output. - Kirkus Reviews