The Black Box

by Michael Connelly (Orion Books)

Twenty years ago, Los Angeles exploded into a seething rampage of fire and fury in the wake of the Rodney King beating verdict.

The local police force was overwhelmed, and all law enforcement, including the National Guard and local detective departments, were on the streets.

Detective Harry Bosch’s job that night is to follow up on patrolmen’s calls to bodies found in the streets and, as quickly as possible, wrap the scene up and go to the next one. He’s having a busy night.

But then one body demands a bit more attention. A white woman is found in an alley. She was shot in the head while kneeling. As Harry is pondering the circumstances, bullets start flying around his head, and the patrolmen and National Guard are keen to leave and go to their next call.

Harry does what he can and is dragged away, leaving the case to be picked up by the precinct in which it happened when the riots are quelled.

Now Harry picks up the case again, determined to give the woman justice. The trails he starts following lead to some heavy-hitters who still aren’t shy to use violence.

Harry Bosch is one of crime fiction’s best creations, a man who tends to go his own way and gets into trouble as he does. But he also doesn’t give up until he gets his perpetrator.

Fabulous as always from Connelly. – Lindsay Slogrove