"The Black Box"

"The Black Box" is the most recent, I believe, of a series of novels written by Michael Connelly featuring L. A. Detective Harry Bosch.  As far as I can remember, this is the first Bosch novel I've read but it definitely won't be the last.  I've already requested the first book in the series so I can start reading them in order.

In this latest book, Bosch is part of the Open-Unsolved Unit and the 20 year anniversary of the L. A. Riots is approaching.  At the time of the riots, the police were totally unprepared for what was to happen as well as slow to respond.  There were many unsolved deaths and Bosch was part of the Homicide Squad that responded to reports of these deaths and secured crime scenes.  However, due to the riots and the number of calls, the investigations were minimal to say the least.  One case particularly haunts Bosch -- that of a young woman, Anneke Jespersen, a journalist found by a California National Guard unit in a dark alley.  The fact that she'd been shot execution-style didn't seem to fit with the series of other killings during the riots.

With the riot anniversary approaching there is pressure to solve some of these unsolved crimes to put a better "face" on the L. A. police force.  Bosch gladly takes on the investigation into Jespersen's death.  Since she was Danish, there is a language barrier between him and her remaining family and the newspaper she worked for in Denmark but Bosch is persistant and the computer age offers him many new tools that were unavailable twenty years ago.  He's dogged in his pursuit of the truth but where it takes him and what he discovers reveals more crimes that have been covered up during the past twenty plus years and puts his life in danger as he comes up against some prominent and dangerous masterminds.  A great read!  pazt