I think I'm becoming addicted to Michael Connelly. First, I read Echo Park about a year and a half ago and was surprised how much I liked it. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a book-on-tape and came across The Closers, which I promptly checked out. I finished it last night and I have to say that I was sorry to see it come to an end. The Closers is a fascinating and realistic portrayal of a seasoned cop using years of experience, intuition, deductive reasoning, technological breakthroughs and (at times) blind luck to solve a long-cold murder case.
In this 11th installment in the bestselling Harry Bosch series, Detective Bosch is reinstated after three years of retirement (during which time he worked as a private eye) and is assigned to the LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit, where he is paired with former partner Kiz Rider. His first case is the 17-year-old unsolved murder of Rebecca Verloren, a 16-year-old girl of mixed race that in 1988 was abducted from her bedroom, executed at point blank range, dragged up a hill and dumped in the foliage. As Bosch and Rider familiarize themselves with the details of the initial investigation, they find several discrepencies and a complete stonewalling of the racial implications of the case. Since 1988, however, DNA testing has become available and through this method tissue from the murder weapon is traced to a white-supremacist who lived near the victim. As they follow this new lead, it also becomes apparent that Bosch's old nemesis, Deputy Chief Irving, had a shadowy involvement in the initial investigation and sought to keep certain volatile aspects of the case from become known.
The great thing about The Closers is its complete lack of melodrama. Connelly saves the adrenalin for the last portion of the novel, and even then it's far from overblown. The main body of the book is procedural in its approach: we follow two detectives as they follow every lead, use every appropriate resource, deal with interdepartmental politics, generate paperwork, coordinate with the justice system, and perform all of the other tasks and jump through all of the other hoops that real detectives encounter in real police departments. They make mistakes and have breakthroughs and none of it seems phony or contrived. Character development, though part of the story, is understated and generally relegated to tantalizing glimpses into the character and pasts of several of the major players. Of course, much is implicit, based on the fact that this is the 11th entry in the series. Still, the story is about the case and, as such, it's handled in a very professional manner...never dry, always engaging...and this says a lot about Michael Connelly's abilities as a writer.
So if you tend to prefer "Law and Order" over "24", then definitely check out The Closers!
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