Title: The Black Box
Author: Michael Connelly
Published: 2012, Grand Central Publishing
No. of Pages: 403
Cover Price: $14.99 US

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20 years after Anneke Jespersen was murdered in an alley during the infamous riots in Los Angeles, Harry Bosch, who is working in the open unsolved unit at LAPD, gets a chance to gather evidence and make an attempt to finally solve her murder. Michael Connelly’s book, The Black Box is number 16th in the Harry Bosch series. The novel revisits the crime scene, then follows Harry while he pieces together everything that he is able to learn and find regarding the case. One key piece of evidence that he finds is a bullet casing, ignored during the initial investigation, which leads him to several suspects. Of course, Harry, who is on the verge of retirement (he is working for five more years due to the DROP – deferred retirement option plan at LAPD and could be fired at any time), is a nonconformist, who shuns modern technology and solves his cases the old fashioned way, with hard work and perseverance. In this novel, he’s in trouble with either his bosses or someone at the top of the food chain, and he works much of this case on his own time under the radar. Harry’s philosophy has always been to stand up for the victim, since he believes every victim matters, so this murder from 1999 has been on his mind for years and he is determined to find the perpetrator.

Connelly is in true form in The Black Box, and the book will not disappoint Harry Bosch fans. Bosch is a unique and amiable character and throughout the series, has almost become a real-life hero who not only battles killers, but also inward demons that come up in his life. Readers can definitely relate, and those unfamiliar would benefit from reading the series starting with the first. Connelly, however, writes his novels, The Black Box included, so that they are enjoyable as stand-alone books; they move fast, contain plenty of action, and by the time the novel has ended, leave the reader yearning for more.

This book was purchased with personal funds and no promotion of the book was solicited by the author or publisher.

This book may be purchased at Amazon: The Black Box (Harry Bosch)