The Burning Room (Harry Bosch) Paperback – March 17, 2015

Wow outstanding! The suspense was so thickly woven through this Bosch book 17 I was wonderfully lost in it and couldn’t wait for the next turn of events. Michael Connelly never ceases to amaze me at what a talented, highly effective writer he is. I truly admire his talent and I’m such a huge fan of his character Detective Bosch that I will dearly miss this book series when it concludes as I’ve been steadily working my way through the entire series. It’s always an interesting turn too how Bosch keeps getting paired up in the different books with different partners bringing forth entirely fresh perspectives and engagements between the partners and various situations and suspects and criminals they encounter that just adds so much worthy substance to the overall story and our ability as readers and true fans of these books to become delightfully lost in them chapter after chapter having great difficulty putting the book down. I love the interweaving of the politics at play amongst the local politicians and the upper echelons of the LAPD and how that often polluted dynamic affects and interacts with the honorable and devotedly driven ethos and perspective that Bosch lives and dies by. It really helps the light that Bosch is as a man and as a long standing detective come shining through brilliantly even more. Even to the last chapter when (without ruining the story for those yet to read it) Bosch is called into his captain’s office where the lieutenant is also present and how they handle the most petty, ridiculous thing to ever even consider addressing so disrespectfully toward Bosch after his many, many years of selfless service to the good citizens of Los Angeles. I have to say I also dearly love the relationship, even with its struggles, of Bosch with his young teen daughter helping to guide her toward becoming a police officer as she wants to be following in her father’s footsteps. It shows us such a loving, caring side to Bosch that can be seen at times in his relationships with females he’s been intimate with or even kindness and fire in his fight for the victims of heinous crimes he fights so hard to be a voice for…a voice for the voiceless. There’s not enough I can say about how much I thoroughly enjoy, appreciate, love and respect as well as continue to look forward to the very next book in the series that Mr. Connelly’s stunning character of Bosch has brought into my life and given me a very pleasant, welcome distraction to serious health issues I’m continually fighting through and it feels like a blessing to have that ability to distract my mind from the ongoing suffering from my physical ailments so well. Once again I thank you, Mr. Connelly. On to book 18 now! Cheers!!

Ever since I started reading Michael Connelly books a few years ago, I’ve always looked forward to the next instalment in the series and especially a new Harry Bosch – a character of whom I’ve grown very fond over the years. The Burning Room is the nineteenth book with Bosch as the protagonist and those who have been following the series know that not only is he past retirement age now but he’s been redeployed on a special contract - the appropriately named “DROP” plan, working cold cases.In this one, Bosch has a new partner, the medal-awarded young officer and public hero, Lucia Soto, who has her own skeletons in the closet and axe to grind with justice.The story opens with Bosch attending the autopsy of a man who was shot years earlier in a case that was never solved. Bosch and Soto are given the responsibility of trying to track down the shooter. Retrieving old files and looking at a case that other detectives failed to solve, re-interviewing suspects and walking ground that has been well-trod is sensitive at the best of times, but when political figures appear to be involved, the stakes suddenly become much, much higher. As Bosch warns the young Soto, you should never open the door on a burning room…Woven through this story are the usual departmental politics, the unsupportive hierarchy more worried about meeting budget than catching the right criminals, and Bosch’s personal and professional life. This is given an additional frisson as Bosch tries to pass on good policing to Soto, demonstrating there is a still a time and place for the gum-shoe approach to detective work, the hard, pedantic slog and essential hands-on and foot-work as opposed to sitting at a desk all day and surfing the web or relying on the phone.Back on the home front, his daughter is thinking of becoming a cop. At seventeen, she not only does work-experience with a specific arm of the force, but is also slowly developing into an adult and the inevitable distance between parent and child (as the child’s priorities and need for autonomy assert themselves) develops. This is subtly and well handled, the daughter being a minor character in this novel just as Bosch is now becoming (for the time being at least) in hers.Added to all this is the sense that Bosch is approaching the end of a long and wonderful career. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - found it difficult to put down - and certainly, regular fans of the series have the reward of knowing Bosch’s back story, delighting in his triumphs and seething when he is unfairly treated. We also understand why he acts in particular ways or says certain things. But new readers (and old) would derive pleasure from the great pacing, good dialogue and the humanity that underpins the central characters and their determination to solve the crime.I sincerely hope we get to read a great deal more about Bosch and that he has the opportunity to continue to put his formidable experience, knack for solving crimes and sense of social justice to good use for a long time yet.