City of Bones (urspr publ 2002; utgåvan 2015)

City of Bones, the eighth book of the Harry Bosch series, finds Bosch beginning the new year with two suicides, the revelation of a murdered child, and the acquaintance with an attractive young woman, newly minted officer Julia Brasher, who is ambitious to become a detective.
During a moment of intimacy with Julia, Harry reveals a preposterous piece of luck which occurred to him during battle in the tunnels of Viet Nam. He uses this to measure his core beliefs: that he no longer has any fear, and that "It made me sort of reckless;" that he has a destiny or mission, "Call it blue religion ..... it's the belief that this won't just go by. That those bones came out of the ground for a reason. That they came out of the ground for me to find, and for me to do something about. And that's what holds me together and keeps me going."
Bosch leaves The City of Bones defeated, realizing his raison d'être was hollow: "The very thing he thought he needed the most was the thing that drew the shroud of futility around him."

When the bones of a boy are found scattered in the Hollywood Hills, Harry Bosch is drawn into a case that brings up dark memories from his past.

Unearthing hidden stories, he finds the child's identity and reconstructs his fractured life, determined that he won't be forgotten. At the same time, a new love affair with a female cop begins to blossom - until a stunningly blown mission leaves him in more trouble than ever before. The investigation races to a shocking conclusion and leaves Bosch on the brink of an unimaginable decision . . .

Good work Bosch ( )

One of Connelly's best.

Harry Bosch is sent out to see a bone unearthed by a citizen's dog. The discovery leads to the remains of a twelve-year-old boy, at least 20 years old, in the hillsides of the Santa Monica mountains.

As with all cases, Harry is impatient and wants to find the apparent killer immediately. He works night and day to identify the body,then track down possible suspects. In the course of the investigation he meets Julia Brasher, rookie cop, and finds a soulmate in her.

The investigation leads down one alley and then the other, at each turn encountering snags big and small. As usual, he is dogged by upper levels of police management wanting quick solves and willing to bend the truth to get there. The pursuit of image never interests Bosch and he insists on telling the truth every time.

More than once in the course of the story Bosch asks himself or is asked by others - what does he believe in? He says he believes in the "blue religion". The pursuit of the killers, the pursuit of justice, the truth. He is, however, as Deputy Chief Irvin Irving says, a "shit magnet". Bad things happen to Harry. Perhaps more so in this novel than in others.

IN the end the case is solved. But not particularly satisfactorily. We never really find out what happened, exactly, and the ending is ugly.

I have lived in Harry's body, in a way, for many months, as I read through this series. He would probably not find me interesting but I find him fascinating and very real. That reality comes from Connelly's attention to details. He doesn't have to trot out every injury in a homicide. Describe it fully. He doesn't have to tell us what a rich woman's house appears like to Bosch. He doesn't have to take us into the paperwork. But he does. And that's why I buy it all. ( )

I definitely enjoyed "City of Bones." I really enjoyed this look at what it was that caused Harry Bosch to retire from the LAPD. I'm sad to think about what could have been though when you see a more thoughtful and happy Harry in this one.

Bosch is still teamed up with J. Edgar in this one (book Edgar still sucks) and they get called in when a bone is found up in the hills. When it becomes clear they are looking at human remains, Bosch is thrown into a high profile case that the LAPD just wants closed and doesn't seem to care about the truth. But long time readers know that is all Harry cares about.

Besides the high pressure case, we also have Bosch undertaking another romance in this one that I liked. Connelly always seems reluctant to me in showing Bosch in a relationship. Even when he does show bits of it, he seems to skip over showing any type of romance. Instead it also seems to fade to black. When Bosch gets involved with a rookie cop named Julia Brasher, it felt like the first time in a while we had him connect with someone.

The writing was great and I couldn't put this book down. It was honestly hard to stop. I think that was mostly because I felt invested in finding out who was responsible for the death of the victim in this one, and there was so many other layers to peel back here.

The flow was top notch though the ending felt a but abrupt. ( )