Echo Park

by: Michael Connelly

Published by: Little Brown

Reviewed by Jeff Foster

LAPD Harry Bosch is back in Michael Connelly's latest novel, Echo Park.

While putting the finishing touches on his last case, Bosch, a detective in the Open and Unsolved Cases Unit, continues to review an unsolved case from 1993. It involved the disappearance of a young woman, Marie Gesto, after she left a convenience store. There is a suspect, but as yet the evidence has not materialized to warrant an arrest.

When another man, Raynard Waits, is arrested by the LAPD, he has the remains of two young women in his vehicle--and subsequently confesses to murdering Gesto, Bosch is skeptical, but agrees to attend the confession, where a deal has been made with District Attorney Rick O'Shea. The deal? Waits agrees to provide the location of Gesto's body and help the police solve eight other murders, seven of which the LAPD are not even aware of.

Waits provides details of the Gesto case that only the murderer could know. Bosch however, remains skeptical. The crux of the case revolves around details in the paperwork of the Gesto case that Bosch seems to have overlooked. Details, that if they had been followed up while the case was fresh, may have prevented the murder of additional victims.

Bosch and his partner, Kizmin "Kiz" Rider, work the case files in preparation for their confrontation with Waits.

When the field trip to find Gesto's body goes bad, Rider is wounded, two good cops are dead and Waits is in the wind. Fighting through an apparent cover-up by the District Attorney's office that will focus on him for negligence in the escape, Bosch is forced into home duty where he continues his investigation, bucking the system, working off the radar.

With the help of former love interest and FBI agent Rachel Walling, Bosch tracks down Waits, only to be thrown more evidence about the murder of Marie Gesto--evidence he will use to its fullest, as he untangles a conspiratorial plot to keep his primary suspect from ever being charged.

Armchair Interviews says: Michael Connelly does not disappoint in this one, and there are more twists in Echo Park than a Minnesota State Fair pretzel.