by Michael Connelly
Page-turner of the week
Days before Howard Elias's latest suit representing an alleged victim of police brutality goes to trial, the LAPD is dreading the battle against the charismatic African-American attorney. Then they're hit with an even more pressing problem: Elias's bullet-riddled body is discovered on a historic downtown railway.
Suddenly police brass finds itself under the gun to break the case before the racially volatile city explodes. However, since Elias has sued so many cops on behalf of his clients over the years, the call to head the investigation goes to a less than politically, optimal candidate—veteran homicide detective Harry Bosch.
As aficionados of Connelly's previous mysteries featuring Detective Bosch already know, he's a dogged, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may kind of guy. His struggle here to get a grip on this slippery, potentially career-breaking case—while wrestling with personal problems, including a disintegrating marriage—makes for compelling reading, though not with quite the haunting power of the author's previous Blood Work or The Poet (both, as it happens, departures from the Bosch series). Although Angels rarely takes wing, it's still a flight well worth taking. (Little, Brown, $25)
Bottom Line: Classy L.A. cop-fidential
Your Reaction
