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Author:

Michael Connolly

Title:

The Burning Room

Published:

2014

Genre/Sub-Genre:

Police Procedural

Plot summary:

Harry Bosch is assigned to investigate the homicide of a man who died ten years after he was shot. Patiently, Harry traces the weapon used in the murder and connects it to a businessman and possibly a politician. Harry is working with a new partner, a young detective with agendas of her own. Harry helps her to investigate the crime of which she was a victim as a child and links it to another crime which happened on the same day. Although they solve the various crimes to their own  satisfaction, it all leads nowhere. And Harry gets himself into hot water through his own actions…

Overall:

It is rather sedate and focused as on police procedure, with few episodes of tension. I’d call it engrossing rather than gripping but it is always interesting to watch Harry Bosch grapple with an inept system and moronic if somewhat stereotyped supervisors.

Plotting:

A slow patient plot - a pleasure to follow as Harry and Lucia use their skills and contacts to unravel the three cases. Two of the cases interconnect but the third is separate. The violence, by the standard of American crime fiction, is restrained. A thinking person’s novel, not one for those after thrills and spills.

Characterisation:

Harry as always is convincingly portrayed as a man with his own moral code but one not afraid to break the law when necessary, not afraid to confront authority and not afraid to manipulate the system and others when required, while maintaining his inner commitment to universal justice. The portrayal of Lucia as an energetic young detective of imagination, flair, courage and stickability is likewise convincing. Both mavericks to the system but true to a wider yardstick of truth and justice.

Dialogue:

Again, it’s subdued.

Setting and Description:

Convincing portrayal of Los Angeles and surrounds. Curiously, he never mentions smog.

Readability:

Very readable, got me hooked.

Sub-plots:

The sub-plots between Bosch and Lucia and between Bosch and his daughter were a bonus.

Read another by same author?

Definitely.

 

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