The Burning Room, A Harry Bosch Novel by Michael Connelly

The Book

    This is the last Harry Bosch as an LAPD detective book. In it, Bosch is assigned a new partner Lucia Soto. Bosch, now in his last year under his DROP contract is happy to pass on what he knows to Soto. He is pleased with the assignment, even though he realizes others inside of LAPD are jealous of her promotion. But she's a hero cop who lost her partner in the line of duty. Bosch can relate. And while he shows her the ropes of how to care about a case, he's thinking he's getting too old for this game. Nonetheless the old dog still has a few tricks up his sleeve. They are assigned a cold case that recently became a murder when a victim of a seemingly random shooting dies from complications of the shooting making it a murder. The detectives who had been investigating are miffed to hand it off, but eventually help Bosch and Soto with their case. Meanwhile, Soto keeps lying to Bosch and keeps getting caught. When Bosch has had enough of it, he confronts her, only to find out she's working a hobby case, one that could get her fired. So Bosch figures out a way to merge the two cases. In true Bosch fashion, he keeps pushing the case forward, but in the end, he is now a dinosaur and it does catch up with him. 

My Thoughts

    Bosch gets what's coming to him. Connelly see the world as a complicated place. He's always been faithful to the characters, whether you, or anyone else likes them or not. And, if I hadn't read The Lincoln Lawyer Series, I wouldn't know that Connelly generally believes the world is capable of justice. He's not as heavy handed or moralistic as Shakespeare, but there is a large element of that kind of tragedy in these books. Bosch has always been complicated. And he will remain a complicated character. But Connelly is done having him be the center of the novel and is moving him and his world off to the side. I don't think it's a coincidence that Connelly struck a deal with Amazon for the series Bosch and here he is exited the character stage right from the books. I think this is a considerate move for his loyal reading audience. 

He knows the TV series will make several changes to bring the adaptation up to date. He's giving his readers a bit of closure so they can go on and love the series without the need to mourn their beloved book character. So good job Book Dad. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

    This book entered my library on October 30, 2014. It has been well read by gentle readers. The pages are mostly intact without any smudging and only the occasion wrinkle on the page. The pages are loose enough that even though this is a relatively heavy hard cover copy, it was easy to hold in one hand. It's still in good condition, so I expect this book will have a long life on the mystery shelves of my library. The cover says it cost $28.00, so this is apparently the year publishing gave up the .99 on their books. Interesting. 

This Book                           $28.00

This Summer                    $355.00