Book Review: THE BURNING ROOM by Michael Connelly

THE BURNING ROOM by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company, November 2014) Hardcover, 388 pages.  ISBN # 0316225932 / 9780316225939 Series: Harry Bosch #17. Bosch Universe #26. 

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     In the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet nine years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other evidence is virtually nonexistent.

Now Bosch and his new partner, rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case. Starting with the bullet that's been lodged for years in the victim's spine, they must pull new leads from years-old information, which soon reveals that this shooting may have been anything but random.

I read THE BURNING ROOM in January 2018. In June 2022, I listened to the audiobook while traveling through several states to a northern Maine vacation. The story was enhanced by the great reading/interpretation of Titus Welliver, who portrays Bosch on the Amazon Prime series. I found myself enjoying the story all over again, with renewed appreciation for the skill of Michael Connelly.  

Here’s my Four Star Review from 2018 on the Goodreads website . . . . 

     

     This one took me longer to read and finish compared to previous Connelly novels featuring detective Harry Bosch, but not because it was tedious and boring - - - but because it was crammed with procedural details and packed with insights into modern day police department practices and politics.

       I read this at a slower pace in order to absorb all the details. Rightly so, author Connelly no longer has Bosch mixing it up with gangsters in fistfights or gunplay. He's a veteran police detective nearing retirement and the workload and responsibilities have shifted as would be expected. Bosch is now part of the Los Angeles Police Department Open-Unsolved Unit, and with new partner Lucia Soto are charged with solving a murder attempt from ten years past that has political implications. The crime is soon linked to another crime, an arsonist fire in an apartment building that resulted in the deaths of several young children. Bosch and Soto work the case, following even the most slender of leads, in methodical but effective fashion. 

     Along with the great investigative detail, Connelly explores the human side of police work revealing the sense of responsibility and dedication that all good officers display. The ending has several twists that determine both how the story ends a bit less than satisfactory as well as lays out the future for Bosch in the books that followed this one.