Bosch has a broken marriage. A civil rights lawyer with a negative history with the LAPD is murdered. The city explodes into violence after hearing the news. There are clues left behind in the case the lawyer was working on that leads Bosch on his investigation. He and his team must investigate the crime while at the same time dealing with an LAPD that needs to protect its image.
Does this sound like an intriguing concept? Hopefully so. I found this a well crafted book. I could have read it in a couple days if it wasn't for my music addictions and the fact that the 2009-2010 television season is in full swing.
Potentially considered a spoiler. I did have some slight problems with the ending. Justice was handed out in a zombie, horror flick style ending. Just a tad over-the-top, but unless the book was going to go on for another 40 pages working through the aftermath of the investigation I suppose the ending worked as a climatic point instead of just dragging the book on to the point of leaving us disappointed.
Interesting note:
From the book: In the long run, Frank Sinatra got ripped off. Decades ago, when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce put his star down on the sidewalk, they put it on Vine Street rather than on Hollywood Boulevard. The thinking probably was that the Sinatra star would be a draw, people would come down from the boulevard to see it, to take a picture. But if that was the plan, it didn't work. Frank was alone in a spot that probably saw more hypes than tourists. His star was at a crosswalk between two parking lots and next to a residency hotel where you had to convince the security guard to unlock the lobby door if you wanted to go in . . . By the time Bosch got to the star Garwood was already there.
I believe this is the star he's talking about. Frank Sinatra actually has two stars on Vine.
The book was written in 1999. I'm not sure the exact year the book is set in; however, a lot has changed since 1999. This area of Hollywood has cleaned up.
The first major change in this area was the Sunset+Vine apartment complex.
This is one of the parking lots mentioned in the above passage.
This is a view of one side of this crosswalk area that is on the old side, but there is a theatre there that you can see.
This is where the second parking lot used to be. This is the second major improvement in the area: 1600 Vine. The W Hotel is on the other side of the building. You can see part of the "W" in the first photo.
Not sure what is getting built here, but it is probably going to be nice.
I'm not sure if that hotel that Connelly talks about is still up, but here's an example of a building in the general area that probably has a similar look.
This is his second star, which is on the other side of the street, closer to Hollywood Blvd.
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