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Nearing mandatory retirement, Harry Bosch is still spending the waning days of his career in the Los Angeles Police Department in the Open-Unsolved Unit, the cold case squad. He has come upon the murder of Anneka Jespersen, a young Danish reporter, who was covering the riots that occurred twenty years earlier, after police officers who had beaten a black motorist named Rodney King, were acquitted. The South Central part of the city was torn apart in flames, murder, and mayhem, and Anneka's body had been found by the California National Guard in an alley and then briefly written up by Harry himself, who was then a young detective. After a brief look around, he had then rushed off to the next murder scene. Now, twenty years later, he is left with a file of the case, a black box of street gang activity in that area back then, and superior officers who would prefer that Harry not solve the murder of a white woman on such a significant anniversary, for many Blacks and Asians had been killed as well. The black box, of course, also represents the coffins, not only of Anneka, but of all the victims of the riots and of unsolved crimes. As with his other cold cases, Harry has little to go on. The evidence, re-examined with modern technology, points to a gun that was subsequently used in other crimes. Harry's only choice in this case is to follow the gun, and so he does. Connolly has written a tight police procedural this time around without a lot of peripheral distractions. Harry's partner, Chu, takes a back seat. Maddie, the daughter and heir apparent, stays mostly at home. The result is a more focused and crisper narrative of Harry chasing down all the leads and bending a few rules to get results if he has to. Though Len Cariou is the performer most associated as the voice of Harry Bosch, I was delighted with the shift to AudioFile Earphones Award winner Michael McConnohie. While Cariou's Harry may have been a bit more distinctive, McConnohie has much better pacing. He knows how to provide dramatic flair to the action. There are a lot of minor characters in this novel; McConnohie meets the challenge of making each one stand out in some way. For fans of the Harry Bosch series, this one should not be missed. For those who have never read or listened to any of Connolly's works, THE BLACK BOX is a great place to dive in because of its very lack of personal development and focus on storyline. Few authors get better at this point in a series, but Connolly is one of the exceptions. § Karla Jay is a legally blind audio book addict, who lives in New York City, where she is Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at Pace University.
Reviewed by Karla Jay, December 2012
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