The Burning Room (Harry Bosch Series #17)

by Michael Connelly

Overview

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Detective Harry Bosch and his rookie partner investigate a cold case that gets very hot . . . very fast.

In the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other clues are virtually nonexistent. Even a veteran cop would find this one tough going, but Bosch's new partner, Detective Lucia Soto, has no homicide experience. A young star in the department, Soto has been assigned to Bosch so that he can pass on to her his hard-won expertise.

Now Bosch and Soto are tasked with solving a murder that turns out to be highly charged and politically sensitive. Beginning with the bullet that has been lodged for years in the victim's spine, they must pull new leads from years-old evidence, and these soon reveal that the shooting was anything but random.

As their investigation picks up speed, it leads to another unsolved case with even greater stakes: the deaths of several children in a fire that occurred twenty years ago. But when their work starts to threaten careers and lives, Bosch and Soto must decide whether it is worth risking everything to find the truth, or if it's safer to let some secrets stay buried.

In a swiftly-moving novel as relentless and compelling as its hero, Michael Connelly shows once again why Harry Bosch is "one of the most popular and enduring figures in American crime fiction" ( Chicago Tribune).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316225939
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	11/03/2014
Series:	Harry Bosch Series
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	476,589
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Michael Connelly is the author of twenty-eight previous novels, including #1 New York Times bestsellers The Crossing and The Burning Room.  His books, which include the Harry Bosch series and Lincoln Lawyer series, have sold more than sixty million copies worldwide.  Connelly is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels and is the executive producer of Bosch, starring Titus Welliver.  He spends his time in California and Florida.

Hometown:

Sarasota, Florida

Date of Birth:

July 21, 1956

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education:

B.A. in Journalism, University of Florida, 1980

Website:

http://www.michaelconnelly.com

Editorial Reviews

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series has its highs and lows, but the latest installment is perched on a hilltop. The Burning Room is the best Bosch book in years, not only because of its sharp dialogue and fast-paced detective wizardry, but also because it neither dawdles nor lets Harry get moody…The Burning Room finds Harry in his highest gear, making every minute of police work count. And it gives him just the kind of crazily convoluted case that fans of detective fiction love.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

★ 09/08/2014
An autopsy opens Edgar-winner Connelly’s superb 19th Harry Bosch mystery (after 2012’s The Black Box). Orlando Merced, a mariachi musician, was transformed into a symbol for urban violence by an opportunistic mayoral candidate when he was wounded a decade earlier, a random victim of a drive-by shooting. Merced’s death prompts a reexamination of the case, and Bosch and his young new partner, Lucia Soto, get to work. With his usual deftness, Connelly links the Merced shooting to an act of arson—an apartment fire that killed nine on the same day—and returns to his perennial themes: local politics, the media, the LAPD’s internecine warfare, and, of course, Los Angeles itself, from the wealthy enclaves of Mulholland Drive to the barrios of East L.A. Bosch is very much of the old school in this high-tech world, but his hands-on tenacity serves him and the case well—just as Connelly serves his readers well with his encyclopedic knowledge and gifts as a storyteller. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"The pleasures of a Connelly tome are many: complex, Easter-egg-strewn plots, terrific minor characters, L.A.'s gritty underbelly. These aren't mysteries you'll forget. They'll stay with you, even haunt you."— Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly

"You know Harry already. You know what to expect from the storyteller Michael Connelly. Both of them deliver superbly."— Don Oldenburg, USA Today (3.5 out of 4 stars)

"As always, Connelly pulls off a fast-paced, well-drawn police procedural. . . . Consistently entertaining . . . The Burning Room will more than satisfy his fans. . . . Bosch may be up for retirement soon, but I doubt anyone would complain if he did his thing for another 20 years."— Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

"Connelly has the magic touch. . . . Connelly is one of the best crime writers in the business, and he continues to tell compelling character-driven tales."— Jeff Ayers, Associated Press

"A doozy of a tale . . . As long as Harry always remains patrolling on the margins of this series, its greatness is secure."— Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

"Typically excellent"— Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"A searing success . . . The Burning Room is a terrifically satisfying trip."— Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times

"[Connelly is] a master at construction."— Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Superb . . . Bosch shows himself once again to be the master and if he follows through on the retirement, his absence would leave an irreplaceable gap in crime fiction."— Jack Batten, Toronto Star

" The Burning Room offers a nuanced, nicely-honed performance from Connelly."— Daneet Steffens, Boston Globe

"Michael Connelly has yet another winner. . . . Let's hope [Bosch] sticks around for one more book."— Harry Levins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Excellent . . . The Burning Room excels as a look at how power, prestige and the media can override the best intentions."— Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

From the Publisher

2014-10-05
The latest and most intricate of Harry Bosch's cold cases (The Black Box, 2012, etc.) begins with a victim who's still cooling off in the morgue.Orlando Merced was shot 10 years ago by a sniper who fired into his band, Los Reyes Jalisco, as it played on Mariachi Plaza. He's just now died of blood poisoning, but the coroner's office is calling it murder, since the cause was the bullet that's been lodged in his body all these years. Ex-Los Angeles mayor Armando Zeyas, who can't resist grandstanding on behalf of the dead man who played at his wedding, offers a $50,000 reward guaranteed to bring the crazies out of the woodwork, and one of the callers tells Bosch's very junior new partner, Detective Lucia Soto, that the shooting is linked to a 1993 fire at the Bonnie Brae apartments that killed nine victims, most of them children. Since Soto survived that fire as a child and had friends who didn't, she comes to full alert when the anonymous tipster claims Merced was killed because he knew who set the fire. The two crimes are both linked, it turns out, to another crime, the violent robbery of an EZBank the same day as the Bonnie Brae arson. Though the felonies may be ancient, Connelly (The Gods of Guilt, 2013, etc.) maintains a rapid pace, steadily increasing the tension even after the solution becomes obvious. Following Bosch's trail is like watching Lew Archer in the glory days of Ross Macdonald, except Connelly's focus is social, political and ultimately professional rather than psychological. Expect Bosch to uncover a nest of vipers as powerful as they are untouchable, but don't expect him to emerge from his Herculean labors a happy man.

Kirkus Reviews

As the new voice of Harry Bosch in this nineteenth volume of the series, Titus Welliver brings some formidable skills to the narration. His deep, resonant voice fits the atmosphere and the vocalization of Bosch, and his pacing makes the story accessible even for new listeners. A slightly raised pitch makes the female voices pleasant and believable, as do the subtle Mexican accents he gives several characters. Bosch and rookie detective Lucia Soto, who work in the Open Unsolved Unit, investigate what was believed to be a random shooting 10 years earlier while also taking on a case from Soto’s childhood. This police procedural, as delivered by Welliver, will pull listeners deeply into the two cases. M.L.R. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2014 - AudioFile