For those seeking the kind of action that takes more turns than a roulette wheel, Trunk Music is a sure bet.
From the opening bars, when the body of Tony Aliso is pulled from the trunk of his Rolls Royce Silver Cloud on Mulholland Drive, to the final grace note on a Hawaiian beach, Connelly has crafted a jazzy, funky, roller coaster of a book. The return of maverick L.A. homicide detective Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch (from 1995's The Last Coyote) is cause for rejoicing. The Aliso murder quickly embroils Bosch and his new team (Kizmin Rider, a young black female officer on the rise in the department; veteran Jerry Edgar; and their boss, Lieutenant Grace Billets) in a Byzantine tangle of Las Vegas mob money, Hollywood filmmaking and police politics. The plot rushes headlong into deadends and deadfalls, repeatedly reorients and tears off in a new direction. Never known for tact, the single-minded Bosch is soon hotfooting through an acronymic snakepit: the LAPD's OCID (Organized Crime Investigation Division); the IAD (Internal Affairs Division); the LVPD's OCU (Las Vegas Police Department's Organized Crime Unit); the FBI. Not only does each organization claim a piece of the action, but each also wants a piece of Bosch. Connelly has it all working together here: skillful dialogue, solid plotting, nuances of race and status and a pace that will leave readers gasping to keep up. Connelly's early promise (The Black Echo earned him the 1993 Edgar for best first novel) has been borne out nicely by succeeding novels. Trunk Music is his best yet. $400,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Jan.)
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Homicide dick Harry Bosch investigates the murder of a Hollywood producer in this latest from the author of the Edgar Award-winning The Black Echo (LJ 1/92).
Hollywood homicide dick Harry Bosch goes up against whoever killed high-rolling, lowlife filmmaker Tony Aliso and tipped his body into the trunk of his Rolls.
The early buzz on the case shouts Las Vegas—so Harry heads out there in hopes of tracking down Tony's latest companion, a stripper named Layla. Instead he finds a trail of evidence that links Tony to a money-laundering operation for Joey Marks, the outfit's top man in Vegas; to Dolly's, a strip club owned by Marks lieutenant Luke ("Lucky") Goshen; and to Eleanor Wish, an ex-FBI agent whose activities took her to Harry's bed and a stretch in the pen before she turned up on video playing poker at Tony's side. Tough-guy Harry (The Last Coyote, 1995, etc.), incredibly still carrying a torch for Eleanor, wastes no time rekindling their affair—Eleanor's sullenness cracks just long enough for some brisk sex—and then finds he has to cut all sorts of deals with the Vegas cops and his own department to keep her out of the case he's building against Lucky Goshen. Back in L.A., deeper trouble awaits: When Harry lays out the case against Goshen—motive, fingerprints, murder weapon—he's told that Goshen's an undercover FBI agent with an ironclad alibi and that he's dashed into the middle of a sting that's been years in the making. Relieved once again of his homicide assignment, Harry—together with trusty sidekicks Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider—goes up against Tony's killers himself, with results as gripping and satisfying as they are improbable.
Forget realism, okay? If you'd like to see a buried love affair take off like a rocket and a bunch of crooks and crooked cops as canny and treacherous as le Carré's spies, you've come to the right place.
"His best yet!...a jazzy, funky, roller coaster of a book.""—Publishers Weekly Trunk Music is Connelly at his best, skewering the superficial Hollywood society, the hoods, the good guys and bad girls, the bureaucratic tyrants who would rather fill in the right form than get to the truth."—Orlando Sentinel Booklist
"A terrific read...truly one of the year's best entertainments."
"Trunk Music is Connelly at his best, skewering the superficial Hollywood society, the hoods, the good guys and bad girls, the bureaucratic tyrants who would rather fill in the right form than get to the truth."
Harry Bosch returns to the LAPD Homicide squad and in typical style crosses swords with the “brass” in no time. A seamy money-laundering operation in L.A. and Las Vegas gives Bosch plenty to puzzle over. Dick Hill is well versed in Bosch’s style after two audiobooks in the series. Hill delivers the squad room banter and the interviews with suspects and witnesses with perfection. The dialogue--quick and fresh--is read with astute cadence and inflection. The rough-voiced cop has a big heart and an unswerving sense of justice. Bosch is immensely likeable, and Hill defines his character memorably. R.F.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine
