Sliding into a new Harry Bosch book is like sliding into a pair of
comfortable old slippers. It just feels so good. Back on the job
about a year after retiring, Harry has been assigned to the
Open/Unsolved unit --- a tough place for a cop like Harry, a rogue
driven by intolerance for justice gone unserved. It might sound
like it would make him a perfect fit, except that Harry isn't a
really good team player; he's closer, actually, to an old-fashioned
vigilante. Rules can't contain Harry. At least, that's what he
thinks. Sometimes his attitude gets him in hot water. This time, it
may cost him dearly.

In 1993, Marie Gesto, a woman in her early twenties, went missing.
Along with almost every other cop, Harry believes that she has been
dead since her disappearance. To hold out hope that she might be
found alive and well would be capricious at best. And despite the
fact that Harry does not believe in something a lot of folks call
"closure," he does believe that the family needs to know and, more
importantly, that the killer --- if indeed there is one --- needs
to be caught. For the past 13 years, Harry has been looking at a
spoiled rich kid he believes did it. He's just itching to find
enough evidence to put him away.

It's now election time, and Rick O'Shea is running for District
Attorney. Every move O'Shea makes is carefully calculated to
reflect well on himself, and reflect big in the media, with the
race such a highly contentious one. So when O'Shea's office
approaches Harry with a deal involving a suspect who claims to have
murdered the Gesto woman --- plus a long list of others --- Harry
eyes it with suspicion and distaste. While Harry doesn't care a fig
about politics, he does care about wiping this killer off the face
of the earth. Reluctantly, he listens, swallows his pride and comes
to the conclusion that he's been investigating the wrong guy for
more than a decade. This suspect's confession has all the earmarks
of the real thing, right down to pinpointing Marie Gesto's grave.
But, as always, if something seems too good to be true, it probably
is.

Harry approaches this case, as he does all of them, like a bulldog
with a bone. Whatever he gets his teeth into is as good as his, for
he will never let go. And more than ever, he has a lot at
stake.

Michael Connelly doesn't overcomplicate his plots. He doesn't need
a host of bizarre subplots and odd coincidences to deliver an
engrossing mystery with plausible twists, all of which makes
Connelly's books a delight to lose oneself in. ECHO PARK shows
Connelly in his best form.