Reviews
Echo Park
"Bestseller Connelly's compelling 12th Harry Bosch novel (after 2005's The Closers) offers some new wrinkles on a familiar theme—the aging detective haunted by the one who got away. In Bosch's case, the elusive quarry is the man who abducted a 22-year-old equestrian, Marie Gesto, in 1993. Having returned to active duty as a member of the LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit, Bosch repeatedly pulls the file to see if he can discover something new and give some small solace to the victim's parents. When a chance police stop of a suspicious vehicle nets serial killer Raynard Waits, who's carrying body parts in his van, Bosch assesses the murderer's claim that he was responsible for killing Gesto, too. The weary and cynical detective soon suspects that Waits is trying to barter information for a reduced sentence of life imprisonment. Political motivations connected with the upcoming DA election also cloud the investigation. Smooth prose and plausible characters—even the secondary figures—elevate this several notches above the standard cop vs. serial-killer thriller."
— Publishers Weekly * Book of the Week
"Harry Bosch, back with the LAPD in the Open-Unresolved Unit, wrestles with a teasing case from his salad days in Hollywood homicide. Back in 1993, equestrienne Marie Gesto vanished without a trace. Ten days later, her car turned up in the garage of a landmark apartment building, her clothing neatly folded inside. Then nothing, from that day to this.
Harry Bosch, who caught the case, worked it obsessively and even took a copy of the open file into retirement with him. Frustrated that he could never make a case against Anthony Garland, the worthless son of a high-rolling oilman, Bosch reviewed the evidence every chance he had when he was back on the job in Open-Unresolved. Now, suddenly, the crime has evidently been solved without his lifting a finger.
Raynard Waits, a window-cleaner caught red-handed with the dismembered body parts of two murder victims in his car, is trying to avoid the needle by confessing to nine earlier homicides, including Marie Gesto's. But Harry can't help looking this gift horse in the mouth. He doesn't trust Freddy Olivas, the Northeast homicide detective in charge of the case, or Rick O'Shea, the prosecutor who plans to ride it into the top job at the DA's office. And he doesn't trust Waits, not even when he provides information about the crime only the killer could know and offers to lead the cops to the spot where he buried Marie Gesto.
Readers who feel confident they can see what's coming will be thrown off-stride by the crafty series of surprises Connelly has up his sleeve. But nobody familiar with Bosch's checkered career will be shocked when the malfeasance reaches past Raynard Waits to the highest levels of city government. Connelly offers a stellar demonstration of why, as Harry says, "taking it straight to the heart is the way of the true detective," whatever the costs to himself and others. "
— Kirkus Reviews, * Starred Review
"Why are maverick policemen so popular with readers of crime fiction? In real life they would probably drive you crazy. In Michael Connelly's Echo Park Detective Kiz Rider, who partners one of the most famous of all mavericks, Harry Bosch, is finding it harder than ever to cope with his increasingly reckless disregard for the consequences of his actions. Working in the Open-Unsolved unit of the LAPD has given him the opportunity to keep going over the files of an old case he himself failed to solve, the disappearance of a young woman. Now a man accused of two murders has confessed to several others, including that of the missing woman, and Harry is devastated to discover that he had missed a clue which could have led to the killer all those years ago. But Connelly's plots are never straightforward, and he keeps us guessing until the exciting and bitter conclusion to this latest episode in a splendid series."
— Susanna Yager, The Daily Telegraph (London)
