"A city that forgets its murder victims is a city lost. This is where we don't forget," Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is told by his new boss, as he ends a three-year retirement and rejoins the Los Angeles Police Department at the start of The Closers, the 11th installment of Michael Connelly's Edgar-winning series. Having long ago demonstrated his knack for cracking previously unsolved homicides, Bosch is assigned to the newly re-branded Open-Unsolved Unit (aka "cold case" squad), and charged with resolving the 17-year-old abduction and slaying of a mixed-race teenager.

Rebecca Verloren, 16, was discovered missing from her Chatsworth home on a July morning in 1988. Her corpse and the gun that ended her life were later found on a hill behind the house. An autopsy revealed that she'd recently undergone an abortion, and a piece of skin tissue--presumably the killer's--was found trapped inside the murder weapon. Only now, though, has DNA science matched that tissue to Roland Mackey, a dyslexic 35-year-old tow-truck operator with no obvious connection to the deceased. It's up to Bosch, once more partnered with Kizmin Rider, to determine whether Mackey offed Becky Verloren, or was at least an accessory to that tragedy. But the more Bosch and Rider dig into this dusty crime, trying in part to determine whether racial animosity might have been involved, the more pain and resistance they encounter. Becky's white mother maintains the teen's old bedroom as a shrine, while her shattered father, an African-American chef, has vanished into LA's homeless community. Of the two original investigators on the case, one has since committed suicide, and Bosch suspects that the other--now a police commander--is helping to keep the lid tight on some old departmental secrets, perhaps linked to our hero's nemesis, Deputy Chief Irvin S. Irving.

The Best Harry Bosch Tale Yet

Harry Bosch is back with the LAPD after three years in retirement. He is working cold cases with his former partner, Kiz Rider. Harry is happy to be back (almost giddy for Harry). Before he even starts his new job, he is confronted by his old nemesis, former Chief of Police, Irvin Irving and is threatened with failure if he steps out of bounds. The case that Harry and Rider are working is the seventeen-year-old murder of a young girl. Before too long, Bosch realizes that Irving probably had a hand in derailing the original investigation. There are plenty of twists and turn and misdirection. The pace never lets up and leads to a very satisfying conclusion. As always, Connelly has police procedure down to a fine art. Harry's demons are kept in check in this outing which I found refreshing. His dark moods were getting to be a bit tedious. I liked everything about this book. A must read for fans of Harry Bosch.

Best of Bosch

This review refers to the audio version. I have listened to most of the other Harry Bosch novels. This one shows a maturing of both Connelly and Bosch. Harry is like an old friend so the flashbacks to Vietnam, the Juvenile Home, the failed marriage, the wife in Las Vegas, the late recognized daughter, the vendetta with Irving all resonate but may be obscure to the new reader. As a police procedure novel, this could become a classic -- the relentless detection of a murder 17 years ago. The usual Connnelly triple-turn ending runs true to form. I like Harry more and more as both of us get older and older.

Back behind the badge!

You knew Bosch couldn't stay away. Three years in retirement and Harry is itching to carry the gold shield. Kiz Rider engineers his return where the first day on the job he is summoned to the new chief's office. There he gets back his old badge and an assignment to the Open-Unsolved unit which is LAPD-speak for the Cold Case Squad.

It is an interesting day for Bosch who is told he is on a short leash, has a run-in with his old nemesis Deputy Chief Irving Irving, and gets assigned a cold case where a DNA data bank has scored a hit, seventeen years after the death of a seventeen year old girl.

Bosch is a skeptic and an assignment to review a failed investigation is a perfect place for a natural critic. Bosch is prone to see investigative failures as institutional flaws which must be exposed to protect the integrity of the detective's personal search for the truth. This fearlessness usually brings him to the precipice of professional danger even while the relentless tracking of the killer exposes him to personal peril.

Bosch is not a dark and moody in this incarnation. But the crime leads down a treacherous path of time and race and class to a powerful and unexpected conclusion.