It took Harry Bosch almost three years of retirement from the Los Angeles Police Department to realize his faith – justice – was best worshiped at a blue altar. In “The Closers,” he has left private investigations and regained the balance provided by a detective’s shield. And in telling the story of his dark hero, Michael Connelly reveals himself as a writer at the top of his form.
Rebecca Verloren, 16, was missing from her bedroom on the morning of July 6, 1988. The high school student lived with her parents in Chatsworth, a peaceful corner of northwest Los Angeles. The police initially wrote her off as a runaway. But two days after her disappearance, her body was found on Oat Mountain, not far from the family’s backyard. The hole in her chest, from a .45 caliber bullet, left no doubt as to the cause of death.
Until they read the autopsy report, the police wrote Rebecca off as a suicide. The lack of gunpowder residue on her hands, evidence of an abortion a few weeks before her death, and marks on her neck left by a stun gun, however, turned the case into a murder investigation. Any potential trail was icy by that point, though. The only hard evidence police had was a piece of skin and some blood, left presumably by the killer, on the murder weapon.
Bosch returns to the LAPD as the newest member of the Open Unsolved unit, at the request of his friend and old partner Kizmin Rider. He has come back to a changed department. But some things remain the same, most notably the presence of his longtime adversary, Deputy Chief Irving. The 40-year veteran is waiting for Bosch, whom he refers to as a retread, to come apart at the seams.
The Open Unsolved unit is a haven of last resort. The officer in charge explains the unit’s role to Bosch: “A city that forgets its murder victims is a city lost. This is where we don’t forget. We’re like the guys they bring in at the bottom of the ninth inning to win or lose the game. The closers. If we can’t do it, nobody can.” They don’t bring closure; that is a job best left to therapists. But they try to find answers to some of the 8,000 unsolved cases that have accumulated in the files since 1960.
The science of solving crimes has come a long way in the time that many of these cases have been open. Computer registries and DNA testing are the newest tools in a cop’s bag of tricks, but they only supplement, not replace, the dogged legwork that fingers a perpetrator. There is still a good place for a man like Bosch, driven to close cases by a belief that rests deep in his bones – that unless the least of the victims matter, no one matters.
“The Closers” is all that a reader expects from a well-imagined and -executed crime novel. There are the requisite elements: a victim; suspects; and the unexpected twists that make finding the solution satisfying.
Connelly has risen well above the genre pulp, by telling stories that matter, filling them with rich characters and bringing the locales alive for the reader. All this is accomplished with a skill that lifts the prose from the page and turns it into something palpable.
What he has done quite nicely in past novels he does even better this time. “The Closers” is the story of a murder, but it is also a story of the grief and loss of innocence that are the collateral damage of crime. Though Bosch always has been a noble character, his conflicted strength of spirit shines more clearly than ever this time.
He is embarking on a continued saga that one hopes will continue a long time.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
The Closers
By Michael Connelly
Little, Brown, 400 pages, $26.95
