Connolly, Michael – ECHO PARK

[LJ Roberts]

ECHOPARK (Police Procedural-Los Angeles-Cont) – G+ Connolly, Michael – 17^th book
Little Brown, 2006- Hardcover

Back from retirement, Detective Harry Bosch is still haunted by the kidnap and disappearance of Marie Gesto from 1993. Now serial killer Raynard Waits is willing to lead police to Marie’s grave as part of a plea bargain ensuring he will not receive the death penalty. When Waits escapes during the outing and the tape filming the event is obviously doctored, Harry suspects politics and career advancement are involved and that, perhaps, Waits hadn’t killed Marie after all but only been told how to find her grave.

The bones of this book reflect the usual excellent quality of Connelly’s writing. It has an interesting plot, Harry operating slightly outside the regulations, and descriptive, if slightly predictable, suspenseful scenes. The references to Harry’s past always make his an interesting character, particularly in the parallels to the killer. What set the book back, for me, was the focus on the political mechanisms and the ending with its classic conflict of legality versus justice. There was also a major thread left dangling at the end. While this was a more-than-good representation of Connelly, it was definitely not his best work.