I have a few people I read books with.  There is a mixture of tastes there and it seems no one has been completely satisfied with any of the books we’ve read together.  That is, until the fourth book in Michael Connelly’s series about Los Angeles Homicide Detective Harry Bosch.  The dissatisfaction some people had with other books prior to this one seemed to disappear as a compelling story with roots in Harry’s history paid off big time.

The Last Coyote opens with Harry on leave for having assaulted his supervisor.  Lieutenant Harvey Pounds and Bosch have never seen eye to eye and Harry has no respect for the man to being with.  It’s a time in his life where Harry is under a lot of pressure.  His house was condemned by the City after the earthquake.  His ongoing relationship with Sylvia Moore has ended.  The LAPD is under more of a microscope after Rodney King.

While on leave, he’s sent to a psychiatrist for evaluation.  Harry probably wouldn’t go, except there’s no way for him to return to duty unless she signs off on him.  As he visits her, he is at first oppositional to her overtures to make any real headway.  Something she says, though, about what he sees as his “mission” in life awakens something dormant in him, and he pulls out the file on his mother’s murder.

Marjorie Lowe was a prostitute in 1961, or a “party girl” as they were known.  She was found strangled in an alley and seemingly forgotten as just another person on the fringes who became a victim of her own lifestyle.  As Harry begins to dig, though, it seems like there is something more there.  His mother had connections to some powerful political figures in the City at the time, some of who still have some prominence in the current day.

Although not officially on the case, Harry uses his insight and abilities as a detective to investigate.  When he hits a brick wall, he gets creative.  However, he’s dealing with some pretty powerful people and what seems like a joke at first turns out to have dire consequences that will likely haunt Harry far beyond this book.

Michael Connelly started as a crime beat reporter and he really does a fantastic job weaving the details of a crime into a compelling story.  Add into that the fact that he’s quite adept at developing his characters with great depth in a short period of time and he’s got a fantastic story here.  Bosch’s investigation of his mother’s death seems like something that’s a natural progression of his life, especially at this time.  It seems like something cathartic, while at the same time leaving me wondering if it’s really going to have any kind of an impact on Bosch’s character.  He’s someone that’s both easy and difficult to like as a character, which is one of the things that makes him so compelling.

The mystery that evolves is great.  Connelly introduces information slowly, bringing the reader in different directions and wondering who really is the killer and who is involved in the apparent cover-up that took place.  Other than Harry, there are few people that enter the story that don’t seem like possible suspects at some point in time.  I didn’t guess the ending at all, and I doubt most people who read it will, either.  Yet one major clue is there right from the beginning and it all makes sense in the end.

As I said, other people I read this series with had quibbles about characterizations and the way things fell into place in the past.  The Last Coyote cuts through all of that.  It’s an exciting page-turner that roped me in and kept me guessing. 

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