The comeback (Connelly)

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The Comeback (English: Trunk Music) is the sixth novel by the US crime writer Michael Connelly . It is the fifth book in the Harry Bosch series, published in 1997, in German in 1999. The novel received the 1998 Barry Award in the Best Novel category .

action

A dead man is found in the trunk of a white Rolls-Royce not far from the Hollywood Bowl . Everything looks like a contract killing in circles of the underworld, called trunc music . And when it turns out that the dead, Anthony Aliso, laundered Mafia money with a production company for porn films , the case seems clear.

Since Aliso was in Las Vegas shortly before his death , Bosch flies to the glittering city. On the recordings of the surveillance cameras at The Mirage casino , Bosch not only sees Aliso playing poker, but also Eleanor Wish, who became a professional poker player after serving her sentence for her involvement in bank robberies. Bosch finds out her address, visits her and the old passion from “ Black Echo ” flares up again.

Bosch has fingerprints that could be found on the dead man's leather jacket. The Las Vegas police have these prints in their database; they come from Luke Goshen, a nightclub owner and front man for mafia boss Joseph Marconi, known as Joey Marks. During the search of Goshen's house, a pistol is found, which quickly turns out to be the murder weapon. It looks like the case is resolved. But Bosch has doubts: why should Goshen hide the gun in his apartment? Was it being pushed onto him?

Bosch and his partner Jerry Edgar are supposed to bring the alleged perpetrator Luke Goshen from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. On arrival in Las Vegas, Bosch tries to contact Eleanor Wish, but she does not answer. He kicks in the door of her house fearing the worst. A limousine is waiting in front of the house with Joey Marks in it, who is blackmailing Bosch. Marks kidnapped Eleanor Wish and only wants to release her if Bosch clears the way for Goshen to come into Mark's hands. Because Marks believes that Goshen would stand up as a key witness against him to save his own head. Bosch rushes to the local prison where Goshen is waiting for transport to LA. Goshen reveals where a “safe house” of the Mafia is. With the help of Edgar, Bosch manages to free Eleanor Wish and get her on a plane to Los Angeles and thus to safety for the time being.

Bosch and Edgar go to Los Angeles with Goshen and put him there in prison. Back at the Hollywood division of the LAPD, Bosch is confronted with FBI agents who accuse him of slipping the found murder weapon into Goshen. Luke Goshen is actually undercover agent Roy Lindell and he has a watertight alibi. The case is withdrawn from Bosch and his partners, the FBI takes over.

Bosch realizes that his investigations into the Mafia were completely wrong. Veronica Aliso, the victim's wife, is again the prime suspect. Harry Bosch, Jerry Edgar and the new third partner Kizman Rider decide to investigate on their own.

Bosch finds the spot on Mulholland Drive where Aliso and his Rolls-Royce were probably stopped. A homeless man camps in the bushes below this point, and Bosch finds Aliso's suitcase with him. Together with Edgar and Rider, he goes to Aliso's wife, Veronica, and explains that Aliso has brought a million dollars with her from Las Vegas. In fact, it was $ 400,000. Then the three investigators lie in wait on Mulholland Drive. Late at night a person comes and takes the suitcase. Bosch overwhelms her: it's Ray Powers, the patrol officer, who found the Rolls-Royce and opened the trunk with the body. In an interrogation that lasted all night, Bosch Powers succeeded in making a statement. Powers accuses Veronica Aliso of being the mainspring of her husband's murder.

Powers outsmarts Bosch and Edgar, overpowers them and flees. Bosch assumes that Powers wants to kill Veronica Aliso. However, this has disappeared. She was picked up from her house by a man. Aliso had stolen money from the Mafia and Bosch suspected that it was in a safe in a bank in Las Vegas. Together with a command from the FBI, the three LAPD investigators are monitoring the bank. There is a wild exchange of fire in which everyone involved is killed: Jay Powers, Joey Marks, John Felton, Captain of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department , who was in cahoots with Mafia boss Joey Marks, and Veronica Aliso. The money, probably $ 2 million, is gone. As she dies, Veronica asks Aliso Bosch not to pursue her daughter.

Bosch thinks he knows where the money is. Aliso's lover had transferred it to her own locker after Aliso's death. And now it's gone. And Bosch also knows who she is. She is the daughter of Veronica Aliso, who left her with her grandmother in Las Vegas as a small child. Tony Aliso fell in love with his wife's daughter, of all people.

Shortly before returning to Los Angeles, Eleanor Wish and Harry Bosch get married in Las Vegas. Bosch wants to and has to do it. The Police Code does not allow you to be in a relationship with a criminal unless you are related. Eleanor and Harry are on their wedding vacation in Hawaii. Bosch recognizes Veronica Aliso's daughter on the beach. He decides to leave her alone to comply with the wishes of the dying Veronica Aliso.

background

Michael Connelly was inspired for "The Comeback" by the never-solved murder of the sports manager and businessman Vic Weiss from Encino , who was found shot in 1979 in the trunk of his Rolls-Royce. Weiss had a second secret side: he ran into huge debts on game betting and had contacts and likely conflicts with the mafia. This is what Michael Connelly reported when he was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times . "Trunk Music", the English title of the novel, describes a murder by the mafia in which the corpse is left in a trunk.

reception

Publishers Weekly commends Connelly for "assembling a jazzy, funky roller coaster from a book," and considers the book to be Connelly's best yet. Kirkus Reviews compares Michael Connelly with John le Carré , analogously: "The characters are a bunch of crooks and corrupt police officers, as clever and devious as the spies le Carrés". The Los Angeles Times thinks Connelly's writing style is a great way to translate cop jargon. In the eyes of the reviewer, however, the end of the novel is based on such an unlikely coincidence that it almost undermines the grim realism of the novel.

filming

The plot of the second season of the Amazon Studios- produced crime series Bosch is based next to the novels The Last Coyote and The Adversary mainly on the novel The Comeback .

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David A. Ulin: The Simple Art of Murder in: LA Times February 9, 1997
  2. ↑ Michael Connelly: Who Shot Vic Weiss? A Trail Gone Cold in: LA Times June 11, 1989
  3. ↑ "Trunc music: An old organized crime code term for a dead body thrown in someone's trunk." Urban Dictionary
  4. ↑ Publishers Weekly: Fiction Book Review: Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
  5. ↑ Kirkus Reviews: Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
  6. ↑ Dick Lochte: There's a rumor abroad in the land ... , in: LA Times, April 20, 1997
  7. ^ BOSCH TV on Michael Connelly's website .