A matter of honor (Connelly)

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A matter of honor (English: The Crossing) is the 28th novel by the American crime novelist Michael Connelly , the 18th novel in the Harry Bosch series. It was published in 2015, with a German translation in 2018.

action

“Ellis and Long” (the first three words of the novel) provoke an accident on Ventura Boulevard by consciously and deliberately pushing a motorcycle into oncoming traffic with their orange Camaro . Readers later learn that the victim of this murder is Dennis "Cisco" Wojciechowski, the investigator of Mickey Haller, the lawyer from Der Mandat and (half) brother of Harry Bosch.

Harry Bosch left the LAPD after the argument with his boss in Sharpshoot . Mickey Haller sees this as a good opportunity to hire him as a replacement for Cisco as an investigator. For Bosch this is actually unthinkable, because for the police the defense lawyers represent “the dark side”. Haller assures Bosch that the aim is to exonerate an innocent person. Da'Quan Foster is accused of brutally murdering Alexandra "Lexi" Parks. Lexi Parks was Assistant City Manager for West Hollywood . Bosch resists Haller's requests, but finally he thinks: If Foster is really innocent, then the real murderer has to be caught. So he finally agrees to meet Foster. Although the evidence is overwhelming, because sperm with Foster's DNA was found on the dead Parks, Bosch realizes in Foster's eyes that Foster cannot be the killer. He steps in as an investigator in this case, which is considered treason in police circles.

Bosch is making rapid progress in its investigation. Foster gave a false alibi to the police; in fact, at the time of the crime he had an erotic meeting with the transvestite and prostitute James Allen. But Allen was murdered a few days after Foster was arrested. Much coincidence in Bosch's eyes. His ex-colleague Lucia Soto provides him with a copy of the investigation file into the Allen murder case. Bosch is now investigating in both cases. As for Lexi Parks, he poses as a prospective buyer and comes to Parks' house where he discovers an empty box for an expensive Audemars Piguet watch . However, the dead woman did not wear the watch. On the trail of the watch, Bosch speaks to the jeweler Nguyen, who, together with his brother, runs the shop where Lexi Park's husband bought the watch at a very affordable price. The jeweler seems to be hiding something. Bosch learned from Park's husband that the watch was in need of repair. He finds out it should be repaired in Las Vegas. So he drives to Las Vegas and learns that the watch was originally sent to a plastic surgeon from Beverly Hills, Dr. Schubert, whose wife later reported it as stolen. So the service manager at the Audemars Piguet representative in Las Vegas called Lexi Parks. Lexi Parks then asked the seller Nguyen. As a city servant, she did not want any stolen property in possession. She was murdered four days after calling Nguyen.

Back in Los Angeles, Bosch is interrogated by the police for visiting the jewelry store. The two jewelers were murdered. Bosch now knows that the Lexi Parks murderer or killers will murder all possible witnesses.

In the Allen case, Bosch finds a security video that shows that Foster actually visited Allen. But Bosch also noticed an orange Camaro. Based on the murder record and with the help of Soto, he found that two detectives from Hollywood's civil affairs department, Don Ellis and Kevin Long, had a connection with Allen. They had the option of using a Foster condom on Allen to place the semen on Lexi Parks' body.

Bosch decides to confront the plastic surgeon Schubert in his office. Bosch records everything with his cell phone: Schubert admits he was filmed at a prostitute's house and then blackmailed by Ellis and Long. He also gave them the expensive watch. Shortly after this confession, Ellis and Long break into the office. They shoot Schubert, but Bosch manages to shoot Long and Ellis flees. Bosch is interrogated by the arriving police, but can show the audio recording. Nancy Mendenhall from the LAPD's internal investigations is also present and offers to drive Bosch home. There Bosch is attacked by Ellis, but Mendenhall noticed the orange Camaro and she can shoot Ellis just in time. After Black Box , Mendenhall saved Bosch's life for the second time.

Cross references

Mickey Haller has managed to be included in the prestigious Los Angeles scene in this novel, he had "received the imprimatur " through "a film about one of his cases in which none other than Matthew McConaughey plays" as in one Mixing fiction and reality at the beginning of the 12th chapter of the novel is called. Is meant the filming The client of the first novel The client Connelly with Mickey Haller as the main character.

background

Janet Maslin of the New York Times , referring to the book's English title, The Crossing , says that Connelly “finds creative ways to put the word Crossing in the book in as many ways as possible.” In fact, there are at least five meanings for find the title Crossing in the novel:

  1. Harry Bosch works as an investigator for the defense. In law enforcement circles, this is seen as crossing a red line (and Bosch also receives poisonous calls about it), as "moving to the dark side". “Do you know what they call someone who switches sides in a homicide investigation? They call him a Jane Fonda because she was for the North Vietnamese back then. Do you understand? It means that you overflow to the opposite side. "
  2. The chance encounter between the victim and the perpetrator is also a kind of "intersection". In this case Harry Bosch wonders where the paths of the murdered Lexi Parks and the suspected Da'Quan Foster could have crossed, given that they lived in so different " Worlds ”of Los Angeles. As it turns out, it was more of a coincidental crossover of phone calls that ultimately led to Park's murder.
  3. But “Crossing” also occurs in the literal sense of the local intersection of streets: “It is in the place where the transvestite Thomas Allen lived. Funnily enough, the driveway is right across from a graveyard for dead film stars from Paramount Studios, ”noted Michael Metzer in his review.
  4. The cosmetic surgeon Dr. Schubert breaks a taboo when he slept with one of his patients and thus started the whole story in the novel. Schubert confesses “I crossed a line” in the 42nd chapter of the book.
  5. And finally you can see the (not always conflict-free) encounter between Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, two main characters in the fictional world of Michael Connelly, as a crossing of two lines of the "Connelly universe", as Michael Drewniok does from the crime couch .

reception

Kirkus Review sees the novel as a solid, unspectacular but captivating work of the grandmasters in matters of police operations. Janet Maslin of the New York Times thinks that Connelly's best books take on tremendous momentum in their closing chapters, but that "a matter of honor" is not at that level. The Washington Post review points out that, as always in Connelly's books, the internal police details promote reading pleasure. The Tampa Bay Times praises the book by Connelly, who lives in Florida: “Finding the connections between the parts of the case - the intersections of the title, the places where seemingly unconnected people meet - there Harry the reader his best. As a bonus, we get that Mickey brings one of his brilliant performances to court in this case. "

The Tages-Anzeiger thinks that you can read “Ehrensache” without knowing the rest of the series, but that the development of the character of Harry Bosch in ever new situations also makes the series one of the better series. The krimi-couch.de judges: "'A matter of honor' is certainly not one of the highlights of the Harry Bosch series, but still offers above-average reading fun". Michael Matzer from buchwurm.info finds the novel as well as other books by Connelly as peppered with extremely solid crime thriller.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Janet Maslin: Review: John Grisham and Michael Connelly, Making Their Cases in New Novels in: New York Times, October 27, 2015
  2. ↑ This is what Harry Bosch says to Mickey Haller when Mickey wants to hire him - in the third chapter of the book.
  3. ↑ a b Michael Matzer: Michael Connelly - The Crossing in: buchwurm.info, January 17, 2017
  4. ↑ a b Michael Drewniok: From hunter to guardian, but still Harry Bosch in: Krimi couch.de, August 2017
  5. ↑ Kirkus Review: The Crossing by Michael Connelly,
  6. ↑ Maureen Corrigan: Michael Connelly's 'The Crossing': Harry Bosch goes to the dark side , in: Washington Post, October 30, 2015
  7. ↑ Colette Bancroft: Review: Harry Bosch just can't retire in Connelly's thrilling 'The Crossing' in: Tampa Bay Times, October 28, 2015
  8. ↑ Hanspeter Eggenberger: Detective Harry Bosch changes sides , in: Tages-Anzeiger, January 25, 2018