Sniper

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Sharp shot (English: The Burning Room) is the 27th novel by the American crime novelist Michael Connelly , the 17th novel in the Harry Bosch series. It was published in 2014, with a German translation in 2016.

action

In 2014, Lucia Soto became a Bosch partner in the Open-Unsolved Unit. In November they begin investigating the death of street musician Orlando Merced, who died from a gunshot wound sustained ten years earlier on April 10, 2004 in Mariacha Square. A bullet got stuck in his spine after being shot in 2004. It couldn't be removed but gradually poisoned Merced. After his death, the ball can be cut out. She is the clue with which Bosch and Soto are starting the investigation again.

On the day of Merced's death, the police leadership wanted a press conference at which the former mayor Armando Zeyas also appeared. He has political ambitions, he wants to be the governor of California. Zeyas is offering a $ 50,000 reward for information. Bosch knows that this will result in a large number of calls that will not contribute to the investigation.

In the weapons laboratory, it is discovered that the bullet, a Remington .308, was fired from a hunting rifle, a Kimber Model 84 Montana. Bosch and Soto find out that the shot came from room 211 of the Boyle Hotel. They do this by analyzing an old recording from a surveillance camera. They also notice that the shot was probably not aimed at Orlando Merced, but at the band's trumpeter, Angel Ojeda.

While working on the Merced case, Bosch discovers that Soto was a survivor of the 1993 arson at the illegal daycare at the Bonnie Brae Arms Apartments, which killed five children and four adults. She's working on the case on the side, but Bosch wants an official investigation. He makes a fake call to the phone number for clues in the Merced case, claiming that the 1993 Bonnie Brae Arms apartment house fire had to do with it. Thanks to this fake connection, Bosch and Soto can work on both cases at the same time.

Bosch and Soto find out that trumpeter Angel Ojeda now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and fly there to speak to him. He admits he had an affair with Maria Broussard in 2004. Therefore, Bosch and Soto suspect their husband, Charles Broussard, a rich industrialist. When they learn that Broussard "accidentally" killed his best friend and employee, David Willman, they become interested in Willman. He had owned a Model 84 Kimber that was not reported. They search the garage of Willman's former home and find the rifle and other weapons. Broussard apparently hired Willman to kill Ojeda. However, Willman didn't hit the trumpeter, but Merced.

Meanwhile, the department receives more calls. An anonymous caller repeatedly claims that the police covered up Zeyas' involvement. Bosch and Soto follow these calls to Broussard's house and initially suspect that they were from Marie Broussard. However, the call actually came from her maid. As Bosch and Soto come to the Broussards, they see Charles Broussard brutally beating the maid. Soto fires two shots at Broussard and kills him. The election campaign manager from Zeyas had long known that Broussard had commissioned the shot on Mariacha Square. He used this information to get campaign donations from Broussard.

In the case of the arson, Bosch notices that a bank robbery took place on the same day. Eventually, the two detectives come across Ana Maria Acevedo, who lived in the Bonnie Brae Apartments for a while and has a connection to the robbery. This trail leads her to a monastery in Calexico, where Acevedo had become a nun and to which she had donated a large amount of money. Bosch and Soto learn that the nun lived there under the name Esther Gonzalez, the name of the kindergarten teacher who was killed in the fire. Acevedo is killed while on a mission in Mexico. She was apparently involved in the robbery at the EZBank and the fire should distract the police. Acevedo wanted to atone for the fact that so many people had been killed in the monastery.

Bosch and Soto solved all three crimes. But all suspects are dead. Nobody had to answer in court. Because Bosch broke into a captain's room to get the files on the fire, he is suspended from duty. He then acknowledges the service at the LAPD.

Cross references

The police psychologist Dr. Carmen Hinojos from The Last Coyote looks after Lucia Soto, who had an exchange of fire before working with Harry Bosch. Bosch's daughter Maddie is also supported by Dr. Honojos looked after. Maddie is still suffering from the traumatic events of Nine Dragons .

On the drive to Calexico, Bosch tells his partner, Soto, that he had already been to Calexico and that a Mexican police officer supported him in one case. It's about black ice .

Rachel Walling, the main character from The Poet , whom Bosch meets in The Return of the Poet , helps Bosch with internal CIA information in the search for the robbers who attacked the EZBank.

reception

Kirkus Review compares the book to the novels of Ross Macdonald : "Following Bosch's footsteps is like Lew Archer in the glory days of Ross Macdonald, only that Connelly focuses on social, political and ultimately professional rather than psychological aspects." Janet Maslin of the New York Times thinks that “Sharp Shot” is the best Bosch novel in years, because of the sharp dialogues, the rapid twists and turns of the plot and a never lazy or moody Harry Bosch. The Guardian review credits the novel for having provided a fine, clever 'pageturner' who “traces the shadows of years of crimes, the intricacies of which run through the ranks of LA society and the entire geography of the city . "

Jürgen Priester from krimi-couch.de cannot follow his American and British colleagues at all. For him the novel is “a bitter disappointment” and Priester continues: “Series heroes are immortal until the loyal readers have completely lost interest. If Connelly continues like this, that's exactly what will happen. "

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kirkus Review: Burning Room by Michael Connelly
  2. ↑ Janet Maslin: The Craziness Adds Up for an Antihero Cop in: New York Times November 24, 2014
  3. ↑ Alison Flood: The Burning Room by Michael Connelly review - a cold case hots up for Harry The Guardian November 17, 2014
  4. ↑ Jürgen Priester: More like a miss than a sharp shot. Krimi couch.de June 2016
  5. ↑ WorldCat counts the novels Brass Verdict as No. 14 and The Reversal as No. 16 in the Harry Bosch series. That's why The Burning Room is # 19 on WorldCat, not # 17 like this. Michael Connelly counts differently on his Series Order website . There Brass Verdict and The Reversal do not appear as Harry Bosch novels, but rather: “Appearance (by Harry Bosch) in the following novels: The Brass Verdict (2008) and The Reversal (2010), and a brief part in The Fifth Witness (2011) and The Gods of Guilt (2013) ".