Forgotten voices

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Forgotten Voices (English: The Closers) is the 15th novel by the American crime novelist Michael Connelly . It is the 11th book in the Harry Bosch series, published in 2005 (in German 2006).

action

After three years, Harry Bosch returns to the Los Angeles Police Department . Together with his colleague Kizmin “Kiz” Rider, he is assigned to the Open-Unsolved Division , the department for unsolved cases. New investigation methods such as DNA analysis give hope that old unsolved cases will be cleared up. The first case Bosch and Rider deal with is the murder of Rebecca Lost. "Becky", a girl of color, was murdered in 1988. Traces of blood were found on the murder weapon. There was a hit in the DNA analysis: The blood stains come from a Roland Mackey.

Bosch doesn't believe the petty criminal is actually Becky Lost's killer. Mackey had stolen the gun from Sam Weiss, a Jewish sound engineer. Mackey was a member of a white racist gang, the Chatsworth Eights, at the time. Since the victim was a black girl, Bosch suspects a racist background to the crime. Indeed, he finds out that the victim's father was intimidated by police officers. They prevented the gang from being investigated because a gang member was the son of Captain Richard Ross, the head of the Internal Affairs Division . One of the cops who blocked the investigation was Irven Irving, who had thwarted Bosch's investigation enough times when Bosch was previously with the LAPD.

Bosch and Rider launch a report in the Daily News because they want to scare Mackey and hope that he will get in touch with the real perpetrator because he is afraid that the DNA analysis will link him to the murder. In an adventurous undercover campaign, Bosch ensures that Mackey sees the newspaper report. Mackey then calls his friend William "Billy Blitzkrieg" Burkhart, also a member of the "Chatsworth Eights", and wants to talk to him about the article. Bosch and Rider follow Mackey undercover, but cannot prevent him from being lured into a trap and murdered. Bosch feels to some extent responsible for Mackey's death.

The investigation has come to an impasse after the Mackey murder. Bosch reads the file for the umpteenth time, the Murder Book . Suddenly he notices that the bedspread of the victim in her room in a photo in the file was different from the one in the room, as Becky's mother had left it unchanged since 1988. Bosch discovers a fingerprint on a post under the bed - a lead to the murderer. The investigation eventually leads to Becky's teacher at the time, Gordon Stoddard. Stoddard tries to provoke his killing by the police, which Bosch and Rider barely prevent.

Stoddard is arrested. Rebecca Verloren's father manages to get into the same prison through a crime, where he stabs Stoddard to death.

Cross references

In Chapter 8, Bosch talks to probation officer Thelma Kibble, who was badly injured in Shadow of the Moon .

reception

Publishers Weekly praises the novel in the highest tones: “Connelly comes like no other close to being today's Dostoevsky of crime fiction; this is one of his best novels to date. ”In this novel for the New York Times , Bosch returns to classic police investigative work as the focus of the plot, and does so“ artfully ”. The crime couch thinks that Harry Bosch is back. Not only in the novel back at the Los Angeles Police Department, but also as a literary figure: "... central figure in one of the best series in modern Anglo-Saxon crime novels".

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Publishers Weekly: The Closers
  2. ↑ Marilyn Stasio: 'The Closers': Speaking for the Dead in: NYT, May 8, 2005
  3. ↑ Michael Drewniok: Soul pain matures like poisonous wine Krimi couch.de, September 2006