Review: THE NIGHT FIRE

THE NIGHT FIRE by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, 2019)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, but after his funeral his widow hands Bosch a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD 20 years before -- the unsolved killing of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals.

Bosch brings the murder book to Renée Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson's fire all those years ago. That will be their starting point.

The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigation team. And they soon arrive at a worrying question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?

For decades Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch has been a guardian of Los Angeles, patrolling its streets and suburbs, working hard to find justice for anyone who’s had their life taken. Everybody counts or nobody counts. While partners, friends, mentors and adversaries have moved on – some permanently – Bosch has relentlessly continued. But now the mileage is beginning to catch up with the great detective.

Walking with a cane, no longer actively working for the tiny San Fernando PD, and ailing in other ways, Bosch is becoming more aware that the road behind him is far lengthier than the one he still has ahead. His investigative instincts are still sharp, however, and get kicked into gear when the widow of Bosch’s old mentor gifts him the murder book of a long-unsolved killing, swiped from archives years before. Meanwhile fellow maverick detective, Renee Ballard of Hollywood’s midnight shift, has an arson-killing of a homeless man to investigate and Bosch’s half-brother Mickey Haller is trying to work his magic defending a man who confessed to the murder of a judge and whose DNA was on the judge’s body.

There’s plenty for readers to enjoy as Connelly gathers and partners his three greatest protagonists in The Night Fire. Bosch and Ballard team up on some matters, while Bosch and Haller do on others. Can Ballard help Bosch reignite the long-cold investigation his mentor didn’t seem to progress at all? The detective duo work in tandem and separately, juggling cases and angering other cops as they go.

Over the past quarter century Connelly’s Bosch tales and other books have provided a scrapbook of the gritty realities and festering issues that contrast the sunshine and celebrities veneer of Los Angeles. There is no finer modern chronicler of that sprawling, diverse city, and while The Night Fire perhaps doesn’t hit the highest heights of Connelly’s outstanding oeuvre, it’s yet another great read

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. You can heckle him on Twitter.