LAPD Homicide detective Bosch is back from an involuntary administrative leave just in time for the bodies to start turning up. When he finds hints of an mob hit but can't interest the organized crime unit in the murder, Bosch has to take the investigation into his own hands in a this hard-boiled tale full of sharp turns. Fans of Michael Connelly's excellent, The Poet, will go wild for this even better addition to the Harry Bosch series.


From Publishers Weekly
From the opening bars, when the body of Tony Aliso is pulled from the trunk of his Rolls Royce Silver Cloud on Mulholland Drive, to the final grace note on a Hawaiian beach, Connelly has crafted a jazzy, funky, roller coaster of a book. The return of maverick L.A. homicide detective Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch (from 1995's The Last Coyote) is cause for rejoicing. The Aliso murder quickly embroils Bosch and his new team (Kizmin Rider, a young black female officer on the rise in the department; veteran Jerry Edgar; and their boss, Lieutenant Grace Billets) in a Byzantine tangle of Las Vegas mob money, Hollywood filmmaking and police politics. The plot rushes headlong into deadends and deadfalls, repeatedly reorients and tears off in a new direction. Never known for tact, the single-minded Bosch is soon hotfooting through an acronymic snakepit: the LAPD's OCID (Organized Crime Investigation Division); the IAD (Internal Affairs Division); the LVPD's OCU (Las Vegas Police Department's Organized Crime Unit); the FBI. Not only does each organization claim a piece of the action, but each also wants a piece of Bosch. Connelly has it all working together here: skillful dialogue, solid plotting, nuances of race and status and a pace that will leave readers gasping to keep up. Connelly's early promise (The Black Echo earned him the 1993 Edgar for best first novel) has been borne out nicely by succeeding novels. Trunk Music is his best yet. $400,000 ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Homicide dick Harry Bosch investigates the murder of a Hollywood producer in this latest from the author of the Edgar Award-winning The Black Echo (LJ 1/92).Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
Piece of cake. That's what Michael Connelly makes it look like in his terrific new police procedural . . . when a Los Angeles loser named Tony Aliso pops up dead in the trunk of his car. . . . Every procedure comes with a diagram, every body blow has a follow-up and every grifter on the strip is frisked for some colorful piece of personal history.


From AudioFile
Harry Bosch returns to the LAPD Homicide squad and in typical style crosses swords with the "brass" in no time. A seamy money-laundering operation in L.A. and Las Vegas gives Bosch plenty to puzzle over. Dick Hill is well versed in Bosch's style after two audiobooks in the series. Hill delivers the squad room banter and the interviews with suspects and witnesses with perfection. The dialogue--quick and fresh--is read with astute cadence and inflection. The rough-voiced cop has a big heart and an unswerving sense of justice. Bosch is immensely likeable, and Hill defines his character memorably. R.F.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is back from an "involuntary stress leave," and his first case is what Detroit wiseguys call trunk music: two .22 caliber bullets in the skull of schlock movie producer Tony Aliso, with Aliso's body stuffed in the trunk of his white Rolls. The murder shouts Mob, but LAPD's organized-crime unit expresses disinterest. So Harry and his two young partners follow a trail of laundered money to Las Vegas and what appears to be a sure conviction. But Harry's perp turns out to be an undercover FBI agent with an ironclad alibi. In short order, he's up against the Feebs, LAPD's organized crime unit, a junkyard-dog Internal Affairs investigator, the real killers, Las Vegas hoodlums, bad cops, and the possible involvement of a woman he once loved and lost. Connelly, a former journalist on the crime beat, has taken traditional motifs from crime, cop, private-eye, mystery, and noir novels and created a terrific read. Harry is a Chandlerian knight errant: tough, shrewd, and principled enough to pursue the truth despite formidable opposition. Offering a sultry femme fatale, plenty of seamy and sordid--albeit palm-lined--mean streets, and half a school of red herrings, this atmospheric novel is truly one of the year's best entertainments. Thomas Gaughan


From Kirkus Reviews
Hollywood homicide dick Harry Bosch goes up against whoever killed high-rolling, lowlife filmmaker Tony Aliso and tipped his body into the trunk of his Rolls. The early buzz on the case shouts Las Vegas--so Harry heads out there in hopes of tracking down Tony's latest companion, a stripper named Layla. Instead he finds a trail of evidence that links Tony to a money-laundering operation for Joey Marks, the outfit's top man in Vegas; to Dolly's, a strip club owned by Marks lieutenant Luke (``Lucky'') Goshen; and to Eleanor Wish, an ex-FBI agent whose activities took her to Harry's bed and a stretch in the pen before she turned up on video playing poker at Tony's side. Tough-guy Harry (The Last Coyote, 1995, etc.), incredibly still carrying a torch for Eleanor, wastes no time rekindling their affair--Eleanor's sullenness cracks just long enough for some brisk sex--and then finds he has to cut all sorts of deals with the Vegas cops and his own department to keep her out of the case he's building against Lucky Goshen. Back in L.A., deeper trouble awaits: When Harry lays out the case against Goshen--motive, fingerprints, murder weapon--he's told that Goshen's an undercover FBI agent with an ironclad alibi and that he's dashed into the middle of a sting that's been years in the making. Relieved once again of his homicide assignment, Harry- -together with trusty sidekicks Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider--goes up against Tony's killers himself, with results as gripping and satisfying as they are improbable. Forget realism, okay? If you'd like to see a buried love affair take off like a rocket and a bunch of crooks and crooked cops as canny and treacherous as le Carr‚'s spies, you've come to the right place. (Book-of-the-Month Club selection; paperback rights to St. Martin's; $400,000 joint ad/promo for Trunk Music and The Poet; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"For those seeking the kind of action that takes more turns than a roulette wheel, Trunk Music is a sure bet." --People

"Compelling...Connelly displays a wonderful atmospheric feel for the posh and the poor...The last pages bring things to a shocking end that should satisfy Connelly's growing audience." --The Washington Post

"[A] terrific new police procedural." --The New York Times Book Review



Book Description
Following on the heels of his extraordinary New York Times bestseller, The Poet, Edgar Award-winning author Michael Connelly brings you Trunk Music, his most electrifying Harry Bosch novel to date-a taut, complex thrill ride that confirms Connelly's standing as one of the premier crime writers of our day.

Detective Harry Bosch is back on the job and working on the hottest murder investigation in Hollywood. The body of a movie producer has been found stuffed into the trunk of his Rolls, and to Harry the evidence seems to say it all: it's "trunk music," a Mafia production. The money trail leads from L.A. to Las Vegas, and Harry's determined to get to the bottom of things-but he's making some powerful enemies along the way. And, as if he wasn't knee-deep in trouble already, he's about to take the biggest gamble of all-on love. Mixing business with pleasure: it's the kind of parlay that could drive Harry to distraction...and into an early grave. Vegas-style.



Download Description
Back on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch lands his first case: a Hollywood producer found in the trunk of his Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head. It looks like "trunk music," a Mafia hit Back on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch lands his first case: a Hollywood producer found in the trunk of his Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head. It looks like "trunk music," a Mafia hit.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The murder of a Hollywood producer has all the signs of a Mafia hit, but something doesn't add up. Battling impertinent superiors, disgraced LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch follows a string of odd clues until he uncovers a scheme many magnitudes more deadly than he'd imagined--with himself as the next target. Now Harry must prove himself not just by breaking the case, but surviving it. "Truly one of the year's best entertainments." Booklist.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Back on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch lands his first case: a Hollywood producer found in the trunk of his Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head. It looks like "trunk music," a Mafia hit. The LAPD's organized crime unit is oddly uninterested, but Harry thinks they're wrong. He follows the money trail from the producer's office to Las Vegas, where he quickly finds evidence of Mafia involvement. But something about the case doesn't add up, and Harry follows a string of odd clues - glitter in the producer's cuffs, an over-the-counter medication in the Rolls's glovebox - in a different direction entirely. Just when Harry thinks he's on firm ground, the bottom falls out. Blindsided again and again, at odds with his superiors, and overwhelmed by a romance that has cropped up in the middle of the case, Harry is as off balance as he's ever been.

FROM THE CRITICS

Washington Post

Compelling...Connelly displays a wonderful atmospheric feel for the posh and the poor...The last pages bring things to a shocking end that should satisfy Connelly's growing audience.

People

For those seeking the kind of action that takes more turns than a roulette wheel, Trunk Music is a sure bet.

Publishers Weekly

From the opening bars, when the body of Tony Aliso is pulled from the trunk of his Rolls Royce Silver Cloud on Mulholland Drive, to the final grace note on a Hawaiian beach, Connelly has crafted a jazzy, funky, roller coaster of a book. The return of maverick L.A. homicide detective Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch (from 1995's The Last Coyote) is cause for rejoicing. The Aliso murder quickly embroils Bosch and his new team (Kizmin Rider, a young black female officer on the rise in the department; veteran Jerry Edgar; and their boss, Lieutenant Grace Billets) in a Byzantine tangle of Las Vegas mob money, Hollywood filmmaking and police politics. The plot rushes headlong into deadends and deadfalls, repeatedly reorients and tears off in a new direction. Never known for tact, the single-minded Bosch is soon hotfooting through an acronymic snakepit: the LAPD's OCID (Organized Crime Investigation Division); the IAD (Internal Affairs Division); the LVPD's OCU (Las Vegas Police Department's Organized Crime Unit); the FBI. Not only does each organization claim a piece of the action, but each also wants a piece of Bosch. Connelly has it all working together here: skillful dialogue, solid plotting, nuances of race and status and a pace that will leave readers gasping to keep up. Connelly's early promise (The Black Echo earned him the 1993 Edgar for best first novel) has been borne out nicely by succeeding novels. Trunk Music is his best yet. $400,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Homicide dick Harry Bosch investigates the murder of a Hollywood producer in this latest from the author of the Edgar Award-winning The Black Echo (LJ 1/92).

AudioFile - Robin F. Whitten