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?
The Night Fire is classic Connelly, featuring in part all three of our favourite characters- Bosch of course who is forever imprinted on my memory as one Titus Welliver, but also Ballard and a kind of cameo from Mickey Haller.
As such it is utterly absorbing, an author at the height of his writing power – The Night Fire is modern noir at its very best, a quietly compelling and complex crime story that hooks you in before you know it and remains addictive, unpredictable and intelligent from first page to last.
There isnt a lot more that can be said, if you don’t read Connelly then you certainly should, there is a plethora of wonderful novels to choose from and one can only hope there are many more to come.
Highly recommended.
You can purchase The Night Fire (Orion) Here.
Happy Reading!
