Product Description

Back on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is ready for a challenge. But his first case is a little more than he bargained for.


It starts with the body of a Hollywood producer in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head at close range - what looks like "trunk music," a Mafia hit. But the LAPD's organized crime unit is curiously uninterested, and when Harry follows a trail of gambling debts to Las Vegas, the case suddenly becomes more complex - and much more personal.


A rekindled romance with an old girlfriend opens new perspectives on the murder, and he begins to glimpse a shocking triangle of corruption and collusion. Yanked off the case, Harry himself is soon the one being investigated. But only a bullet can stop Harry when he's searching for the truth . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7175 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 496 pages

Amazon.com Review
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.

Customer Reviews

Another Strong Effort
This was another strong effort from Connelly. Bosch, one of the most interesting and compelling crime stoppers in the genre, is a sort of Dirty Harry with an even darker side. Trunk Music has a strong plot with nice twists and plenty of surprises. As always, Connelly does a superb job at portraying that gray area between good guys and bad guys. Once again Bosch is being investigated by IAD, but the telling line of the novel is Bosch's: "Who polices the police who police the police?" Things wrap up a little too neatly at the end, but otherwise I highly recommend this book. I rank it a little behind some of Connelly's earlier novels, but it still stands out amongst today's best crime fiction.

Not garden variety mystery writing...
Trunk Music is the fifth novel in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch mystery series, and so far, I have been very impressed with the consistency of Connelly's writing.

After spending all of book number four, The Last Coyote, suspended from the LAPD homicide department, Bosch is once again on the force. He is called out when another officer finds a body in the trunk of a car. The victim is Tony Aliso, and independent film producer. As Bosch and his two partners, Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider, start to investigate, they discover that he lived an opulent lifestyle that could not have been possible based on just his film business. In fact, they believe it looks like a Mafia hit (i.e. Trunk Music). But when they notify the LAPD's Organized Crime Unit, they seem uninterested in pursuing the case. Tony Aliso went back and forth between LA and Las Vegas, and Bosch and his partners go back and forth between the two cities trying to run down clues. They also run up against the FBI, who is doing a mob investigation of their own. As with most Bosch mysteries, Harry is able to see things that most investigators can't and he gets a handle on the case before anyone.

Connelly seems to have a love/hate relationship with LA, and he constantly describes the complex personality of this city. In Trunk Music, he shows similar feelings for Las Vegas, although more loathing than love. He writes "Bosch had never liked Las Vegas, though he came here on cases. It shared a kinship with Los Angeles; both were places desperate people ran to.....Beneath the veneer of glitz and money and energy and sex beat a dark heart. No matter how much they tried to dress her up with neon and family entertainment, she was still a [...]." We're not talking garden variety mystery writing here. This is good stuff.

The only thing I found hokey with Trunk Music is that Bosch and his partners would secretly work on a case they were officially removed from (with the consent of their bureau commander). But Bosch is a loose cannon anyway, and even if he didn't have the bureau commander's approval, he would have done it anyway. So don't let this minor issue keep you from reading another good Connelly.

Connelly never disappoints
I've read the first five Harry Bosch novels, and have come to regard them as one continuous narrative in the eventful life of an old friend. Trunk Music was one of the better installments, and displays Connelly's typical mastery of plot development and authentic characterization. I've never found anyone in this genre whose dialogue rings truer, reminding me of a print version of a Steven Bochco show. Trunk Music also re-energizes the formula by introducing some great new characters in fellow cops Kizmin Rider and Grace Billets, and bringing back old flame Eleanor Wish.

Connelly weaves ambitiously intricate mysteries, always with several possible outcomes suggested. At times he seems to overreach, and the ending here feels a little rushed and unsatisfying. It's not that he leaves loose ends; everything is explained in his chosen scenario, it just seems that something with greater ironic power might have been available in this case. However, as I began this review, the more of these I read, the less I require them to be stand-alone masterpieces, and the more I simply relish inhabiting Bosch's world for a while.