The Concrete Blonde (Harry Bosch #3) by Michael Connelly

Rating: 8/10

Recommended for:

• Good police procedural thriller
• LA noir cop series

Summary :

The Dollmaker was the name of the serial killer who had stalked Los Angeles ruthlessly, leaving grisly calling cards on the faces of his female victims. Now with a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thinks he has ended the city’s nightmare.

But the dead man’s widow is suing Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man– an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker’s macabre signature.

So for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It’s a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go– the darkness of his own heart.

Thoughts :

Michael Connelly could make what seemingly unoriginal premise of a serial killer story into well plotted, excellently written psychological thriller/crime investigation with a probing scrutiny into the idea of justice and its manifestation as law that binds elements in society, its complex effect in molding the prejudices, bias, psychology and actions of prosecutors of law and the people it sworn to protect.

Notes :

Bosch looked at it as a cycle. Every twenty-five years or so the city had its soul torched by the fires of reality. But then it drove on. Quickly, without looking back. Like a hit-and-run.

Bosch knew that hope was the lifeblood of the heart. Without it there was nothing, only darkness.

“Nobody in this world is who they say they are. Nobody. Not when they’re in their own room with the door shut and locked. And nobody knows anybody, no matter what they think… The best you can hope for is to know yourself. And sometimes when you do, when you see your true self, you have to turn away.”