Angel's Delight!! (Angel's Flight - Michael Connelly)

Member Name: Pinotage

Product:	Angel's Flight - Michael Connelly
Date:	02/02/01 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping page turning investigative novel

Disadvantages: none

LA riots seem certain. Black lawyer Howard Elias forecast his death at the hands of a LA cop and now he's been brutally murdered. The public thinks a cop did it. The police chief also suspects the killer is one of his officers. The investigation has to be seen to be thorough. But they'd rather it didn't succeed or LA will go up in flames. Elias was just about to take the LA police to court on a high profile case alleging they?d tortured a suspect to make him confess to a nasty child rape-murder. They plan a high profile investigation that takes time till tempers calm and then gets no where.

Harry Bosch is given the unenviable task, and to hinder him he is teamed with the internal affairs officer that twice investigated complaints against Harry. No one doubts the child killer is guilty ? the evidence is 100%, so why kill Elias?

At first Harry seems to have a hopeless case. An investigating team hamstrung by divisions, a police force that fears the obvious conclusion being found, and a community sitting on a powder keg.

But certain things don?t ring true. If Elias is the ideal family man why does he have a flyer for a SM dominatrix? And are the facts about the abduction of the murdered girl as certain as everyone thinks. Harry's ex-partner interrogated the confessed killer. He was always a straight arrow and Harry knows he wouldn't torture a suspect, but why did he commit suicide? Certain facts have a way of slipping from his grasp the closer Harry gets.

Michael Connelly's Bosch novels never operate on one level; they are like a Russian doll where there are layers and layers of truth, opening one exposes a new layer.

I have read all his books as they have been published and this is one of the best. The main story line keeps to the forefront all the time, without much past baggage. Each twist and turn becomes instantly understandable, based on what went before, so you are led just a step or two behi
nd Bosch to the denouement.

One criticism I have is the unconvincing explanation he gives on tracking down a web site. I was embarrassed at the inadequacies and errors in the description of the web.

If you?ve never read a Michael Connelly book, then this is an excellent introduction. If you have then be assured this one is a real credit to the series.

Oh, and you'll look at Coke bottles in a new way.

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