Two Kinds of Truth

October 2, 2017
Bestseller Connelly’s fast-paced 22nd Harry Bosch novel (after 2016’s The Wrong Side of Goodbye) puts the aging L.A. detective, now a volunteer with the San Fernando PD, squarely in the middle of two cases. The execution of two local pharmacists—father and son—sends Bosch into the world of “pill shills,” crime networks that use homeless people, crooked doctors, and greedy pharmacists to amass prescription opioids for illegal resale. The other case dates back 30 years to Bosch’s days in the LAPD, when he helped put convicted killer Preston Borders on death row. When the case is reopened thanks to newly revealed DNA, Bosch stands accused of planting evidence. At times the parallel narrative lines feel too separate, as if two distinct novels are melded into one, but even so, the book unfolds with great urgency and a sense of righteous indignation, particularly about the opioid crisis (“Fifty-five thousand dead and counting”). The two truths of the title encapsulate Bosch’s world: “ truth that was the unalterable bedrock of one’s life and mission. And the other, malleable truth of politicians, charlatans, corrupt lawyers and their clients.” This entry isn’t Connelly’s best, but it’s still a solid procedural sure to please his many fans. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary.

October 1, 2017
Harry Bosch juggles yet another cold case turned disconcertingly hot with the sort of brand-new case that would be routine for anyone but him.Thirty years ago, Bosch was sure that Preston Borders had raped and murdered three young women. The district attorney's office, less confident about two of the cases, still managed to convict Borders of killing Danielle Skyler. A jury gave him the death penalty, and he's been sitting in San Quentin ever since. Now, however, it looks as if he may get out, and not because he's been executed. An analysis of the evidence that went unexamined back in 1988 has identified the DNA on Danielle's pajama bottoms as that of Lucas John Olmer, who died in a different prison and never met Borders. Under the guidance of sharp-practice lawyer Lance Cronyn, Borders has filed a habeas corpus petition, made a new statement accusing Harry of planting evidence against him, and expressed a serious interest in suing everyone in sight. Bosch (The Wrong Side of Goodbye, 2016, etc.) has only nine days before the habeas hearing to defuse this ticking bomb. But how can he possibly find the time to work the case when the murder of Jose Esquivel Sr. and Jr., a pharmacist and his son, at their family business has swept the San Fernando Police Department--where Bosch, booted off the LAPD, is now volunteering--into a hurricane of fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions and provoked Bosch to agree for the first time in his life to go undercover as an addict and potential drug mule?All the structural problems you'd expect from jamming two urgent but unrelated cases together: during much of the second half, Connelly (The Late Show, 2017, etc.) seems to be tying up increasingly low-impact loose ends. But a marvelous courtroom sequence will bring you cheering to your feet.

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Starred review from October 15, 2017
After debuting a new series lead, night-shift detective Renee Ballard, in The Late Show (2017), Connelly returns to everybody's favorite hard-bitten cop, Harry Bosch. Harry's gig as a part-timer working cold cases for the San Fernando PD suddenly gets much hotter when the sleepy suburb becomes the scene of a double murder at a pharmacy. The regular detectives look to Harry for help, and soon enough, he finds himself doing something he's never done: going undercover to expose an elaborate scam involving the distribution of opiates. It's not the best time for Harry to go underground, as he's also knee-deep in another scam, this one designed to make him the fall guy when a killer on death row claims Harry framed him decades ago. Connelly cleverly brings Harry's half brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer, 2005), into the story, along with other characters from Harry's LAPD past, including former partners Jerry Edgar and Lucia Soto. Expertly juggling both plots, Connelly mines the double murder for fascinating and frightening details about the opiate epidemic while using the case against Harry as a way of deepening the complex relationship between Bosch and Haller as well as giving Haller a chance to display his dazzling legal legerdemain. Connelly remains atop the heap of contemporary crime writers thanks to his rare ability to combine master plotting and procedural detail with a literary novelist's feel for the inner lives of his or her characters. Both talents are on abundant display this time.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The success of Amazon's Bosch series, starring the superb Titus Welliver as Harry, has only served to increase the popularity of the genre's most compelling character.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)