City of Bones

First published in 2002, this novel featuring Connelly’s popular protagonist Harry Bosch remains one of the author’s better entries, a perfectly plotted, richly detailed account of the homicide detective’s nonstop search for the perpetrator of a 28-year-old murder. The case is opened when a dog calls attention to the skeletal remains of the victim partially buried in the Hollywood Hills, a young boy beaten to death. Reader Fernandez, whose voice is a little too youthful for the middle-aged Bosch, and too cultured for the hardboiled material, manages to overcome these obstacles with convincing performances. Among the latter are Bosch’s eager, overly sensitive partner, Jerry Edgar; his former partner, Kiz Rider; the arrogant and demanding Deputy Police Chief Irvin Irving; and a gallery of suspects including the victim’s seemingly insensitive mother and a despairing pederast unjustly hounded by the media. Though Fernandez never quite matches Bosch’s maturity and world-weariness, he does capture quite well the detective’s cold, unsentimental, and unyielding dedication to the job at hand. A Little, Brown paperback. (Aug.)