Get a special look inside Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novel, The Closers. This 5:36 video clip opens at the LAPD’s police academy graduation ceremony. Michael then takes you on a short tour of a few of the places in Los Angeles that appear in this book and he reads an excerpt from The Closers.
PART ONE: BLUE RELIGION
Chapter One
Within the practice and protocol of the Los Angeles Police Department a two-six call is the one that draws the most immediate response while striking the most fear behind the bulletproof vest. For it is a call that often has a career riding on it. The designation is derived from the combination of the Code 2 radio call out, meaning respond as soon as possible, and the sixth floor of Parker Center from which the Chief of Police commands the department. A two-six is a forthwith from the chief’s office and any officer who knows and enjoys his position in the department will not delay.
Detective Harry Bosch spent over 25 years with the department in his first tour and never once received a forthwith from the chief of police. In fact, other than receiving his badge at the academy in 1972, he never shook hands or spoke personally with a chief again. He had outlasted several of them—and, of course, seen them at police functions and funerals—but simply never met them along the way. On the morning of his return to duty after a three-year retirement he received his first two-six while knotting his tie in the bathroom mirror. It was an adjutant to the chief calling Bosch’s private cell phone. Bosch didn’t bother asking how they had come up with the number in the chief’s office. It was simply understood that the chief’s office had the power to reach out in such a way. Bosch just said he would be there within the hour, to which the adjutant replied that he would be expected sooner. Harry finished knotting his tie in his car while driving as fast as traffic allowed on the 101 Freeway toward downtown.
It took Bosch exactly 24 minutes from the moment he closed the phone on the adjutant until he walked through the double doors of the chief’s suite on the sixth floor at Parker Center. He thought it had to have been some kind of record, not withstanding the fact that he had illegally parked on Los Angeles Street in front of the police headquarters. If they knew his private cell number, then surely they knew what a feat it had been to make it from the Hollywood Hills to the chief’s office in under a half hour.
But the adjutant, a Lieutenant named Hohman, stared him down with disinterested eyes and pointed to a plastic sealed couch that already had two other people waiting on it.
“You’re late,” he said. “Take a seat.”
Bosch decided not to protest, not to make matters possibly worse. He stepped over to the couch and sat between the two men in uniforms who had staked out the armrests. They sat bolt upright and did not small talk. He figured they had been two-sixed as well.
Ten minutes went by. The men on either side of him were called in ahead of Bosch, each dispensed with by the chief in five minutes flat. While the second man was in with the chief, Bosch thought he heard loud voices from the inner sanctum and when the officer came out his face was ashen. He had somehow fucked up in the eyes of the chief and the word—which had even filtered to Bosch in retirement—was that this new man did not suffer fuck ups lightly. Bosch had read a story in the Times about a command staffer who was demoted for failing to inform the chief that the son of a city councilman usually allied against the department had been picked up on a deuce. The chief only found out about it when the councilman called to complain about harassment, as if the department had forced his son to drink six vodka martinis at Bar Marmount and drive home via the trunk of a tree on Mulholland.
Finally Hohman put down the phone and pointed his finger at Bosch. He was up. He was quickly shuttled into a corner office with a view of the Union Station and the surrounding train yards. It was a decent view but not a great one. It didn’t matter because the place was coming down soon. The department would move into temporary offices while a new and modern police headquarters was rebuilt on the same spot. The current headquarters was known as the Glass House by the rank and file, supposedly because there were no secrets kept inside. Bosch wondered what the next place would become known as.
The chief of police was behind a large desk signing papers. Without looking up from this work he told Bosch to have a seat in front of the desk. Within 30 seconds the chief signed his last document and looked up at Bosch. He smiled.
“I wanted to meet you and welcome you back to the department.”
His voice was marked by an eastern accent. De-paht-ment. This was fine with Bosch. In L.A. everybody was from somewhere else. Or so it seemed. It was both the strength and the weakness of the city.
“It is good to be back,” Bosch said.
“You understand that you are here at my pleasure.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, sir, I do.”
“Obviously, I checked you out extensively before approving your return. I had concerns about your . . . shall we say style, but ultimately your talent won the day. You can also thank your partner, Kizmin Rider, for her lobbying effort. She’s a good officer and I trust her. She trusts you.”
“I have already thanked her but I will do it again.”
“I know it has been less than three years since you retired but let me assure you, Detective Bosch, that the department you have rejoined is not the department you left.”
“I understand that.”
“I hope so. You know about the consent decree?”
Just after Bosch had left the department the previous chief had been forced to agree to a series of reforms in order to head off a federal takeover of the LAPD following an FBI investigation into wholesale corruption, violence, and civil rights violations within the ranks. The current chief had to carry out the agreement or he would end up taking orders from the FBI. From the chief down to the lowliest boot, nobody wanted that.
“Yes,” Bosch said. “I’ve read about it.”
“Good. I’m glad you have kept yourself informed. And I am happy to report that despite what you may read in the Times, we are making great strides and we want to keep that momentum. We are also trying to update the department in terms of technology. We are pushing forward in community policing. We are doing a lot of good things, Detective Bosch, much of which can be undone in the eyes of the community if we resort to old ways. Do you understand what I am telling you?”
“I think so.”
“Your return here is not guaranteed. You are on probation for a year. So consider yourself a rookie again. A boot—the oldest living boot at that. I approved your return—I can also wash you out without so much as a reason anytime in the course of the year. Don’t give me a reason.”
Bosch didn’t answer. He didn’t think he was supposed to.
“On Friday we graduate a new class of cadets at the academy. I would like you to be there.”
“Sir?”
“I want you to be there. I want you to see the dedication in our young people’s faces. I want to re-acquaint you with the traditions of this department. I think it could help you, help you rededicate yourself.”
“If you want me to be there I will be there.”
“Good. I will see you there. You will sit under the VIP tent as my guest.”
He made a note about the invite on a pad of paper next to the blotter. He then put the pen down and raised his hand to point a finger at Bosch. His eyes took on a fierceness.
“Listen to me, Bosch. Don’t ever break the law to enforce the law. At all times you do your job constitutionally and compassionately. I will accept it no other way. This city will accept it no other way. Are we okay on that?”
“We are okay.”
“Then we are good to go.”
Bosch took his cue and stood up. The chief surprised him by also standing and extending his hand. Bosch thought he wanted to shake hands and extended his own. The chief put something in his hand and Bosch looked down to see the gold detective’s shield. He had his old number back. It had not been given away. He almost smiled.
“Wear it well,” the police chief said. “And proudly.”
“I will.”
Now they shook hands but as they did so the chief didn’t smile.
“The chorus of forgotten voices,” he said.
“Excuse me, Chief?”
“That’s what I think about when I think of the cases down there in Open Unsolved. It’s a house of horrors. Our greatest shame. All those cases. All those voices. Every one of them is like a stone thrown into a lake. The ripples move out through time and people. Families, friends, neighbors. How can we call ourselves a city when there are so many ripples, when so many voices have been forgotten by this department?”
Bosch let go of his hand and didn’t say anything. There was no answer for the chief’s question.
“I changed the name of the unit when I came into the department. Those aren’t cold cases, Detective. They never go cold. Not for some people.”
“I understand that.”
“Then go down there and clear cases. That’s what your art is. That’s why we need you and why you are here. That’s why I am taking a chance with you. Show them we do not forget. Show them that in Los Angeles cases don’t go cold.”
“I will.”
Bosch left him there, still standing and maybe a little haunted by the voices. Like himself. Bosch thought that maybe for the first time he had actually connected on some level with the man at the top. In the military it is said that you go into battle and fight and are willing to die for the men who sent you. Bosch never felt that when he was moving through the darkness of the tunnels in Vietnam. He had felt alone and that he was fighting for himself, fighting to stay alive. That had carried with him into the department and he had at times adopted the view that he was fighting in spite of the men at the top. Now maybe things would be different.
In the hallway he punched the elevator button harder than he needed to. He had too much excitement and energy and he understood this. The chorus of forgotten voices. The chief seemed to know the song they were singing. And Bosch certainly did, too. Most of his life had been spent listening to that song.
“Connelly comes as close as anyone to being today’s Dostoyevsky of crime literature, and this is one of his finest works to date, a likely candidate not only for book award nominations but for major bestsellerdom.”
— Publishers Weekly *Starred Review
“what can you do to refresh the screen when your hero, like Connelly’s Harry Bosch, looks at the world through “seen-it-all-twice eyes”? You can take a chance, and that’s exactly what Connelly does here, transforming his world-weary hero into a rookie cop and forcing him (and us) to live one day at a time without the comfort of our own cynicism. …Connelly sets up a great premise here—the cop determined to reinvent himself in the face of a thoroughly recalcitrant world—and he makes the most of it.”
— Booklist * Starred Review
“compelling style makes even the most mundane details fascinating. Fans and newcomers alike will love seeing Bosch back in uniform, stirring up trouble. For all crime fiction collections.”
— Library Journal * Starred Review
“Connelly is one of the most consistently excellent authors in current-day crime fiction: his characters, particularly the world-weary Bosch, are complex and appealing; his stories fast-paced, edgy and believable.”
— BookPage
“Connelly artfully reclaims the procedural genre. The technical drill in this narrative is as detailed as it gets, and when Bosch applies himself to his first case…he is, in effect, taking the reader on an inside tour of the machinery running the new and streamlined L.A.P.D. … …Bosch can’t bring back the victims, but in his new job he can honor his resolve ”to carry on the mission” and make good on his promise ”always to speak for the dead.””
— Marilyn Stasio, New York Times
“Connelly has risen well above the genre pulp, by telling stories that matter, filling them with rich characters and bringing the locales alive for the reader. All this is accomplished with a skill that lifts the prose from the page and turns it into something palpable.”
— Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post
“The return of Harry Bosch is good for his beloved City of the Angels and great for readers.”
— Gary Wisby, Chicago Sun-Times
“The Closers” is a powerful book… The forensics are fascinating, but it’s the blood splatter from the LAPD’s darkest years that really stain the page.”
— Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News
“The Closers is as hard-boiled a novel as they come, but the story also explodes in a quiet way. Connelly doesn’t use gratuitous violence to drive a story — he relies on first-class storytelling.”
— Oline H. Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel
“Mr. Connelly’s previous Bosch novel, “The Narrows,” was a career high point. “The Closers,” an engrossing and exciting tale, does nothing to lower the standards of the series. Throughout, Mr. Connelly takes as his subject not just Harry Bosch and his circle of friends (and enemies) but Los Angeles itself: “A city as great as any other. And just as mean.””
— Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
“It’s terrific, rich not just in suspense (at which Connelly has no superiors) but in the warp and woof of police work, of police bureaucracy, of Los Angeles itself. Every character is convincing…”
— Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“Fans of Connelly will recognize the deliberate progression of Police Procedural 101, in which he excels; also the thick acronym soup of cop-speak. They will welcome back Bosch on full alert and with tricks aplenty, most of them legal.”
— Eugen Weber, Los Angeles Times
“With crackling dialogue and masterful plot work, Connelly weaves a tale of corruption and betrayal that reaches deep into the abyss called Los Angeles.”
— Geoff Jennings, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, KS (A BookSense Pick For May 2005)
“…in a Michael Connelly novel, things are never as simple as they seem. …excellent, twisty police procedural…”
— Amazon.co.uk Editorial Review
“Connelly’s in top form once again with this tight-as-a-noose tale of retired homicide detective Harry Bosch, who returns to the LAPD to investigate a 20-year-old unsolved murder.”
— LIFE Magazine
“THE CLOSERS finds both Bosch and Connelly on the top of their game.”
— CrimeSpree Magazine
Best Books of 2005, Top 10 Editors’ Picks: Mystery & Thrillers
— Amazon.com Washington Post “Critics Choices” For 2005, Top 5 Books
The Narrows audiobook is read by narrator Len Cariou. It is available in CD and in downloadable formats.
Listen to an excerpt:
Get a special look inside Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novel, The Narrows. In this 11 minute video clip, Michael shares with you locations in Los Angeles, reads you excerpts from The Narrows, and gives you his personal insight into the writing of his book.
“There’s a gravitas to the mystery/thrillers of Michael Connelly, a bedrock commitment to the value of human life and the need for law enforcement pros to defend that value, that sets his work apart and above that of many of his contemporaries. That gravitas is in full force in Connelly’s newest, and as nearly always in the work of this talented writer, it supports a dynamite plot, fully flowered characters and a meticulous attention to the details of investigative procedure. …The suspense is steady throughout but, until a breathtaking climactic chase, arises more from Bosch and Walling’s patient and inspired following of clues and dealing with bureaucratic obstacles than from slash-and-dash: an unusually intelligent approach to generating thrills. Connelly is a master and this novel is yet another of his masterpieces.”
— Publishers Weekly * Starred, Boxed Review
“The Narrows,” Michael Connelly’s best crime novel since “City of Bones,” unfolds within his increasingly seductive world. … “The Narrows” is so enveloping that it may send readers back to the early lives of these characters. ”
— New York Times
“…Mr. Connelly’s terrific 14th novel…a suspenseful book marked by flashes of insight and moments of pathos, as well as by dry wit and graceful prose.”
— Wall Street Journal
“The Narrows is an intelligent, tautly written thriller, and should only serve to heighten Connelly’s already exalted stature as one of today’s leading crime writers.”
— Peter Robinson, The Globe and Mail
“This is scarifying in a big way — a Thomas Harris kind of scary, which is high praise indeed.”
— Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
“Michael Connelly gives life to a fictional matchup that is the stuff of his readers’ dreams.”
— Denver Post
“Not only is “The Narrows” one of Connelly’s most energized novels to date, it ranks as one of his best: lean, measured and paced like the first work of an artist ascending to the next level.”
— The News-Press
“Intricately plotted, The Narrows excels in creating an interlocked structure that perfectly melds two of Connelly’s works. The taut suspense is matched only by the surprises that Connelly pulls out, beginning with the jaw-dropping first three chapters.”
— Sun-Sentinel
“The Narrows is Connelly at his best, producing the creepy, cunning killer he is famed for and, at the same time, weaving into the story line plausible human drama, such as Bosch’s poignant attempts to bond with his newly discovered daughter.”
— Orlando Sentinel
“…it will reaffirm the belief of Bosch’s ever-increasing fan base that the complex hero stands at the epicenter of the well-thought-out, disturbingly moody universe the author has created.”
— Los Angeles Times
“This is a high point among Connelly novels as he reconfirms his status as one of the best and most reliable of mystery writers… This is an excellent mystery in classic and modern senses”
— San Jose Mercury News
“The Narrows is clean, precise, neatly executed and thrilling. It reads like an out-of-control locomotive you keep refusing to set aside, even though the hour’s way past late and your eyes have been burning for the last 40 minutes. …Hold on tight and stay up late. The Narrows is crime fiction at its gutsy best.”
— The Clarion-Ledger
“…no one emulates Chandler better than Michael Connelly…Just as Connelly neatly draws his cast together, he cleverly connects the dots between Los Angeles, Las Vegas and The Poet’s hideout.”
— USA Today
“The Narrows represents Connelly at his very best. If there is a better writer out there writing crime fiction, I’d like to know who it is.”
— Deadly Pleasures
“Connelly’s latest shamus-versus-serial-killer thriller mixes the cool noir vibe of Raymond Chandler with the freaky head games of Thomas Harris. …the crooked-haloed Bosch remains one of the most complex crime fighters around.”
— People
“It may well be Connelly’s best work to date.”
— BookReporter.com
“…The Narrows is a dream novel for Connelly fans.”
— ThisWeekNews.com
“Michael Connelly is one of the best writers around today. When we start to read one of his books we know we will not be disappointed. This book falls well within that category. This book is a real thriller and loaded with suspense. However, these attributes “thrilling and suspense” would not mean anything without the creativity and talent of Michael Connelly putting it all together. This book is highly recommended. This is Harry Bosch at the top of his game!”
— BestsellersWorld.com
“Connelly’s writing had me almost hypnotized, so compelling was the narrative. Never did I want to put the book down…”
— ILoveAMystery.com
“Harry Bosch is at his best in this thriller as he balances fatherhood, love and a debt to a deceased friend while trying to outwit a brilliant killing machine. …Michael Connelly provides a strong Bosch book that fans will relish.”
— AllReaders.com
“The Narrows is Connelly at his most compelling, frightening, and downright shocking, as his most beloved hero squares off against his most infamous villain.”
— Mystery Guild
“Michael Connelly only gets better.”
— BookLoons.com
“Connelly builds the suspense with precision and leaves you on the edge of your seat. I love Harry Bosch’s character. He’s come to feel like an old friend.”
— RoundTableReviews.com