Book Review: The Last Coyote

How does it feel to be in conflict with oneself? The life when it's on the edge; the time when you feel lonely and hapless at your own miserable position. But what if, to add fuel to the fire, certain hidden truths are to be pursued, which if revealed could have grave implications where you end up losing more than you bargained for? Yeah, sort of a Pyrrhic victory. Michael Connelly, in his fourth instalment of the Harry Bosch series, delves deep into the psyche of the LAPD homicide detective, resulting in a police procedural that's patently his, while serving thrills in spades.

The Last Coyote

The opening could never have been so ominous and bleak. Harry Bosch, the LAPD detective for the Hollywood division, has been put on involuntary stress leave after attacking his commanding officer, Lt. Pounds. His girlfriend for almost an year, Sylvia Moore, has left him for good and his home has been battered following an earthquake. He is also forced to take a psychiatric evaluation, which if he doesn't clear may cost his job forever.

Reluctant at first, the sessions with Dr. Carmen Hinojos later turn out to be therapeutic for Bosch when he opens a cold case involving the death of a prostitute way back in 1961, who also happens to be his own mother. But the poking around only stirs up trouble, rattling the city's top politicians who would very much like the secret buried. Will Bosch ever get to know the circumstances behind his mother's death?

Spinning a story around the simple premie of Everybody counts or nobody counts, Connelly delivers a moralistic thriller that takes a close-up view of Bosch - the smart cop who never lets up on his cases till the very end, even if it means losing everything he had held onto. The book too is relentless in a similar way, which once you begin, is extremely difficult to put down. Packed with enough twists, a set of well-etched characters and a recurring analogy to a lone coyote (which Bosch perceives as himself caught in a place where his existence is threatened as with the animal entangled in midst of urbanization), The Last Coyote is a riveting thrill ride that keeps the reader glued till the very last page.