The Burning Room by Michael Connelly: A review

Harry Bosch has already retired from the LAPD once, but he came back when they offered a "deferred retirement" program in order to staff up the department. Harry signed on for another five years. Now he is in his 60s and is nearing the end of that five year assignment. He has just about a year to go and he's anxious to solve as many cases as he can during the time he has left, because, as we who have followed him through the years know, solving cases is his life and his calling. How will he fill his time when this last year is finally up?

Harry has a new partner for his final year. She is Lucia Soto, a young detective still in her 20s but one who has shown some grit during her short tenure with LAPD. In the previous year, she was involved in a gangland shootout in which her partner and some of the gang members were killed. She survived and became known within the department as Lucky Lucy.

Bosch is still working in the Open-Unsolved Unit, dealing mostly with long-dead victims, but now he and Soto have been assigned a unique case in which the victim has just died.

The victim was a mariachi band member who had been shot ten years earlier while waiting on Mariachi Plaza for a gig. There were lots of bands present there at the time and the detectives assigned to investigate were never able to establish any motive for shooting the man. It was thought that it might have been an accidental shooting. Perhaps the bullet was intended for someone else.

The musician survived the attack but a bullet lodged in his spine and could not be removed. He was paralyzed and suffered many health complications over the years because of the bullet. Now, after ten years, he has died as a result of those complications and his death has been ruled a murder.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Soto has an agenda of her own. On her own time, she is investigating a crime that occurred twenty years before, when she was seven years old. She was in an unlicensed day care center in the basement of an apartment building, when a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the trash chute of the building setting it on fire. Many of Soto's little friends and a favorite caregiver were killed in the fire and smoke, but Soto survived. Lucky Lucy. Now she is trying to solve the unsolved crime and bring some justice for the dead.

The investigation turns up the fact that at the same time the fire occurred, there was an armed robbery at a nearby check cashing establishment. Soto and Bosch begin to suspect that the two crimes may be related; the fire may have been intended as a diversion from the robbery.

Time has not mellowed Bosch, although it seems that he may develop a soft spot for Soto because she is just as old-school and hard-nosed as he is. But his rage against the police administration and against politicians continues unabated and it seems clear from the beginning that he's going to end up in trouble again.

It really is such a pleasure to watch the way Bosch's (Connelly's) mind works as he lays out the process of the investigation and takes us step by step through it all to its logical conclusion. As a writer of police procedurals, Michael Connelly really is unparalleled.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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