If you’ve been following my book reviews for the past year or so, then you know that I’m not a big fan of the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of Connelly’s books on CD, which is why I “read” them in the first place, but I haven’t been particularly impressed with the novels thus far and have had a hard time figuring out why so many people seem to like them.
However, the tide turned with Trunk Music, the last Connelly novel that I read. That one had a good mystery and left out many of the elements that I found so annoying in previous books, making the listening experience far more enjoyable. And I’m happy to say that the trend has continued with the Angels Flight, which I just recently finished. Maybe there’s some merit to Connelly’s reputation after all!
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Detective Harry Bosch and his partners Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider are called in to handle a very sensitive case when high-profile African-American attorney Howard Elias is found shot to death on the Angels Flight funicular railway in Los Angeles. The case is sensitive because Elias has built a career out of suing bad cops in the LAPD. He routinely gets clients off by proving that police officers used unnecessary force or planted evidence, and has been responsible for a number of officer suspensions.
In fact, Elias was currently in the middle of a major lawsuit against four members of the LAPD when he was gunned down. Elias was suing the cops on behalf of a man named Michael Harris, who was wrongfully accused of murdering Stacey Kincaid, the young stepdaughter of one of the richest men in L.A. Since Harris is black and Stacey Kincaid was white, racial tensions throughout the city were at an all-time high — particularly since the events are taking place just a few years after the Rodney King riots rocked the city.
During the criminal trial Harris was found not guilty after Elias successfully argued that LAPD cops planted Harris’ fingerprints on one of Stacey’s schoolbooks. Elias was then about to embark on a civil suit against the department for monetary damages, but was murdered before the case could go to trial. The brutal, personal nature of the murder suggested that the killer knew Elias and was exacting revenge for something. To Bosch and the media, it looked like a cop was responsible.
The rest of the novel deals with the investigation as Bosch and his team try to piece together everything that happened in the days leading up to Elias’ murder. Along the way, they make some shocking discoveries regarding the original Stacey Kincaid murder as they slowly uncover the killer’s identity.
My Reaction: As I said above, I thought Angels Flight was better than other Connelly books I’ve read thus far because of what was missing rather than what was there. For example, I was relieved to see that Connelly more or less eliminated the love story subplot that usually can be found in his novels. Yes, there was some stuff about the problems Bosch was having with his wife Eleanor Wish and there was one sex scene, but other than that, the novel mostly just stuck to the case at hand. That made for much more interesting reading and a faster pace to the book — both of which I appreciated.
Another thing I noticed was that Bosch didn’t act as much like a Bruce Willis/renegade cop character as he has in previous novels. I always thought that Bosch’s “fuck you” attitude towards every other cop he interacted with was way over the top and consequently not very believable. In Angels Flight, however, this attitude was toned down quite a bit — and with good results. Bosch was still a tough guy who wasn’t about to take shit from anyone, but he came off as less of a caricature in this book, so I finally ended up liking him as the protagonist.
Of course, Angels Flight wasn’t a perfect book; I still had a couple of problems with it.
For example, I thought the Kincaid pedophile ring was an interesting angle that wrapped up far too quickly. I was hoping that Connelly would build on that angle and keep going with the twists and turns, but obviously that’s not what he chose to do. Instead, he paved the way for yet another of Bosch’s enemies to bite the dust.
Wow, how convenient for Bosch that everyone in the department who opposes him sooner or later ends up dead. Making Chastain the killer was weak… and ultimately predictable given Connelly’s propensity to have the Bosch universe work out just so. Does he ever write a book where there aren’t dirty cops involved?
Now that Chastain is gone, who else is left to clash with Bosch and make sure he doesn’t run roughshod over departmental rules and regulations? Irving? Billets? Should I just go ahead and put those two in the death pool now?
Besides rolling my eyes at the fact that Chastain turned out to be the killer, I have to say that Angels Flight was pretty entertaining throughout. It was a very fast-paced novel, and I enjoy these quick reads every once in a while. I think this is a Connelly book that I would actually recommend if someone asked!