The Closers (Harry Bosch Series #11)

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The Barnes & Noble Review
In The Closers, 25-year LAPD veteran Harry Bosch comes back to the force after 3 years of retirement. This time, he and his partner, Kiz Rider, are working in "Open Unsolved," a top-notch homicide unit that applies new technology and cutting-edge investigative techniques to closed cases. Formed during Harry's retirement, the unit offers the victims of crime and their families one more shot at justice, but as the detectives working these cases know, time is not on their side. The evidence (such as it is) is old, and the leads are far from fresh.

Harry's first assignment involves a cold hit on a DNA sample from an unsolved 1988 crime: the disappearance and subsequent murder of a lovely 16-year-old girl. From the first it's clear that the original detectives on the scene missed vital clues, and Bosch doesn't win any points by criticizing their mistakes. Fortunately, he has always cared more about justice than popularity; and as the fascinatingly complex investigation unfolds, he is determined to make things right -- even if that means hanging his fellow cops out to dry. Sue Stone

Jonathan Yardley

Connelly, a former reporter on newspapers in Florida and Los Angeles who went straight and started writing fiction about two decades ago, is the real thing: an immensely skilled entertainer who has mastered the requirements and expectations of his genre but also from time to time rises above them. Chandler self-evidently is his muse and occasionally the influence is a bit too blatant, but Connelly writes grown-up novels that -- along with work by the likes of Scott Turow, Elmore Leonard and John Grisham -- remind us that the place to look for serious American fiction is not in the schools of creative writing but out there in the real world.
— The Washington Post

Janet Maslin

Like James Ellroy and John Fante, both of whose work is referred to here, Mr. Connelly continues to make his doomy, secretive Los Angeles a living, breathing character in his stories.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Connelly's bruised but unbeaten crime buster, Harry Bosch, is back in harness at the Los Angeles Police Department after a two-book retirement (Lost Light, The Narrows) during which he sought justice as a private eye. Luckily, reader Cariou has returned with him. Cariou's deep, dry and slightly mournful delivery proved a perfect match for Bosch's moody first-person PI narration. With Connelly reverting to the third-person format he prefers for his hero's police procedural cases, Cariou opts for a more objective, faster-paced, just-the-facts-ma'am approach to the descriptive passages, smoothly slipping back into Bosch-voice for the book's abundant dialogue sequences. Finding the right nuances for that voice is a tougher job this go-round, since Harry is in a state of constant emotional flux. He's happy to be back on the force, working with his former partner Kiz Rider and, for the first time, for men he respects, but he's not sure he can adjust to the new, streamlined LAPD. Cariou effectively enacts a large, carefully crafted cast of suspects, victims and cops, maneuvering easily past ethnic and sexist vocal land mines. Judiciously placed blues and jazz riffs add the finishing touches to this solid audio production. Bonus features include Connelly explaining Bosch's return to the LAPD, plus his reading of a chapter from his next novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, featuring Bosch's half-brother. Simultaneous release with Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 4). (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Forbes Magazine

The traditional novel, like poetry, may have sunk to irrelevance, but crime fiction has never been better. This book is a prime example of just how brilliant the mystery genre has become. Characters here are vividly brought to life. The descriptions provide true-to-life portrayals of Los Angeles and its often-troubled police department. The internal political battles ring true, and the suspense keeps readers turning pages. Some literary critics scorn mysteries: Their popularity makes them suspect. But Shakespeare, Dickens and numerous other top-tier writers hardly refrained from attempting to appeal to popular audiences. (19 Sep 2005)
—Steve Forbes

Library Journal

The return of Detective Harry Bosch to the Los Angeles Police Department is nothing less than outstanding. The unique mix of eloquent, almost poetic dialog mixed with the smart banter of a murder investigation makes this novel seem like the welcome return of an old friend. After a three-year absence from the department, Connelly's hero is assigned to the open/unsolved (cold case) squad of the robbery/homicide division. The work has nobility in that these detectives "speak for the dead" and "no person ever is murdered and forgotten by the city." Harry's first case involves a DNA match on a 1988 murder of a 16-year-old high school girl. Insert the usual departmental politics and the clever plot twists and you have a top-notch detective story. Len Cariou's narration is solid, especially his use of accents. Highly recommended.-Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.