Trunk Music is the fifth Harry Bosch book by Michael Connelly. In this novel Detective Bosch is reinstated after being placed on involuntary stress leave (during The Last Coyote). His first case after his vacation looked like a simple mob hit, thus the title Trunk Music.
Officer Powers found the body in the trunk of his own car and the case was assigned to Bosch and his two partners – Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider. The victim is movie producer Tony Aliso and because it looked like a Mafia hit, Detective Bosch immediately informed LAPD’s Organized Crime Department. To his surprise, the OCD wasn’t interested with the case.
Clues led Harry Bosch and his team to Las Vegas and with the help of the Metro Captain Felton they uncovered more clues that Aliso is indeed connected to the mob. As the story progressed, Detective Bosch had run into an FBI investigation and was accosted for ruining a federal sting operation. But in the end, Harry Bosch and his team managed to solve the mystery before the feds do and wrapped everything up.
Harry Bosch: Who polices the police who police the police?
Harry Bosch is not Harry Bosch when he’s not being investigated by the IAD. He was implicated for planting the gun found in a suspect’s house, which was easily countered by Bosch. Then the IAD slapped him with an associating with a known felon case. He got out of it by marrying Eleanor Wish. Yes, she’s the FBI agent he met in The Black Echo.
I like Bosch’s new commander, who is a lot different than Lieutenant Pounds. She even gave Bosch’s team to work on the case even if it was taken away from them by the FBI. She managed to win the loose cannon over by standing by him and letting him some leeway in his investigation methods.
In the latter part of Trunk Music, Harry Bosch learned that what he was dealing with is not about Tony Aliso’s murder. It’s about the money he skimmed from the mob. It is a complicated bank caper with the murder as one of the complexities.
It’s not a surprise that Michael Connelly did a superb job with Trunk Music. It’s one of the can’t-put-down books that Connelly is known for. Everything is wrapped up in the end. And just like the other Michael Connelly books, it had me guessing what will happen next until the end.
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