12th novel finds Connelly’s Bosch in unsolved crime unit

Harry Bosch carries unsolved cases around with him the way most people tote cell phones. He cares so much about justice, about closure for victims' families, it hurts. Hurts his career, hurts the people he cares about the most.

Caring too much also is an idealistic trait in a world that treats idealism with indifference at best, cynicism at worst. And yet, Bosch's relentless determination has worked well for his creator, author Michael Connelly, whose "Echo Park" is the 12th novel featuring the Los Angeles detective.

In the novel, an old missing-persons case draws the interest of an ambitious prosecutor who is running for district attorney. The victim's name was Marie Gesto, and her disappearance in 1993 still riles Bosch. Every so often, he pulls the case file, and revisits his prime suspect, the son of a wealthy oil baron. When a serial killer, Raynard Waits, cops to Gesto's murder, Bosch --now working in the Open-Unsolved Unit of the LAPD -- cuts himself into the confession.

Of course, all is not as it seems, and Bosch's unrelenting hatred of the crime -- and his own failure to solve the case -- opens up a gaping vulnerability. His partner, Kiz Rider, is put into a dangerous position and the killer, Raynard Waits, gets away when he is taken to a remote spot where the body is buried.

One of Connelly's strengths is his ability to construct plausible crime scenarios. He does so methodically, with an almost Hemingway-like simplicity; no detail is left behind. The behind-the-scenes politicking, the in-house rivalries inherent in any organization as large as the LAPD, are neatly delineated.

And it helps that Bosch's mercurial temperament hasn't been tamed. In his late 50s, Harry still is subject to Vesuvian-like eruptions that get him in trouble. Even those who love him, notably FBI agent Rachel Walling, must learn to hold him at arm's length lest they be burned by his passion.

All because he cares. Love, in Harry Bosch's world, does hurt.

Additional Information:

'Echo Park'

Publisher: Little Brown, $26.99, 405 pages