The Concrete Blonde (Harry Bosch Series #3) » (Reprint)

A former Los Angeles Times crime reporter, Michael Connelly s familiarity with the seamy side of L.A. adds a steamy kind of street cred to his hardboiled, gritty detective novels -- especially his bestselling series of mysteries featuring dark detective Hieronymous Harry Bosch.

"Masterfully Entertaining." —Houston Chronicle

They called him the Dollmaker-the serial killer who stalked Los Angeles and left a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. With a single faultless shot, Detective Harry Bosch thought he had ended the city's nightmare...

"Gritty." —San Diego Union-Tribune

But then the dead man's widow sues Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man-an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature...

"Outstanding...Can't Be Put Down." —Kansas City Star

Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a death-dealer who is very much alive, before he strikes again. It's a blood-tracked quest that will take Harry from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go-the darkness of his own heart.

"Crackling authenticity." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Turbo-charged...a darkly gripping tale." —Kirkus Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In this fiendishly plotted combination of courtroom drama and police procedural, Connelly's LAPD detective Hieronymous ``Harry'' Bosch, introduced in the Edgar-winning The Black Echo , is up against the law as well as his superiors. The widow of Norman Church, a serial killer identified as the Dollmaker, whom Bosch shot to death four years earlier, is suing Bosch on the grounds that he violated her husband's civil rights. Strong but not conclusive evidence linked Church to the serial murders and the case was closed, although Bosch was demoted for not following proper procedures. Here, just before the trial targeting Bosch as a reckless cowboy who shot the wrong man gets underway, the body of perhaps another Dollmaker victim is unearthed from the concrete floor of a burnt-out pool hall. Is the real Dollmaker still alive, or is a copycat killer on the loose? Connelly deftly parcels out clues and possibilities while juggling subtle and detailed courtroom scenes with no-nonsense police investigations that turn up new evidence about the original case. A Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times , he adroitly laces the plot with twists and turns based on details drawn from Bosch's previous adventures. The results of this care show on every page, all to the reader's benefit. (June)