The Black Box

Michael Connelly’s “The Black Box”

Reviewed by Gerti

This is a crime novel that will make you cry. Author Michael Connelly is a former LA crime reporter who is a compelling storyteller with a consistently good, clear style of writing, but in this novel, he seems to rise above even his unusually high skill level. This story involves his frequent protagonist Harry Bosch, an LA homicide detective who, like Connelly himself, rises above his colleagues because of the level of emotion and sacrifice he invests in each case he solves.

In this book, Bosch is trying to solve a murder that took place during the LA riots following the Rodney King verdict in 1992. The victim was an international reporter named Anneke Jespersen, who freelanced for a Danish newspaper, and who had covered other conflicts around the world, including Operation Desert Storm. There were so many crimes committed during those days of violence in 1992, the case remained unsolved by the Riot Crimes Task Force, and has now gone to the Open-Unsolved Unit. But with the anniversary approaching, Bosch’s boss wants him to shelve this case, because the reporter was white.

But Bosch can’t let it go because he was one of the cops at the original crime scene, and something about it always bothered him. Under his blotter at his desk, he has a collection of pictures from cases which have gotten under his skin, and Anneke’s is one of those. Using his own memories from the night her body was discovered, as well as the evidence collected from the original crime scene, he methodically works the case, coming up with clue after clue that had been missed at the time, including the gun that killed her.

He ends up uncovering a conspiracy that involving several California National Guardsmen who helped keep order during the riots, but who were also involved in Desert Storm. Turns out they had drugged and raped Anneke on an R & R ship back in the day. Now one is a wealthy business owner, another is a county sheriff running for Congress, so they will do anything to hide the truth, including kidnapping Bosch and executing several former war buddies. Lucky for Bosch, he is being investigated, and the detective tailing him ends up saving his life.

That’s the story. But what makes this book special among Connelly novels for me is that he does more than simply tell a good tale. He goes under Bosch’s skin and reveals his emotions, which are what makes Bosch a better cop than his partner or his boss, who are primarily worried about solving cases to make quotas. Bosch cares when he’s talking to Anneke’s family, and the scene in which he tells her brother that he’s finally caught her murderer is heartbreaking in its emotional intensity. The brother’s anger over what happened to his sister all those years ago is mirrored by Bosch’s own, and that makes Harry Bosch my hero, and a champion for all those who’ve been waiting years for justice to be served. This book elevates Connelly from a good crime writer to a great one.