Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

" The dead man was on his right side in the fetal position except his wrists were behind him instead of folded against his chest. It appeared to Bosch that his hands had been tied behind him and the bindings removed, most likely after he was dead. "

Detective Harry Bosch is back in Homicide after his involuntary stress leave and a stint in Burglary Division. Michael Connelly's Trunk Music (1997) begins with the body of a man shot dead found in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. The car is found on a fire road off Mulholland Drive, on a bluff above the Hollywood Bowl. In a curious coincidence a month ago I reviewed here the same author's The Overlook, where Bosch's first case after his transfer to Homicide Special involves a man, shot execution style, whose body is found at an overlook above Mulholland Dam. The scenic locations and the word 'Mulholland' evoke the Hollywood magic.

The similarities between both book go deeper. In Trunk the detectives immediately notice that the case has all the aspect of a mob hit. Bosch is worried that the case will be taken away from him by the secretive OCID (Organized Crime Investigation Division). In Overlook the investigation proceeds almost as a competition between Los Angeles Homicide Special department and FBI.

However, there is one significant difference between the two novels, separated by just nine years: Trunk is much better. In fact, the first half is an outstanding police procedural, very tight, fast, and well written. The second half, though... Technically, what I will write now is not a spoiler, so I am cautiously proceeding. The second half of Trunk Music is a completely different book. Basically a waste of time. Things become grossly implausible. Bosch and his team, with tacit approval of his superior officer, are conducting private investigation. Yeah, right. Double positive! There is a serendipitous meeting on Mulholland Drive. Sure, yeah, right! Triple positive. Bosch has a hunch... And so on and on...

I really wish I hadn't read the second half of the novel and finished somewhere in the middle where the book was still great. I am asking this for the tenth or twentieth time: why do crime novels have to be about 350 - 450 pages long? Why not 250 pages? What's wrong with a short novel? Why waste the writer's time to produce filler stuff to pump up the volume and the readers' time who have to plough ahead to get to the denouement?

I am still recommending Trunk Music because of the outstanding first half. Go ahead if you want to read the second half, but I have warned you!

Three stars.

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