The Drop
Harry Bosch #17
Michael Connelly

Hachette Audio
November 28, 2011 / ISBN: 1600247237 Audiobook / CDs / Unabridged
Mystery/Thriller
Amazon

Reviewed by Jo Rogers

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch returns in The Drop, a double-crime story. At the beginning of the story, Harry and his partner are assigned to a cold case, a rape and murder that happened in 1989. The team originally assigned to the case had sent in the lone blood sample for DNA testing. Sometimes there will be a cold hit, a match with a criminal who has entered the system after the gathering of DNA became routine. This was one of those cases, but there was a problem. The match was a sexual predator all right, but he was only eight at the time of this crime and the victim was nineteen. There was no way he could have committed this crime. There had to be a mix-up somewhere. Harry was to find and correct the error.

Before he could begin on that case, he was told by the chief of police to put the cold case on hold and investigate the death of a city councilman·s son. The young man had fallen from the top floor of a hotel. The question was whether he had fallen, been pushed or jumped. So far the evidence pointed to suicide. The councilman asked for Harry Bosch to investigate, despite their history of being bitter enemies.

The Drop is filled with unusual characters, even though they are completely human in every way. The plot is complicated by the fact the there are two investigations going on at once. The profanity can be a detractor. The sex isn't graphic so it doesn't offend as much as it could. As for the violence, you can't write a murder mystery without it. Solving the crime is the important thing, so the criminal never gets away with it. All in all, it's a good story. Listen for yourself.

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