The Last Coyote/Trunk Music

by Michael Connelly

Book Overview

A two-in-one, this volume includes The Last Coyote in which suspended LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch investigates the unsolved murder of his mother, and Trunk Music which finds Harry returning to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312353774
• ISBN13: 9780312353773
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Griffin
• Length: 752 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Two Top Notch Early Bosch Thrillers

This book combines two of Michael Connelly's earliest, best Hieronymus Bosch thrillers, "The Last Coyote," and "Trunk Music." They were written right after his very first, the two "Black" books, and "The Concrete Blonde." They were separated by "The Poet," his earliest standalone; it, by the way, is one of his very best, and still a good way to start reading him, for anyone who hasn't yet. Both these books boast riveting, tight relatively fresh plots; excellent narrative and descriptive writing, and snappy dialogue. They are informed by Connelly's deep, accurate knowledge of police work, after several years' experience as a reporter on the cop shop beat. And, they are written with great knowledge of, and love for, Los Angeles, the author's adopted home town. They clearly follow in the footsteps of earlier outstanding hardboiled Los Angeles authors Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, but add the further ingredients of a police procedural, as they chart the early career of Connelly's creation, LAPD Detective Bosch, assigned to Hollywood Homicide. Furthermore, each is unusually resonant, and emotionally powerful, as each centers around the most important relationship known, mother and child. "The Last Coyote" is further fueled by the great mileage the writer gets out of the last coyote metaphor, as Bosch searches, poignantly, for the killer of his mother, an LA whore. He introduces the animal early: "He saw a coyote step out of the brush of the arroyo to the left of the roadway and take a tentative look around the intersection. There were no other cars. Only Bosch saw this. The animal was thin and ragged, worn by the struggle to sustain itself in the urban hills. The mist rising from the arroyo caught the reflection of the street lights and cast the coyote in almost a dim blue light. And it seemed to study Bosch's car for a moment, its eyes catching the reflection of the stoplight and glowing. For just a moment Bosch believed that the coyote might be looking directly at him. Then the animal turned and moved back into the blue mist." "Trunk Music," has to be considered a "tour de force," that is, the author showing off a bit, he's so good. The story opens with Bosch coming back after a suspension: the first case he catches is that of Tony Aliso, Hollywood producer, found shot dead, execution style, in the trunk of his Rolls Royce. (The mob, whom everybody suspects of the murder, would describe it as a guy listening to trunk music.) Bosch just about proves it was a mob hit, I certainly believed him; then realizes it can't have been. He comes up with another theory, that I again believed, then demolishes that one too. The third proves the charm. The book also reintroduces Eleanor Wish, back from the "Black" books after losing her job with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for misconduct on the job, and going to jail. And it's unusually titillating for the serious Connelly, taking a guided tour through the sexual mores of th