Book Review – The Burning Room

by Michael Connelly (Orion) ISBN: 9781409145653

Harry Bosch is one year away from retirement and he’s not looking forward to it. When a man dies 10 years after he was shot, Bosch and his new partner, Lucia Soto, from the Open-Unsolved Unit have to find the killer.

Harry spends a lot of time trying to mentor the young detective, known as ‘Lucky Lucy’ after she survived a gang shootout. This makes me think we may have a new series of Soto novels from Connelly.

The Burning Room is well-plotted, but rather pedestrian. It gets bogged down with technical issues, daily minutiae, and explanations of how everything has changed. There is the clichéd political involvement, showing corruption behind the scenes of the murder, and the usual bureaucratic nightmare in the department.

It is still a solid police procedural, but if you’re looking for a thrilling crime novel, this is not the book for you.