'The Last Coyote' by Michael Connely

Michael Connely's book 'The Last Coyote' finds his protagonist, LAPD detective Harry Bosch, trying to solve the 30 year old murder of his mother in the aftermath of the 1994 earthquake. The book starts with Bosch being suspended from the LAPD an forced to attend therapy, as a result of a violent altercation he had with his pencil pushing boss. It continues into several hundred pages of twists, turns, set ups, double crosses, and leads to a painfully obvious surprise ending.

As far as crime novels go, this one was pretty standard, which in my opinion, equals boring. It seems to be directed at middle aged successful people who are looking for a diversion from their daily upper middle class lifestyle. So for me, a broke 25 year old in Echo Park, I found myself hating Harry Bosch for complaining about his life so much. I mean here's a guy who pulls in a sweet detective's salary, owns a house in the Hollywood hills, and seems to have a limitless bank account. He finally gets a break to research his mother's murder, and all he does is act like a jerk. He treats everyone with that typical, self-righteous cop attitude, and never thinks that maybe criminals are actually human beings too.

I don't know if Michael Connely wrote the character of Harry Bosch this way to make the readers hate his main character or if it's just me, but I certainly did hate him. While the mystery makes for a decent read, and the twists are a bit entertaining, the book feels about 100 pages too long, and as the book progressed, I found myself hating Harry Bosch for so many different reasons. I had the same problem with Denise Hamilton's character Eve Diamond. Maybe it's just that I'm not nearly as successful as these characters are in their professional lives, or maybe I'm just too immature, but either way, I hate the characters, and that takes away a lot from the book for me. I think it's just the ridiculous self-righteous attitude presented by these characters, as I really enjoyed the morally questionable attorney in Connely's novel 'The Lincoln Lawyer.'

Anyway, if you are looking for a good read, I highly recommend anything by Walter Mosley or Elmore Leonard. If they are sold out, then give 'The Last Coyote' a chance, I guess.

Unless they have 'The Lincoln Lawyer'. It's way better.