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Trunk Music | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Orion
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £6.98 (100%)
New (41) Used (73) Collectible (1) from £0.01
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 22671
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0752809032
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780752809038
ASIN: 0752809032
Publication Date: December 29, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 great serial character August 28, 2008
Red (Liverpool)
I've read all of the Harry Bosch series with moderate to ecstatic enjoyment, so I figured I should check out the beginning of the series and read them through. The books all revolve around Detective Bosch on the Homicide Squad of the Hollywood division, having apparently been demoted from the elite LAPD Robbery Homicide division for his questionable action in a high-profile serial killer case a year previously. (The events of that "Dollmaker" case are detailed in the book The Concrete Blonde, and be warned that key information about that case is revealed in this book.) This backstory establishes Bosch as a highly capable high profile detective who's somewhat of a loose cannon and marked man for LAPD Internal Affairs.
Once it's clear that there's been a murder, Bosch latches onto the case like a pit bull, pushing it through the procedural red tape.
Connelly spent many years covering local crime for the LA Times, and as in the other books of his I've read, has a good eye and ear for bringing all the little bits and pieces of procedure to life. The investigations always seem to point at a series of obvious suspects, but as any good thriller writer will tell you, it isn't always the butler that done it!! Bosch always seems to find himself tangled up with the FBI agents tasked with the investigation into his investigations ! Meanwhile, Internal Affairs has targeted him big time, and he spends a lot of energy evading their slimy grasp. There's a good deal of internal police politics at work, and Connelly does a nice job of bringing the depressing realities of this into the story.
Somewhat less convincing is the character of Bosch himself. He's the ultimate embodiment of the maverick, anti-establishment, "lone wolf"cop, always rubbing superiors the wrong way for no good reason, and generally being obnoxious and provocative in a way that only gets him in hotter water. For someone as self-avowedly committed to justice as he is, you'd think he would be a little smarter about when to mouth off, since the trouble he gets himself into only diverts him from pursuing justice. And of course, he drinks a bunch, smokes a bunch, listens to jazz, and doesn't have a lot of luck with women. Conspiracy-thrillerish by the end. Readers of serial books, Lee Child`s, `Jack Reacher` books are always excellent, as are the `Rebus` books by Ian Rankin, much more violent are the `Soft Target` thrillers by Conrad Jones, but the common threads are the common characters that make us go back for more of the same. Bosch is addictive reading and this is an excellent novel.
It also doesn't help that Connelly gives away what should be a shocking twist toward the end by providing a very obvious clue halfway through the book. These flaws, combined with the coincidence the story is built on and the cliché nature of Bosch, result in a book that works in fits and starts, but isn't nearly as good as it could have been.
Harry Misreads the Clues August 5, 2008
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
Michael Connelly does something unusual in Trunk Music: He makes Harry Bosch fallible in his work as well as in his private life. The result is that Harry has setbacks that go beyond his usual run-ins with LAPD authority. The result is entertaining and convoluted, providing novelty to this excellent series.
This isn't my favorite in the series by a long shot. The noir aspects just aren't as dark as in Connelly's best efforts.
Gallows humor saves the book, beginning with finding a corpse in a car trunk where the crime scene can be seen from the audience at the Hollywood Bowl. Even Harry knows that he's got to avoid messing up the concert. The show must go on!
The Las Vegas parts of the story open up many new threads for future tales, including a meeting in this book with an old friend from The Black Echo.
Favorite so far... June 19, 2008
holly (United Kingdom)
I really enjoyed this book. I'm a big fan of crime thrillers, and feel that Connelly's background as a crime reporter is evident in his writing. There's an authenticity and attention to detail that is rare in this genre. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't feel that the plot was muddled at all. In fact this was my favorite so far. Recommended.
Bosch gets his Wish May 30, 2008
one-eyed Jack (England)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is the fifth in the series built around L.A. homicide detective Harry Bosch, in my humble opinion the best of his kind in contemporary crime fiction. This particular episode isn't the best in the series I would concede, but it's still a well-written story and Bosch is such a magnetic and appealing character that his trials and tribulations are always good value for reading money. The essence of the tale is that a man has been found dead in the boot (trunk) of his own car and the murder bears the hallmarks of a mob assassination, as the victim is a known money-launderer for the Mafia with strong connections to Las Vegas organised crime. Immediately, Harry Bosch is assigned to the case to find out who did it and why. There are some twists and surprises on the journey.
There are two good reasons to pick out Trunk Music as landmark reads in the series, and those reasons are both female. First, this is the story that introduces us to Kiz Rider, who will play such a key role in future novels, and then there is Eleanor Wish, who appeared in Connelly's debut novel THE BLACK ECHO as an FBI agent but whose circumstances are very different five years on. The relationship between Wish and Bosch in this novel is appealing and shows a slightly different side to Harry's personality, but we see rather less into the mind of the slightly enigmatic Eleanor. The conclusion of their love affair (within the context of the story) is a little unconvincing, and if anything seems improbable. But this is nit-picking on my part, as the relationship is really just the 'love interest' aspect to a tale that is otherwise focused entirely on the investigation and which develops into another confrontation between Bosch and the Internal Affairs Department. It does puzzle me that for all Bosch's past successes in solving crimes spreading back 15 years, the IAD is constantly on his tail with a determination to have him ousted from the force at every opportunity. It makes for great reading though, and adds to the sense of pressure and tension.
This is another Connelly-Bosch book without conventional chapters by the way; instead the tale is broken up into a total of ten 'parts', some of them 100 pages long or more, so if you like to read in quick bursts then in the case of this novel you may need to plan it in advance. And if you are thinking of reading all of the Bosch stories, then don't miss this one, indeed I would recommend that you start at the beginning and read every single one - once again I would claim that there's no better crime fiction series than this one. In my opinion!
 Good 5'th Bosch novel. April 27, 2008
Clive
Preferred the Concrete Blonde and Last Coyote but this is still a good staple plot from Connelly. The story follows the normal deception that we expect, with Bosch following obvious leads, upsetting Vegas Mafia, as well as Internal Affairs. This all unfolds with good detail of investigative procedure that takes the reader along Bosh's detective trail. Bosh also hooks up and rekindles with ex- FBI agent Elanor Wish from Black Echo to lighten the book somewhat and keeping his character in balance.
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