I wanted to have a mystery or thriller to start off April. I had recently purchased Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly from the public library's bookstore, and it seemed to fill the bill. I've never read Connelly before. Goodreads informs me that this is #7 in the Lincoln Lawyer series and the 38th book in which Harry Bosch appears. Those who are RIO types (Read in Order) would probably tell me to start with the first Harry Bosch book, The Black Echo, but I'm an UOOOR (Unrepentant Out Of Order Reader). These are abbreviations used on the Mystery/Thriller Group on Goodreads. Those who have been reading this blog for some time may have noticed that reading in order is unimportant to me, and that I don't choose my books on that basis.
I looked up The Black Echo on Goodreads and discovered that there is backstory on Harry Bosch that may be significant. So I thought I really should read The Black Echo and placed a hold on it at my public library.
Since I have an interest in deaf issues, I took note that Harry Bosch is partially deaf. It apparently isn't central to the character. His hearing loss is only brought up one time. I was surprised to read that it was due to his cancer treatment. Bosch has leukemia . I ran a search on hearing impairment and cancer treatment. I discovered an article on the subject from Harvard Medical School here. I welcome being educated by my review process. Hearing impairment came up because Harry Bosch can't hear pings from his phone. So he relies on vibration for incoming calls.
Harry Bosch investigates for lawyer Mickey Haller who has the billboard slogan "Reasonable doubt for a reasonable fee." A character wonders how Haller gets away with that slogan. I realized that it implies possible unethical behavior--manufacturing reasonable doubt in a case that's really cut and dried. Haller and Bosch are half-brothers.
Harry Bosch's daughter asked him to stop working for Mickey Haller, and focus on his recovery from cancer. Bosch is participating in a clinical trial that Haller discovered. Other side effects of his experimental cancer treatment included mild nausea and vertigo. Bosch told his daughter that working for Haller made him feel better emotionally. When he isn't doing any work for Haller, Bosch feels useless and depressed.
The murder victim in this case, Roberto Sanz, had a shootout with gang members before his death. Yet Roberto's ex-wife, Lucinda, had been charged. Lucinda had pleaded nolo contendere which means no contest. The case wouldn't be brought to trial with that plea, and Lucinda went to prison. Bosch didn't think Lucinda Sanz was guilty. It seemed to me that Lucinda wouldn't even have been aware of the option of pleading nolo contendere unless she'd been instructed to do it.
The case was brought to trial after Lucinda had served more than five years of her sentence. At that point, there was considerable doubt that Lucinda had killed her ex-husband, Roberto.
The verdict in this case would be a huge spoiler. So I definitely won't include it in this review. I was never certain of the result of the trial until the verdict was announced. There were a number of plot twists that made Resurrection Walk a superior legal thriller.
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