Melissa and Sarah Landy were playing hide and seek on an LA Sunday morning back in 1986, waiting for their mom and stepdad so they all could go to church. Sarah was hiding when she heard a truck pull up. The driver got out, said something to Melissa, and then took her into the truck. This began a mad dash by the police to find the abducted girl that turns south when her body is found in a dumpster a few hours later.
Jason Jessup was a tow truck driver prowling neighborhood streets for illegally parked cars that surrounded one of those mega-churches. He is definitively identified by Sarah in an impromptu lineup in the Landy’s front yard, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in San Quentin. Now, 24 years later, DNA analysis of a semen stain on Melissa’s dress, assumed to be from Jessup, reveals a different source. A new trial is ordered.
To avoid any appearance of bias, the LA district attorney asks noted defense attorney Mickey Haller to prosecute the case. Mickey agrees only if he gets Maggie McPherson (aka Maggie McFierce) who is his ex-wife and currently an ADA languishing in Van Nuys as his second and Harry Bosch, longtime LAPD homicide cop, as his investigator.
Any retrial hinges on Haller’s team finding Sarah who appears to have dropped off the grid after years of drugs, arrests, and clinics. But, hey, this is Harry Bosch on the hunt and the search is over quickly. Maggie and Harry convince Sarah to return to LA to testify.
Meanwhile, Jessup is out and reacquainting himself with freedom by day and prowling strange destinations by night. Harry asks an old girlfriend-FBI profiler for her opinion and she thinks Jessup is not a onetime abductor. She thinks he has serial tendencies and is close to exploding. The trial proceeds with the defense failing to successfully plant the seed of doubt in the jury forcing an unexpected end to the trial. One reason is a strategy devised by Bosch based on a scene he recalled from Godfather 2.
Connelly is a rare crime novelist. A mass market success who doesn’t treat the reader like a dud. He presents a complex story, cleverly plotted and paced with numerous unexpected slights of hand that kept me up way past my bedtime on numerous nights. The story is creatively presented from Haller’s point of view (odd #ed chapters, in the first person) and from inside Bosch’s head (even #ed chapters, third person). There is no wasted space or unnecessary side stories. This is an excellent tale of both legal procedure and the dogged investigation by a seasoned cop. Connelly has been reviewed here in a number of occasions and every one has been a winner. And this could well be his best yet. If you’ve never read Connelly, this one should hook you on his main characters – Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch.
East Coast Don
p.s. just read that an earlier title, The Lincoln Lawyer, is being made into a movie. Matthew McConaughey is set to play Haller and Marisa Tomei plays Maggie McFierce. Had them in my head while reading the last half of the book. IMHO, that is pretty good casting.
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