Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch is in his sixties now but shows no sign of slowing down.  Banished from the LAPD for political entanglements, he works cold cases for the San Fernando Police Department as a volunteer.  He repurposes an old retired jail cell across the street from the police station to serve as his office.  Boxes of old unsolved case files can be locked in his office and an old wooden door laid flat and supported by the file boxes functions as his desk.  Harry relishes the solitude but also enjoys his role as mentor and instructor for the three person SFPD detective squad.  With Maddie away at college, this seems the perfect venue for Harry to fulfill his need to help the helpless by doing what he does best… solve murders of people labeled by society as too unimportant to rectify.

Harry is also expected to work some current cases for SFPD… the murder cases.  Two pharmacists, a father and son are shot and killed execution style in their store.  Evidence points toward a pill shill scam orchestrated by the Russian mob.  Harry finds one of his old partners, J. Edgar now working for the medical board assigned to monitor drug prescriptions.  Edgar has contacts with the DEA and hooks Harry up undercover as a homeless opioid addicted pill shill.  He joins a group of desperate addicts who take questionable prescriptions for opioids to numerous pharmacies then turn the pills over to the Russian mob for resale on the streets.  The desperados are flown in an old parachute jump plane to various cities, rich with pharmacies, all over California and are housed in a tent farm in the desert.  Harry hopes to assist the DEA in finding the mob leader as well as the murderers… a dangerous endeavor.

Meanwhile, bureaucratic wheels are turning to free the long-imprisoned Preston Borders who has new evidence that Bosch, once upon a time, framed him.  Harry arrested Borders decades earlier for the rape and murder of a young woman and was instrumental in putting him away.  Now armed with a new lawyer and DNA evidence, Borders is accusing Bosch of planting evidence that wrongly convicted the good citizen.  Bosch remembers the case well and knows in his soul that Borders is guilty.  But Harry’s over zealous reputation and his nasty separation from the LAPD have everyone including his former trusted partner, his half-brother, Mickey Haller and his daughter questioning his actions.  Harry’s reputation as well as everything he stands for is on the line.  He hires Mickey as legal counsel and puts his investigative skills to work to refute Borders’ claim.

Connelly has been my favorite author for decades and shows no sign of letting up.  Harry Bosch’s profound need to help the helpless, no matter who they are, whether he is paid or not, keeps him alive as a human being and as an extraordinary protagonist for a fiction writer.  What will Connelly do next to extend the career and adventures of Harry Bosch?  How is it possible after twenty books to keep getting better and better?