The Burning Room

Last updated
The Burning Room
The burning room - bookcover.jpeg
Hardcover edition
Author Michael Connelly
LanguageEnglish/Spanish
Series Harry Bosch #17
Genre Crime novel
Publisher Little, Brown and Company
Publication date
November 3, 2014
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint, e-book
Pages400 pp.
ISBN 978-0316225939
Preceded by The Black Box  
Followed by The Crossing  

The Burning Room is the 27th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the seventeenth novel featuring Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. The book was published by Little, Brown and Company on November 3, 2014.

Plot

LAPD detective Harry Bosch and his rookie partner, Lucia Soto, are assigned the case of mariachi performer Orlando Merced, who was shot in a crowded Los Angeles square and was paralyzed from the waist down. The shooter was never found, and Merced survived for ten years before dying from complications from his wounds. When the bullet is finally removed from his body, Bosch establishes that Merced was shot with a hunting rifle and that the crime was a targeted hit, not a random act of gang violence as originally suspected. This new evidence leads Bosch to one of the city's most powerful businessmen, and a controversial former mayor with aspirations of becoming governor.

Meanwhile, Bosch notices strange behavior from Soto and begins to suspect that she has gang affiliations. After catching her carrying out an off-the-books investigation, she reveals that she is a survivor of a notorious apartment fire that killed nine children; the fire remained unsolved after a key suspect disappeared without trace. Bosch fabricates a connection to the Merced case to protect Soto, and the two investigate the fire parallel to the Merced case. The trail leads them to a series of robberies across Greater Los Angeles that the FBI believe were used to fund a white supremacist militia group, and ultimately to a witness hiding in a convent on the Mexican border.

Over the course of the story, Bosch wrestles with the knowledge that his retirement is imminent and makes it his mission to train Soto to take over in the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit. Ultimately, he is caught breaking into the Robbery-Homicide Division offices as part of the Merced investigation and is placed on indefinite suspension pending an investigation. With less than a year until his retirement, he leaves Open-Unsolved knowing that he might never return.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Connelly</span> American author (b. 1956)

Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rampart scandal</span> Police corruption scandal that happened in Los Angeles, California, US

The Rampart scandal was a police corruption scandal which unfolded in Los Angeles, California, United States, during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The scandal concerned widespread criminal activity within the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. More than 70 police officers were initially implicated in various forms of misconduct, including unprovoked shootings and beatings, planting of false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury and cover-ups thereof.

<i>The Big Nowhere</i> Novel by James Ellroy

The Big Nowhere is a 1988 crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy, the second of the L.A. Quartet, a series of novels set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles.

In law enforcement parlance, the term murder book refers to the case file of a murder investigation. Typically, murder books include crime scene photographs and sketches, autopsy and forensic reports, transcripts of investigators' notes, and witness interviews. The murder book encapsulates the complete paper trail of a murder investigation, from the time the murder is first reported through the arrest of a suspect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Bosch</span> Fictional detective created by author Michael Connelly

Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is a fictional character created by American author Michael Connelly. Bosch debuted as the lead character in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, the first in a best-selling police procedural series now numbering 24 novels.

Russell Wayne Poole was a Los Angeles Police Department detective who investigated the murder of the Notorious B.I.G., a rapper also known as Biggie Smalls. Poole also investigated the killing of LAPD Officer Kevin Gaines by LAPD Officer Frank Lyga on March 18, 1997. After retiring in 1999, he formed a private detective agency.

<i>The Overlook</i> 2007 novel

The Overlook is the 18th novel by American crime writer Michael Connelly, and the thirteenth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.

<i>Echo Park</i> (novel) 2006 novel

Echo Park is the 17th novel by American crime-writer Michael Connelly, and the twelfth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was published in 2006.

<i>The Narrows</i> (Connelly novel) Tenth novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

The Narrows is the 14th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the tenth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. As Bosch crosses paths with FBI Agent Rachel Walling, the novel ties story elements left unresolved in The Poet and those from Blood Work and A Darkness More Than Night together into the Bosch mythos.

<i>The Closers</i> Eleventh novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

The Closers is the 15th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the eleventh featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. This novel features a return to an omniscient third-person style narration after the previous two, set during Bosch's retirement were narrated in from a first-person perspective.

<i>Angels Flight</i> (novel) Sixth novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

Angels Flight is the eighth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the sixth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.

<i>Trunk Music</i> Fifth novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

Trunk Music is the sixth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the fifth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.

<i>The Concrete Blonde</i> 1994 novel by Michael Connelly

The Concrete Blonde is the third novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was published in 1994.

<i>The Black Echo</i> Novel by Michael Connelly

The Black Echo is the 1992 debut novel by American crime author Michael Connelly. It is the first book in Connelly's series centered on Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Harry Bosch. The book won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for "Best First Novel" in 1992.

<i>Nine Dragons</i> (novel) Fourteenth novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

Nine Dragons is the 14th novel in the Harry Bosch series and the 22nd book by American crime author Michael Connelly. It was published in the U.K. and Ireland on October 1, 2009, and worldwide on October 13, 2009.

<i>The Drop</i> (Connelly novel) 15th novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

The Drop is the 24th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the fifteenth novel featuring Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective Harry Bosch. The book was published on 22 November 2011.

<i>The Black Box</i> (novel) 16th novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

The Black Box is the 25th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the sixteenth novel featuring Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. The book was published on 26 November 2012, "in part to honor the 20th anniversary of the character".

<i>Bosch</i> (TV series) American drama television series

Bosch is an American police procedural television series produced by Amazon Studios and Fabrik Entertainment starring Titus Welliver as Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. The show was developed for Amazon by Eric Overmyer, and the first season takes its inspiration from the Michael Connelly novels City of Bones (2002), Echo Park (2006), and The Concrete Blonde (1994). It was one of two drama pilots that Amazon streamed online in early 2014, and viewers offered their opinions on it before the studio decided whether to place a series order. The seventh and final season was released on June 25, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wardell Fouse</span> Bloods gang member implicated in the murder of the Notorious B.I.G

Wardell Fouse, also known by his aliases Darnell Bolton and Poochie, was an American Bloods gang member who was implicated in the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. Fouse belonged to the California-based gang known as the Mob Piru Bloods. Since Fouse was deceased by the time his alleged involvement became known to the investigating police, no charges were filed against him.

References