On New Year's Day, Detective Harry Bosch fields a call that a dog has found a bone ? a bone that the dog's owner, a doctor, feels certain is a human bone.

Bosch investigates, and that chance discovery leads him to a shallow grave in the Hollywood hills, evidence of a murder committed more than twenty years earlier. It's a cold case, but it stirs up Bosch's memories of his own childhood as an orphan in the city. He can't let it go. Digging through police reports and hospital records, tracking down street kids and runaways from the 1970s, Bosch finds a family ripped apart by an absence ? and a trail, ever more tenuous, into a violent, terrifying world.

As the case takes Bosch deeper into the past, a rookie cop named Julia Brasher brings him alive in the present in a way no one has in years. Bosch has been warned about the trouble that comes with dating a rookie, but no warning could withstand the heat between them ? or prepare Bosch for the explosions when the case takes a hard turn. A suspect bolts, a cop is shot, and suddenly Bosch's cold case has all of L.A. in an uproar ? and Bosch fighting to keep control in a lawless and brutal showdown.

Drawing on the "precision-tooled twists" and "wellspring of authentically lurid detail" (Los Angeles magazine) that have made him one of the fastest-selling novelists at work today, Michael Connelly has written a riveting, hard-edged, and unforgettable thriller, proof that he is among "the most talented of crime writers" (The New Yorker).

"This riveting thriller finds Harry even more introspective than usual, and while the tight prose of the plot swirls around the mystery of the bones, Harry's turbulent life and career are changed forever in a stunning conclusion. Another thrilling winner for Connelly's many fans." Library Journal

"Harry wanders deeper into that abyss this time than ever before, and it drives him to a shocking decision that will leave series fans reeling. Hard-boiled cop fiction at its most gripping." Bill Ott, Booklist *Starred Review*

"Michael Connelly is one of those masters...who can keep driving the story forward in runaway locomotive style." USA Today

"Recalls no one so much as Raymond Chandler...ambitious, skillful, moving, intricate, and clever....Connelly puts his foot on the gas and doesn't let up." Los Angeles Times

"High-voltage adventure....Connelly is a whiz at both cophouse politics and investigatory technique...thoughtful, knowing...spellbinding." Washington Post Book World

Connelly's powerful "New York Times" bestseller finds Detective Harry Bosch intent on solving a 20-year-old murder case--with an explosive ending that will leave all Bosch fans shocked and breathless. "Great, gulp-in-one-sitting fun."--"Entertainment Weekly."

Michael Connelly is a former journalist and author of the bestselling series of Harry Bosch novels including, most recently, A Darkness More Than Night, and the bestselling novels Void Moon, Angels Flight, Blood Work, and The Poet. Connelly has won numerous awards for his journalism and novels, including an Edgar Award.