Novels No. 18 (LL336)

 

Michael Connelly. Resurrection Walk. Ebook download from TPL. USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2023.

Harry Bosch is now—in his retirement as a cop, and part of a clinical trial for his cancer—playing assistant to half-brother Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer. Haller's recent courtroom success resulted in a deluge of requests for his criminal defense expertise, mostly from prisoners who say they are innocent. Harry is employed to determine a plausible few that Mickey might undertake pro bono; Mickey has a self-satisfying altruistic streak. A great deal of research goes on to investigate these pleas. One letter is from Lucinda Sanz, who was convicted of shooting her policeman ex-husband in the back; the couple was known for fierce divorce and custody battles. Then Jennifer Aronson, Mickey's associate, asks Harry for a favour—to review her defense notes for a nephew, accused of shooting a cop—which serves to illustrate how years of experience in nailing killers have blocked Harry's empathy for such defendants.

Lucinda's plight becomes clear as Harry uncovers discrepancies in the original investigation. Both men go all out to provide every support as the court hearing for a habeas petition approaches; similar to a trial, Mickey must prove his client's innocence by showing she was set up. Harry is as eager as Mickey to see Lucinda's "resurrection walk", as Mickey calls it: exonerated release from prison. Dangerous influences work hard to derail them, one promising avenue after another seems to collapse. The courtroom drama is superb. Sheriff gangs, Lucinda's first sleazy defense lawyer, the cell location data, the prison roommate con, the obstructing FBI agent, hostile witnesses—all have to be dealt with, often on a spontaneous moment before the judge. Haller shines, even in his annoying moments.

Harry and Mickey together in one book make for double the suspense; it's as brilliant a thriller as Connelly ever wrote. Harry's fans should know that his UCLA cancer treatment is explained and daughter Maddie is on it.

Mickey

▪ "Yeah, well don't forget who's signing your paychecks and who put you on the health plan." (86)

▪ "We're not solving the crime. We're proving Lucinda didn't do it. There's a difference." (108)

▪ With Jorge Ochoa I had felt the adrenaline charge of the resurrection walk and I was now addicted to it. (125)

▪ "I will burn the ground you walk on to get my client out of that prison." (172)

▪ "So what you are saying, Dr. Arslanian, is that the shots that killed Roberto Sanz did not come from the stoop, correct?" (273)

▪ "Don't be obsequious, Mr. Haller. It doesn't look good on you." (318)

▪ I'd spent two days working on my witness lineup the way a baseball manager works on a lineup for the first game of the World Series. (320)

Harry

▪ The coffee was too hot to drink, especially to his ravaged throat, but he wanted to stop talking about his medical condition. (22)

▪ He didn't want the last act of his professional life to be helping criminals. (31)

▪ "Dad, really, you have to let me know what you know," she said. "You're not in this alone." (138)

▪ "But someone was here. And they wanted me to know it." (157)

▪ "This is over, man. I didn't talk to any of them and I'm not talking to you." (164)

▪ "We've obviously poked the hornet's nest." (185)

▪ "We're the FBI. We don't make mistakes like that." (327)

Daniel Kalla. Fit to Die. Ebook download from TPL. Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2023.

An athletic young man, Owen Galloway, dies in L.A. from a drug overdose; his mother is a state senator with plenty of influence and she's calling it murder. Detective Cari Garcia is on it; Senator Galloway has great resources. In Vancouver, a middle-aged woman, Marcia Wildman dies after taking her daughter's illicit drug; emergency doc Julie Rees sees it as one of the increasing overdoses among people of eating disorders and bodybuilders. Someone is distributing toxic red-and-black capsules that promise weight loss and muscle definition; the key ingredient is DNP, a gunpowder explosive, used in industrial projects. A little of it has the desired dietary effect, but too much is a killer. An overdose, accidental or otherwise, causes ghastly convulsions in the victims. When "Rain," an American TikTok star on her way to mainstream success, dies in Vancouver the same way, detectives fear the publicity will send the distributor into deep hiding.

Predictably, Cari and Anson join forces to find the source of the capsules. Online websites for it regularly appear and disappear rapidly. Yet there's more than one way to market DNP, by adding it secretly to a relatively harmless substance. Could Mind Over Body Wellness Center in Vancouver have something to do with it? But Cecilia Hunter, a co-owner with husband Lloyd, becomes a DNP victim herself. With a second center in L.A., their partner, Gerard Martin, is about to open a third in San Francisco; the demand for his services and treatments has surged beyond all expectations. Cari and Anson, with Julie assisting, are desperate to stop what could become a dangerous viral fad.

Kalla's message is straightforward, if the action is a little circuitous between the two cities. Suspects for two different sources of DNP seem obvious; murder or manslaughter may be applied. As a physician, Kalla spins absorbing stories from medical headlines. This one is not his strongest by way of mystery, almost putting me in mind of Grisham when his social conscience was overcoming the story line. But Lord knows that medical and social agencies in real life are dealing with a huge opioid crisis.

Bits

▪ "Don't catch feelings. Feelings are the investigator's kryptonite," her old Detective Training Unit instructor used to grill into them. (11-12)

▪ The floor seems to shake with the force of contractions from his violent seizure. (23)

▪ No one can believe how successful their method is at resculpting bodies. (36)

▪ "It's illegal for human consumption. It's toxic." (45)

▪ "Body dismorphia. An obsession with perceived but nonexistent body flaws." (50)

▪ "Overdose tops all causes of death in the under forty sector in our little metropolis, too." (76)

▪ "I'm simply asking you to tailor a more potent supplement for my husband." (85)

▪ "Rain basically told me the same," Shawna says. "That Dr Markstrom was the one who helped her control her weight." (139)

▪ "Vancouver and LA are the epicenters for health and wellness on the west coast. Arguably, anywhere." (165)

▪ Damn you, Cecilia, for making me deviate from the formula! (171)

▪ "Were you taking DNP with your sister?" (184)