this book comes over partly as a courtroom style legal thriller, partly as a police procedural and partly as an old fashioned whodunnit. the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. in four hundred pages i never felt like i was languishing in filler and the sub plots never felt superfluous. it always seemed that the solution must be just around the corner, but the twists were never pulled out of a hat. i kept thinking that i'd guessed the solution but i'd only seen around the corner to the next twist which kept me feeling clever without me feeling let down by guessing too early. this book was recommended to me quite some time ago, and i'm always wary of being let down by books that come highly recommended. i wasn't let down though and i'll be reading more of harry bosch in the future.