Two Kinds of Truth (Harry Bosch, #20; Harry Bosch Universe, #31)

by Michael Connelly

“You don’t sound like you have a lot of sympathy.” “I do to an extent. I’ve dealt with addicts all my life, including in my own family, and it’s hard to balance sympathy for them with the damage they do to their families and others.”

Livingstone had said sympathy was no substitute for action. That was an essential brick in Bosch’s wall. He had built himself as a man of action and, at the moment when the integrity of his life’s work had been called into question by a man on death row, he had chosen to turn his sympathy for Elizabeth Clayton into action. He understood that but was unsure if anyone else would. They would see other motives. Elizabeth would as well, and that was why he had chosen not to see her. He knew he had done what he needed to do and that he would probably never see her again.