Desert Star (Renée Ballard, #5; Harry Bosch, #24; Harry Bosch Universe, #37)

by Michael Connelly

Each one the story of a murder left unsolved. This was hallowed ground to Bosch. The library of lost souls.

A skylight window above brought the afternoon sun down, throwing natural light on unnatural death. Bosch paused for a moment and stood still. There was only silence in the library of lost souls.

To Bosch it was another place of hallowed ground. It was where an entire family had ended. A father, mother, daughter, and son murdered and then buried in the rock and sand, never to be found had it not been for a Cal State geological expedition studying the nearby salt pan for evidence of climate change.

“‘The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.’” “MLK, right? Let’s hope he was right.”

“Roger that.” “You gotta stop saying that. Everybody has to stop saying it.” “What’s wrong with it?” “When influencers are saying it on TikTok, it’s jumped the shark.” “I don’t know what one word of that means.”

He drove directly to her and parked so that their driver’s-side windows faced each other and they could talk without getting out of their vehicles. In LAPD slang, it was called a “69 meeting” because of the positioning of the cars.