L. A. Detective Harry Bosch Teams Up with F.B.I.Agent Rachel Walling to Chase an Especially Nasty Killer

The Narrows brings together several of Michael Connelly's characters, including L.A. detective Harry bosch, Connelly's main protagonist; F.B.I. agent Rachel Walling from The Poet; and Terry McCaleb, a former F.B.I. profiler, who first appeared in Blood Work.

Actually, as this book opens, McCaleb has just died. He was the survivor of a heart transplant and apparently died when his new heart failed him while he was out at sea on the charter fishing boat that he operated. It all seems pretty straightforward, but McCaleb's widow, Graciela, asks Bosch to look into it. Bosch, who has left the L.A.P.D. and is now a private investigator, agrees to do so because McCaleb once saved his life when the two were working together on an earlier case.

McCaleb had never been able to let go of his career as a profiler, and although he was no longer with the F.B.I., he occasionally consulted with other law enforcement agencies. He also followed cases that he personally found interesting and left several boxes of files when he died. Bosch begins reviewing the files and finds a relatively new case that had grabbed McCaleb's attention. The case had caused McCaleb to travel to a desolate part of Nevada, but his notes are fairly cryptic, and Bosch can't figure out what McCaleb might have been looking for there.

Virtually at the same time, an unidentified person sends a GPS unit to the F.B.I. addressed to Rachel Walling. Walling has been exiled to hardship duty in North and South Dakota because she fell out of favor with the Powers That Be at the end of the case where she was chasing the Poet. The Poet was presumed to be dead at the end of that book, but it was impossible to confirm the identification of the body that was found, and anyone who's ever read a novel about a serial killer knows what that means.

The Fibbies have no choice but to bring Rachel back into the fold, at least until they can figure out why the GPS was sent to her, and as it turns out, the coordinates on the GPS send them to the exact same desolate spot in the Nevada desert where Bosch is headed. Oops!

It quickly becomes apparent that a very bad hombre is on the loose and, naturally, the stuffed shirts at the F.B.I. will have their heads in a position where it will be very difficult for them to think clearly. This means that it will be up to Harry and Rachel to save civilization as we know it, if only it's not too late.

This is a very entertaining novel and it's great fun watching Bosch and Walling work together, especially with all the odds that are stacked against them. It's hard to imagine a fan of crime fiction who would not enjoy this book.