Just listened to the unabridged audiobook of this title narrated by Dick Hill (If I misspell any names it's because of this, I only heard them). I found one hole in the story and was wondering if anyone else picked up on it.
SPOILER ALERT
Toward the end of the book, when Bosch is putting together his mother's murder after having several faulty theories, he realizes that the murderer was his mother's best friend, Meredith. He takes the postcard Meredith had sent him years earlier to Hirsch in the fingerprint lab. Hirsch confirms that the prints on the postcard match the prints on the belt found on the body's neck. Presumably this seals Meredith as the killer. The hole is that the belt was used by both women, apparently all the time, as they were in the habit of sharing clothes. The belt had in fact been chosen by Meredith so that young Harry Bosch could give it to his mother for her birthday. In the book it's clear that Bosch understands that she chose it because she liked it. In any case, Merediths prints on the belt are not incriminating in and of themselves. One would expect that this shared accessory would carry prints from both women. In the end it didn't matter because Meredith kills herself but the fingerprint evidence wouldn't have convicted her. There was a drop of blood on the victim's dress, presumably from Meredith so I suppose the DNA could have been matched. So there's that.
216.48.48.130 18:27, December 1, 2015 (UTC)