Two Kinds of Truth

Two Kinds of Truth is the 31st novel written by Michael Connelly. It features LAPD detective Harry Bosch and is the twentieth in the series of books featuring the character. Also, this is the eighth to feature Los Angeles defense attorney Mickey Haller. The book was released on 31 October 2017 in the United States.

Development[]

Synopsis[]

Harry Bosch is back as a volunteer working cold cases for the San Fernando police and is called out to a local drug store where a young pharmacist has been murdered. Bosch and the town’s 3-person detective squad sift through the clues, which lead into the dangerous, big business world of prescription drug abuse.

Meanwhile, an old case from Bosch’s LAPD days comes back to haunt him when a long-imprisoned killer claims Harry framed him and seems to have new evidence to prove it. Bosch left the LAPD on bad terms, so his former colleagues aren’t keen to protect his reputation. He must fend for himself in clearing his name and keeping a clever killer in prison.

The two unrelated cases wind around each other like strands of barbed wire. Along the way Bosch discovers that there are two kinds of truth: the kind that sets you free and the kind that leaves you buried in darkness.

Characters[]

Detective Harry Bosch
LA Defense Attorney Mickey Haller - Bosch's half-brother
Esme Tavares - subject in unsolved missing person case
Detective Bella Lourdes - San Fernando PD, Bosch's current partner
Detective Oscar Luzon - San Fernando PD, colleague in Bosch's squad
Detective Danny Sisto - San Fernando PD, colleague in Bosch's squad
Captain Trevino - San Fernando PD, Bosch's commanding officer
Chief of Police Anthony Valdez - San Fernando PD
Detective Lucia Soto - LAPD open unsolved unit, Bosch's former partner
Detective Bob Tapscott - LAPD open unsolved unit, Soto's new partner
Horace Tapscott - late South LA jazz musician and community activist (non-fictional mentioned character)
LA Assistant District Attorney Alex Kennedy
Preston Borders - convicted murderer seeking exoneration
Detective "Huey" - San Fernando PD, robbery squad
Detective "Duey" - San Fernando PD, robbery squad
Detective "Luey" - San Fernando PD, robbery squad
LA District Attorney Tak Kobayashi
Danielle Skyler - murder victim, killed by Preston Borders
Donna Timmons - murder victim, believed to have been killed by Preston Borders
Vicki Novotny - murder victim, believed to have been killed by Preston Borders
Lucas John Olmer - deceased convicted rapist, implicated in Preston Borders case

Chapters[]

Part 1 - Cappers[]

Chapter 1 - Bosch is interrupted while working on the Esmerelda Tavarez cold case in the cells at San Fernando PD by a visit from his old partner Lucia Soto. Soto is accompanied by ADA Alex Kennedy and has bad news - a murderer Bosch put away, Preston Borders, is seeking exoneration by claiming Bosch framed him.
Chapter 2 - Bosch is thrown by the challenge against the solid case he built against Borders. He learns that a review of the samples obtained at the crime scene has shown DNA from another man who died in prison years earlier. Bosch is convinced of Borders' guilt and initially believes the evidence must have been tampered with. However, Soto shows him video of them reviewing the evidence and the intact seals they found. Lourdes enters with news of a double homicide at a pharmacy. Bosch is informed that should Borders be exonerated he plans on suing both the city and Bosch personally.
Chapter 3 - Bosch arrives at the pharmacy and takes command of the crime scene. He nominates Lourdes as lead investigator and tells her to observe everything. Forensics arrives.
Chapter 4 - Bosch explores the scene, discovers a ~50 yr old male pharmacist shot at close range behind the counter of the small family pharmacy. A second body of a male in early 20s was found shot three times from behind evidently trying to flee, including a point-blank shot in the rectum. Two different weapons were used and no shell casings were found. The pharmacy had surveillance cameras. Pills were scattered around the floor, and there are signs others had been stolen. Soto calls, saying she's trying to deflect blame to Harry's former partner or the lab. Harry requests all files, and Soto declines. The wife and mother of victims arrives and Lourdes agrees to interview her, with Bosch advising her to focus on the son, saying the rectal shot indicates the shooter knew him and wanted to make a statement.
Chapter 5 - Cameras reveal two ski-masked gunmen executed the pharmacists in a well planned operation. Bosch returns home and receives an envelope from Soto containing the Skyler files and spends the night reviewing them, remembering how aspiring actors Border and Skyler met in a casting agency.
Chapter 6 - Bosch continues to review the old file, documenting the missing seahorse necklace from the victim and taking Borders in for questioning. He's charged and a search of his house finds the seahorse necklace and two other pieces of women's jewelry hidden which were traceable to other victims, but without strong enough connections to Borders, no charges were made. The seahorse necklace proves to be the key piece of evidence at trial, and a conviction is reached. Borders is sentenced to death.
Chapter 7 - Bosch calls Mickey Haller who informs him that he is unlikely to be held personally financially liable in any lawsuits that follow the Borders case, but warns him that ADA Kennedy is not to be trusted.
Chapter 8 - The detective team meets, reviews the video. Interviews with the mother indicate the victims were not getting along at the time of their deaths.
Chapter 9 - Bosch contacts Soto, who implies there is more in the old file than new DNA evidence. Lourdes informs Bosch that records confirm that Junior had filed a complaint against a clinic in nearby Pacoima for overprescribing oxycodone. His father had been filling the prescriptions, either enjoying the additional sales or fearful of the consequences of not filling them. Junior declares he will no longer fill them. Bosch and Lourdes visit the clinic where a van of suspected "pill shills" arrive and leave 20 minutes later, with the van taking them to nearby Whiteman Airport. The van leaves, and a small plane takes off.
Chapter 10 - They visit air traffic control to ask after the small plane, where they are told that the plane flies regularly with 15-20 vagrants flying in and out most days. The owners of the craft receive paperwork in Calexico and are not required to file flight plans and flights are also free to come and go at any time in the evening, when the airport is unsecured and even used for drag racers. The pilot reportedly has a Russian accent. Bosch inspects the records of the comings-and-goings of the airfield, with the involved plane being used most often. Video footage exists for up to a month. The plane should be equipped with a transponder and can be tracked with a day's notice.
Chapter 11 - Bosch and Lourdes meet with the Medical Board, where Bosch's former partner Jerry Edgar is now an investigator. Edgar informs them that Pacoima Pain and Urgent Care is headed by a Dr. Efram Herrera who has been writing hundreds of prescriptions per week. Edgar that "cappers" recruit unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists to fill prescriptions and provide pills for destitute addicts, with the pills kept by the cappers for resale. Edgar notes that a Russian-Armenian cartel is one of the illicit industry's largest players and is run by a "Santos" who is supposedly based in the desert in mobile caravans, and that the DEA is aware of the operation. Edgar provides the contact to DEA Agent Charlie Hovan.
Chapter 12 - Bosch receives a call from the prison where he learns that Borders and the deceased Olmer have the same lawyer. They return to the office where video from the pharmacy shows an altercation between the van driver and Jose, followed by an argument later between father and son. They agree to get a search warrant for Whiteman Airport and to involve the DEA.
Chapter 13 - Continuing to work through the Borders case file, Bosch learns how the proceedings to vacate the conviction were initiated, and that Borders has told investigators that Bosch had planted the seahorse necklace in his possession before the original arrest.
Chapter 14 - Watching over the video footage at the airfield, the detectives see two men land and later fly out of the airport, allowing ample time for the shootings. Bosch develops a plan to approach the van driver and attempt to scare him into giving up his bosses within their organization. They also take the clipboard with records of air traffic from the air-field. Harry talks to Maddie as he drives home and, upon arriving, finds Edgar waiting outside for his return. Edgar tells him that he had vouched for Bosch with DEA Agent Hovan. He says he is unsatisfied with his job and misses Detective work, and has come to ask if he could be involved in the case. Bosch invites him to join the war-room meeting the following morning.
Chapter 15 - Bosch notices in the old records that Olmer's DNA had been supplied earlier to his attorney and that there was no record of it being returned to the State. Haller calls and Bosch tells him he wants to use his services to oppose the release of Borders, but that at this stage he did not have any proof that the evidence box had been tampered with. Haller tells Bosch that Borders previous lawyer David 'Legal' Siegel was their father's former partner, and that he was still alive and remains close to Haller, and that Haller will set up a meeting between Bosch and the aging lawyer. Bosch arrives at the war-room meeting, with Edgar and Hovan both in attendance.
Chapter 16 - Hovan suggests that instead of scaring a driver into reporting a higher-up will not work. Boss Santos will be too insulated for that to work. He proposes Bosch go undercover with the vagrants who are all similarly aged to him and insert him into the group of pill-shills. Bosch agrees.
Chapter 17 - Bosch meets Haller and Siegel at a nursing home. In a video recording, Haller interviews Siegel over the original Borders case. After summarizing the original case, Siegel states he's aware of the new proceedings and that he's been accused of suborning perjury. Siegel denies this and says that he had urged Borders to not testify at all, and that the detectives that investigated the case were unimpeachable.
Chapter 18 - Bosch realizes that lawyer Cronyn was the architect of his framing, motivated by the money from the ensuing civil suit. Having preserved Olmer's DNA, he then approached Borders with the opportunity to be cleared and receive a large settlement. Bosch considers the means by which the DNA could have been planted on the victim's pajamas in the sealed evidence box.
Chapter 19 - Harry meets Haller's investigator Cisco to help prepare him for undercover life as an opioid addict. Cisco gives him a knee brace and a cane that turns out to contain a concealed weapon. They watch the box opening video together and Cisco spots another man watching from outside as the box was being opened who Bosch recognizes as a civilian employee of the evidence center. Bosch enlists Cisco's help to track the property officer. Cisco tails him home and calls Bosch informing him that the staffer's name is Terry Spencer and that he may be in debt against his home. Bosch places a call to Cronyn posing as Spencer at it becomes clear that they have some kind of relationship.
Chapter 20 - Bosch tells Cisco to carefully follow Spencer further, and alerts Cisco that Spencer is likely aware of the surveillance. Haller confirms that Spencer has major urgent financial trouble and is about to lose his home. Haller then tells Bosch that Spencer's foreclosure lawyer later became Cronyn's wife.
Chapter 21 - Bosch and Haller develop a theory on how Spencer became involved. Cisco sends them both a video of Spencer meeting with Kathy Corbyn.

Part 2 - The South Side of Nowhere[]

Chapter 22 - Bosch goes to a pain clinic and is searched by two Russians at the same same time as the DEA busts their other shills
Chapter 23 - Russians return with prescription and recruit Bosch as a replacement shill. He has his phone and gun confiscated and is put in a van, then boards a plane filled with 11 other "pill shills" - addicts who are working for the drug ring to collect prescription medications in slave like conditions. The plane transports them to a desert camp where the addicts live.
Chapter 24 - Bosch arrives at the encampment, and gets in a scuffle with a man named Brody, costing Brody a second pill. He is given food and a cot in an old school bus and warned by a tattooed woman that Brody will be coming for him.
Chapter 25 - Bosch is attacked by Brody in his cot but easily subdues him. He then asks another man where the bathroom is and uses that as an excuse to explore the camp further. He sees the two killers playing cards in a room, with a naked woman on the sofa beside them. Security notice him and he claims to be retuning from the toilet. Questioned by the assassin he keeps his cover, despite having to play a round of Russian roulette with his own doctored gun.
Chapter 26 - Bosch and the pill shills are flown and driven around the state to collect pills from various pharmacies. Back in LA, Lourdes waits for him in a pharmacy and tells him they lost him the previous day. He tells her the location of the camp and asks her to arrange a raid, removing Brody and the tattooed woman who had tipped him off to the risk. The van flees without the 4 people arrested in the raid.
Chapter 27 - Bosch is woken Sunday morning and bundled into a plane by the two Russians. It takes off, with Bosch sure he's not supposed to survive the journey.
Chapter 28 - One of the Russians shows Bosch a newspaper article on the DNA case, recognising Bosch from the photo. He admits to the pharmacy killing as well as the killing of Santos then attacks Bosch who produced the blade from the cane and stabbed him to death. Bosch took his gun and the other Russian jumps from the plane into the water below. Bosch approaches the pilot, directs him to return to LA and radios control to inform Hovan at DEA of the status.
Chapter 29 - Bosch is taken in for a debriefing where he first reads the LA Times article. He denies it to those in attendance and explains what happened in the plane.
Chapter 30 - Bosch cleans up, finds an envelope on his table, then drives home to a mountain of messages from his daughter, lawyer, a journalist and former partner.
Chapter 31 - Harry tells Maddie the full story of the pharmacy murders and the Borders frame. She leaves and Bosch calls to check on the tattooed woman - Elizabeth - and Brody. Both had been released. He leaves to try to find her.
Chapter 32 - Edgar tells Bosch of a nearby clinic where Elizabeth may go. He finds Brody waiting for her. Brody attacks him and is beaten once again. Bosch raids the clinic and finds her. He accosts the doctor and learns that he had had sex with Elizabeth. Edgar arrives to the clinic.
Chapter 33 - The doctor slips out. Bosch takes Elizabeth and places her in the care of recovering addict Cisco.
Chapter 34 - Bosch and Haller meet. Haller informs him that Spencer had been hidden but Cisco had tracked him and he's been subpoenaed to appear in court. Haller requests Bosch track down the victim's sister Dani as a potential witness.
Chapter 35 - Bosch returns to SFPD an finds media waiting. Lourdes shows him a video of the second Russian's body being recovered from the water and learns additional background on their identities and organization. He then looks into Dani's whereabouts and finds an updated address for her.

Part 3 - The Intervention[]

Chapter 36 - Bosch and Maddie head to the courthouse. One by one witnesses, lawyers and the DA team arrive. Finally Borders is led into the courtroom.
Chapter 37 - Court convenes. Haller's motion is heard first, over objections from both the state and the defense. However the judge rules that the LA Times article had damaged his reputation and he was allowed to answer to that in his own defense. Spencer arrives, shocking the defense. Haller asks for a private meeting in chambers to present his case. The judge clears the courtroom instead.
Chapter 38 - Haller lays out the entire conspiracy to frame Bosch, free Borders and sue the city for the judge, ending with Spencer's willingness to go on the stand.
Chapter 39 - Borders laughs and condemns his lawyers. The state withdraws its motions. Borders is taken out of the court. The judge cautions the Corbyns, finds then the n contempt and asks a deputy to take them into custody. The judge says he will be telling the media what had happened and demands the State apologize publicly to Bosch. Cisco tells Bosch that Spencer planned to take the 5th.
Chapter 40 - Bosch briefs an LA Times reporter, sees Maddie off, then joins Haller and Cisco at a bar. He tells Haller he knows he tipped the LA Times previously to make it public and ensure the reputation defense strategy would be valid. Bosch objected to the strategy, saying it nearly got him killed undercover and damaged Maddie's opinion of him. A staredown follows and Cisco brokers a tentative peace with a "cheers" and glass-clink.
Chapter 41 - Bosch arrives home and finds Soto waiting. She knows now that Spencer was taking the 5th, but got a warrant, searched his house, and learned that he was able to open and reseal old boxes with a stockpile of old tape he'd collected. He'd also been stealing and pawning old evidence when it was valuable. The Corbyns are negotiating their future. She apologises and Harry accepts. He asks her to pull the file on Elizabeth's murdered daughter - Daisy Clayton - and she agrees.
Chapter 42 - Bosch opens his safe and takes all his emergency earthquake cash - about $10000 - and heads out, calling Lourdes for a rehab center recommendation. He gives the money to Cisco and asks him to take her to a center. He returns home and finds the envelope from 3 days earlier. It's a tip on a cold case for Esmerelda Tavarez, the case he'd been working on at the beginning.
Chapter 43 - Angela - the author of the note - turns out to be Esmerelda, having fled an abusive relationship and abandoned her baby daughter, moving to Utah and then later back to LA and living under another new name. She has surfaced now so that a lawyer could process her divorce and she could remarry.
Chapter 44 - Harry returns to his storage cell to process the paperwork and mull the cases. He calls Soto to ask about Daisy, she's reviewing it and he asks to be involved in the investigation.

Audiobook[]

The audiobook is narrated by Titus Welliver, who plays Harry Bosch in the television adaptation Bosch.