The Narrows
Michael Connelly
Little, Brown, 2004, $25.95, 405 pp.
ISBN: 0316155306

Cherie Dei calls from Quantico with the chilling words "He's resurfaced. He's back". FBI Agent Rachel Walling dreaded that one day she would hear sentences similar to this, but prayed he did not return. Alas her prayers went unanswered as the dreaded serial killer The Poet has announced his return with a package containing a global position system reader that precisely pinpoints the dead.

Graciela McCaleb asks family friend former LAPD detective Harry Bosch to investigate the recent death of her spouse Terry whose transplanted heart apparently failed him. However, a blood reading failed to show traces of Prograf and CellCept, medicines needed to keep his heart safe though several witnesses swear they saw him take his capsules. Harry knows that he has ties to Terry from his LAPD days so he agrees to investigate. As Harry and Rachel conduct their inquiries separately, they interconnect with the Poet, perhaps the deadliest cleverest killer of them all.

Harry Bosch is at his best in this thriller as he balances fatherhood, love and a debt to a deceased friend while trying to outwit (and stay alive) a brilliant killing machine. Rachel provides an intriguing counterpoint as she is considered a renegade by the brass (typical in novels that a key Fed is an outsider rather than a bureaucrat), but their only hope to stop the Poet. Though the twosome is a delight sparring yet teaming, the tale belongs to the villain, one of the best in a long time. Michael Connelly provides a strong Bosch book that fans will relish.

Harriet Klausner