Harry Bosch

Background

Bosch's mother was a prostitute in Hollywood and was murdered in 1961 (10/28/61) when Bosch was 11 years old. His father, whom he met later in life, was Mickey Haller, Sr., a prominent defense attorney known for representing mobster Mickey Cohen among other clients. Bosch spent his youth in various orphanages, youth halls, and the occasional foster family. When he learned of his mother's murder, Bosch, then living at a youth hall, dived to the bottom of the pool, screamed until he ran out of air and then swam back to the surface. This event is referenced in several Bosch novels. He joined the United States Army when he was seventeen years old, after getting his foster father to sign the enlistment papers that gave his consent for his minor foster son.

In Vietnam, Bosch was a "tunnel rat" (nicknamed Hari Kari Bosch), with the 1st Infantry Division—a specialized soldier whose job it was to go into the maze of tunnels used as barracks, hospitals, and on some occasions, morgues, by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.^[1] While in the enemy tunnels, the Tunnel Rats would kill enemy soldiers they encountered, gather documents for analysis by military intelligence, and then plant C-4 high explosive charges that they would set to detonate after they exited the tunnels. Once, while on R&R leave in Hawaii, Bosch went AWOL but returned to his unit and served two tours of duty in Vietnam.

Bosch has a daughter named Maddie with his ex-wife Eleanor. Maddie spent most of her time with her mother in Hong Kong, where she was a professional gambler and star attraction at a Macau casino. Bosch saw his daughter in person only twice a year. Eleanor had a personal security guard, Sun Yee, who was also her boyfriend. She was killed during an attempt to rescue Maddie from Chinese thugs (detailed in 9 Dragons from 2009). Subsequently, Maddie lives with her father in Los Angeles.

LAPD career

After his return from Vietnam and an honorable discharge from the Army, Bosch joined the LAPD and rose to the rank of Detective III, a position which entails both investigative and supervisory duties and is the LAPD equivalent of Detective Sergeant.

While in the LAPD, Bosch worked in the prestigious Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) for five years, but was drummed out by an Internal Affairs Division (IAD) investigation involving Bosch's shooting of a suspect (The Dollmaker) who was later linked to nine murders. Following the IAD investigation, which was conducted by Detectives Pierce Lewis and Don Clarke, Bosch was sent to Hollywood Division and assigned to the homicide desk. Lewis and Clarke also investigated Bosch in The Black Echo. At one point, Bosch left the LAPD and worked as a private investigator for three years. He left retirement and returned to the LAPD at the conclusion of The Narrows. After his return, Bosch was assigned to RHD's Open-Unsolved Unit, a cold case squad. Bosch transferred out of Open-Unsolved and into Homicide Special during the time between Echo Park and The Overlook.

During his time in the LAPD as covered in the novels, Bosch was in Hollywood homicide and worked with Frankie Sheehan (Bosch's partner in RHD, who was later murdered in Angels Flight), Jerry Edgar (his longest serving partner) and Kizmin 'Kiz' Rider, the other members of Bosch's team in Hollywood homicide. The 2004 Limited Edition DVD that was available with The Narrows included an excerpt of a speech real-life LAPD Chief William Bratton made at the Police Academy, in which he publicly asked Harry Bosch to return from retirement (Connelly was on the stand behind listening to the speech; see Blue Neon Night: Michael Connelly's Los Angeles). In The Overlook, Connelly gave Bratton an approving endorsement (albeit without using his name) for "raising the morale of the rank and file" and for giving "Bosch his job back" (pp. 145–146 of the Vision paperback edition).

In The Closers, Bosch was once again partnered with Rider, while Edgar remained in Hollywood homicide. Bosch remained partnered with Rider until her transfer to the Chief's office after being shot during Echo Park. During The Overlook, Bosch partnered with Detective Ignacio 'Iggy' Ferras, a younger detective with whom Bosch had not yet developed a solid rapport. In The Drop and The Black Box he is partnered with Detective David Chu. Not a stranger to being second-guessed, Bosch was investigated by the LAPD's IAD multiple times, and was always cleared. In The Burning Room he is partnered with a young detective named Lucia Soto. Bosch is suspended by their unit's commander for a minor violation of departmental procedure after Soto and he cleared a tough homicide case. Bosch is forced take retirement even though the disciplinary case against him is eventually dropped.

Post LAPD career

In The Crossing Bosch works as an Criminal Defense Investigator for his half-brother Mickey Haller. Bosch’s work helps Mickey clear an innocent man who was wrongfully prosecuted for a crime that he did not commit. Though glad to help clear the man'a name, Bosch did not enjoy working for the defense during the trial. He decides to try something else.

He continues to work as a private investigator in The Wrong Side of Goodbye. He investigates the matter of locating the heir to the estate of a dying billionaire. He also accepts a position as a Reserve Officer working for the city of San Fernando, California Police Department. The chief of the San Fernando P.D. hires Bosch to work as a Detective to utilize Bosch's years of experience with the LAPD. He is partnered with Detective Bella Lourdes. They solve a case involving a series of violent rapes. In Two Kinds of Truth Bosch continues to work as a Detective for the SFPD. He helps clear a double homicide case involving the trafficking of illegal prescription pain killing pharmaceuticals. He also clears his name of wrong doing involving an old LAPD homicide case of his.

Personal characteristics

Bosch lived in a house on stilts at 7203 Woodrow Wilson Drive^[2] in the Hollywood Hills. The money that financed Bosch's home came from a production studio for a TV mini-series in which actor Dan Lacey portrays Bosch in a case the detective had worked that involved a serial killer; Bosch worked as a technical advisor on the mini-series. His house was later damaged during the Northridge earthquake shortly before the book The Last Coyote. After his house was condemned and demolished, he had a new one built on the same road, still facing out over the valley.

Bosch has an active love life, with usually one love interest per book. He has a daughter, who, as of 9 Dragons, is living with him. She had lived with her mother, Harry's ex-wife Eleanor Wish (a former FBI agent, ex-con and professional poker player, whom Bosch met in The Black Echo and married while on a case in Las Vegas. Wish left Bosch in Angels Flight, and was killed in Hong Kong. Recent stories find Bosch linked in a close relationship with FBI agent Rachel Walling. The liaison formulated in The Narrows and heightened romantically during Echo Park, but Walling broke off the relationship at its conclusion. Walling returned in The Overlook on a strictly professional basis, and she has since resumed a relationship with reporter Jack McEvoy. Walling notes in The Scarecrow that her relationship with Bosch broke up in part because Bosch was still in love with Eleanor Wish.

Bosch is left-handed. He stands a few inches short of six feet and is described as wiry. His muscles are like nylon cords, strength concealed by economy of scale. He has a moustache and has brown hair that is by now graying (The Black Echo). Bosch's eyes are the other key aspect of his appearance; they are brown and nearly black, and were mentioned often for this reason in A Darkness More Than Night. Connelly gives a good clue as to how he visualizes Bosch when, in The Overlook, Rachel Walling tells Bosch that "You look like House" (actor Hugh Laurie).

Bosch is always finding himself in conflict with authority, whether with his lieutenant, or a deputy chief of police (specifically Irvin Irving, Bosch's recurring nemesis until forced to retire at the end of The Closers, and now a city councilman), or the FBI. His confrontational side is usually attributed to his strong sense of right and wrong, coupled with little regard for his career. At the end of The Overlook, Connelly states this trait can be described in a single word: "relentless". He also uses this word in Lost Light, describing jazz, and implying reference to his own work and personality.

Bosch has a half-brother, Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles attorney who makes his first appearance in the novel The Lincoln Lawyer, although he briefly appears in a flashback in The Black Ice as a boy. Haller is the legitimate son of the attorney who fathered Bosch. In the second Mickey Haller novel, The Brass Verdict, it is revealed that Harry Bosch has known for years of the relationship, but Haller was unaware of it until the end of the book.^[3]

Bosch's namesake, the Dutch painter, was famous for his religious portrayal of earthly sins (mostly debauchery) and their violent consequences. In several of the books there are parallels suggested between the hell in the paintings and the events of the fictional Bosch's life. "Hieronymus" is the Latin form of the male name Jerome, but Connelly has written he used the nickname "Harry" for the character rather than "Jerry" as a tribute to "Dirty" Harry Callahan -- the police officer played in a series of films by Clint Eastwood.^[4]

Besides the Connelly series, Harry Bosch has made cameos in several other authors' books. Bosch has appeared in books by Paula Woods, Joe Gores, and Robert Crais.^[5] Likewise, during an October 16, 2008 book-signing in San Mateo, California, to promote The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly informed the audience that Bosch also appeared in a cameo without identification in Connelly's novel Chasing the Dime.

With two exceptions the Bosch novels are narrated in third-person, initially focused entirely on Bosch's point of view. Later novels include occasional scenes from the perspective of other characters, but the overall emphasis is on Bosch. Lost Light (2003), the first novel in the series in which Bosch works as a private investigator, is narrated in the first-person by Bosch, a nod to private detective novels which are traditionally narrated by the investigator. The Narrows (2004), set during Bosch's temporary LAPD retirement is also narrated by Bosch, but The Closers (2005) returns to third-person narration.

Personal firearms

Bosch carried a revolver in The Black Echo (he had to remove spent cartridges to reload during the S&L shootout). In later books, he uses a "Smith & Wesson" or an "auto pistol", probably a Smith & Wesson Model 5906 9mm which was a popular weapon in the LAPD at the time. In Lost Light, after Bosch retired from Homicide and got his PI licence, he kept a Glock 27 .40SW caliber, semi-automatic, subcompact pistol in his closet for personal protection (mistakenly described in the book as a "Glock P7"). After the North Hollywood shootout, the LAPD authorized heavier calibre pistols for officers. In The Overlook Bosch has transferred to the RHD Special Section and carries a Kimber Ultra Carry II .45 ACP Caliber semiautomatic pistol. In The Burning Room, Bosch is carrying a Glock 30, .45 ACP caliber, semi-automatic pistol, and using the Kimber as his backup gun.

Additional appearances

• Cons, Scams & Grifts, by Joe Gores (2001)
• Chasing the Dime (2002), unnamed cameo
• The Last Detective, by Robert Crais (2003), unnamed cameo
• Strange Bedfellows, by Paula Woods (2006)

Short stories

• "Christmas Even" (in Murder...And All That Jazz, 2004)
• "Cielo Azul" (in Dangerous Women, 2005)
• "Angle of Investigation" (in Plots with Guns, 2005)
• "Suicide Run" (in Hollywood and Crime, 2007)
• "One Dollar Jackpot" (in Dead Man's Hand, 2007)
• "Father's Day" (in the Blue Religion, 2008)
• "Blue on Black" (in Hook, Line & Sinister, 2010)
• "Blood Washes Off" (in the Rich and the Dead, 2011)
• "Switchblade" (epublished in January 2014)
• "Red Eye" (in FaceOff, 2014)
• "The Crooked Man" (in "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes", 2015)

Short story collections

• Angle of Investigation (2011), includes "Christmas Even", "Father's Day", and the eponymous "Angle of Investigation"^[8]
• Suicide Run (2011), includes "Suicide Run", "Cielo Azul", and "One Dollar Jackpot"^[9]