Is Trunk Music Michael Connelly’s best novel?
SPOILER ALERT: This column reveals a few key plot twists in Trunk Music. Its target audience is people who have already read the book.
In June 1989, Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Connelly wrote an article about the sports agent Vic Weiss being found murdered in the trunk of his Rolls-Royce. Weiss had just come from a meeting with Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who was interested in hiring Weiss’ client, UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. Police concluded the killing was a mafia hit, and the headline on Connelly’s article was an old mob term for a body being dumped in the back of a car.
TRUNK MUSIC
Eight years later, Connelly used the term again, this time as a title for his fifth Harry Bosch novel. It had been two years since the author had written a Bosch novel, and in that time Connelly had left his reporting gig at the Times, and published his monumental novel, The Poet. Now, in 1997, he was back with another Bosch book, and it was arguably the best he ever wrote.
In fact, I’ll argue that Trunk Music is Connelly’s finest book. It’s not a slam dunk, because he’s written so many books that could claim that prize. What makes this book special is that it is packed with more of what makes a Bosch book great than any other Connelly novel. Consider these six aspects of the book.
It’s a Classic Whodunnit
The plot progression in this novel is perfect. There is a single plotline that carries the story, following the investigation into the murder of Tony Aliso. Connelly’s at his best, I believe, when he focuses on a single dominant plot. And it’s a live case, not a cold case, so the information comes out slowly through the investigation rather than being recited from an old case file.
Mirroring the true-life story of Vic Weiss, Bosch is called out to investigate the murder of a man found in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce abandoned in a park overlooking Dodger Stadium. The victim is soon identified as Tony Aliso, a Los Angeles maker of soft porn films. Bosch and his two partners, Kizmin Rider and Jerry Edgar, learn that Aliso has just been in Las Vegas and that he’s been laundering money for the Vegas mob. The killing had all the markings of a mob hit.
Why then didn’t LAPD’s organized crime unit seem to care about the case? There are a number of things about the case that don’t make sense to Bosch. His investigation leads to unexpected places – a tony gated community in L.A., a homeless encampment, a strip club in Vegas. He has to overcome hurdles thrown up by the mob, the FBI, and – wait for it – LAPD Assistant Chief Irvin Irving. Time after time, Bosch has to use all his grit, smarts and moxie to overcome these obstacles.
Connelly is Masterful in Leading the Reader
The deception begins with the title of this book. Trunk Music. It’s mafia jargon, so it was obviously a mob hit. And Connelly continues to string us along as he unveils more dirt on Aliso’s involvement with the gang led by Joseph Marconi, or Joey Marks as he’s known in the underworld. As Bosch’s battles with Marconi underling Luke Goshen and his dapper goon John “Gussie” Flanagan become more intense, we become more and more convinced a mobster (probably Goshen) killed Aliso.
Then Connelly blows up Bosch’s whole case against Goshen. And he does it in a way that lands Bosch in a world of trouble. It’s a sensational twist in an already great novel.
The Character of Bosch
By the time the reader gets to the fifth Bosch novel, the hero has been analyzed thoroughly. Whether it’s under cross-examination in The Concrete Blonde or in a shrink’s office in The Last Coyote, we’ve learned all we need to know about Harry Bosch’s psyche. In Trunk Music, Connelly brings out Harry Bosch through his words and actions – mostly, actions.
After Gussie belts Bosch in Goshen’s office, Bosch blindsides him when they step outside. When Marconi’s people kidnap Bosch’s former girlfriend Eleanor Wish, Bosch figures out where she’s being held and rescues her. When Bosch finally figures out who actually killed Aliso, he comes up with a brilliant plan to expose the killers.
But it’s not all just brains and brawn. It’s heart as well. Connelly shows Bosch’s fidelity to the people he cares about and his accountability when he screws up. He takes the blame for all that has happened to Eleanor Wish. When Rider feels guilty about missing a concealed weapon on an arrested man, Bosch is quick to tell her that he and Edgar are at fault as well.
And to the reader’s delight, Bosch still thumbs his nose at authority, getting himself into trouble with Irvin Irving, the LAPD brass and the FBI. “You just don’t know how to help yourself, do you?” says Bosch’s new boss, Lieut. Grace “Bullets” Billets. “Why don’t you grow up and quit these little pissing wars?”
The Supporting Characters Are Tremendous
The bad guys are great in this novel, but the difference-makers in this book are the good guys. We’re introduced to Grace Billets and Kiz Rider, and both are important in the series. Intelligent, ambitious and wise, Rider becomes a key ally of Bosch throughout the series, especially in Echo Park, though they become estranged after The Drop.
But it’s Billets whose presence immediately improves the series. She’s an excellent leader – decisive, compassionate and frank. Her character is played to perfection by Amy Aquino in the Prime TV series. She’s also a pleasant improvement on Harvey “Ninety-Eight” Pounds, the feckless bureaucrat who had been Bosch’s immediate superior in the first four novels. Pounds exemplified the weakest feature of the early Bosch novels: the bureaucrats and yes-men within the LAPD too often seemed like caricatures rather than people, whether it was Pounds, Lewis and Clarke, or Hans Rollenberger.
One strength of Trunk Music is the removal of this sort of weak character. Even Irvin Irving is no longer cartoonish, though he’s still Bosch’s nemesis. And we see that Bosch can work well with a reasonable leader like Billets, so Bosch’s character is deeper because he’s not a petulant renegade unable to work with any authority figure.
This is a Cracking Police Procedural
Nothing sets Michael Connelly apart from his competitors more than his knowledge of policing – not just the legalities and processes of the justice system but also the culture and changing technology. No Bosch book is complete without deep insights into policing in the here and now, and Trunk Music is crammed with some real gems.
There are the colorful nuggets that always bring life to these novels. Bosch’s team calls the Aliso murder “an eight by ten case”, meaning it involves celebrities. The disgruntled beat cop Ray Powers complains about missing his 10-7 (dinner break) and patrols in the Z car or Zebra car, meaning he cruises without a partner.
But these are embellishments compared to Connelly’s understanding of the deep anxiety within the LAPD in the wake of the Rodney King beating. He brought this out when Bosch encounters Chuckie Meachum, a former LAPD detective who retired early enough to land a great job as security at a Hollywood studio.
“He pulled the pin a month after the Rodney King tape hit the news,” writes Connelly. “He knew. He told everybody it was the beginning of the end. Archway [Studios] hired him as the assistant director of security. . . . Now, with all the baggage the LAPD carried – the King beating, the riots, the Christopher Commission, O.J. Simpson and Mark Fuhrman – a retiring dick would be lucky if a place like Archway hired him to work the front gate.”
There are other things that make this novel great. Connelly is a wonderful chronicler of Los Angeles, and Trunk Music is the first Bosch novel to describe the movie industry and the role of show business in the city’s life. I also love how Connelly placed the Rolls-Royce in a parking lot overlooking Dodger Stadium during a concert.
I could add that this novel features so many iconic scenes that we Bosch fans can call up at the drop of a hat: rescuing Eleanor from the Samoans; tricking the murderer in the homeless encampment; Bosch decking Gussie in the strip club parking lot.
So is it Connelly’s best novel? The prize has to go to a Bosch novel, as Bosch is his greatest creation. The stipulation rules out The Poet or The Lincoln Lawyer. For my tastes, the other Bosch books in the running would be The Concrete Blonde and Angels Flight. But Trunk Music edges them out because it offers more of what makes a Bosch book great. I doubt I could have found so many attributes coming out so strongly in any other Connelly novel.
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Peter Moreira is the author of The Haight Mystery Series — retro mystery novels set in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Go to the home page of this website to sign up for a free prequel.
