Ironwood is the second in Michael Connelly Catalina mystery series that he launched last June with Nightshade. Although the island is a lure for the rich and famous, especially those with yachts, it’s used as a dumping ground for the LAPD. When Stilwell ran into trouble with a competitor in the city’s detective bureau, he found himself facing a choice between early retirement or Catalina. Much to his surprise, he likes Catalina. He also loves Tash Dano, a longtime island resident who is vying to be head of the harbormaster’s office. The two are now living together and, when Tash proves to be a valuable ally when Stilwell needs help.
Stilwell knows little about his newest deputy, Alton Quigley, except that he requested the transfer. When the young deputy says he has a tip from a reliable confidential informant about a drug deal going down at the air strip, Stilwell has no reason not to trust him. Although Stilwell believes he, Quigley and a third deputy, Ilsa Ramirez, can manage the operation, things quickly go south with deadly results.
Stilwell’s supervisor, Captain Corum, tells Stilwell he’s benched until an investigation can be completed. The two have never hit if off and Corum takes every opportunity to throw Stilwell under the bus. This time he orders Stilwell to clean out one of the interview rooms at the station that is being used as a dumping ground for items left behind by locals and visitors.
One of the items is a top of the line backpack that was apparently brought into the station two months ago. Stilwell discovers that the owner, Angela Metier, was reported missing more than four years ago. Why was her backpack turned in recently?
Stilwell’s investigation leads him to the LAPD’s cold case unit headed by Renée Ballard. (Connelly’s Ballard mysteries are now a series on Amazon Prime.) There are keys in the backpack, the Medeco, which belonged to Metier, and for a Ford which Ballard knows belonged to one of the other missing women. Soon Stilwell and Ballard team up to track down a serial killer who has been strangling women hikers on Catalina.
With Tash’s help, Stillwell finds video showing a man leaving Angela’s backpack next to a bench in the harbor. The grainy photos Tash prints out shows a man wearing a baseball cap with an indistinct logo on it, sunglasses and a face mask, even though the pandemic was over. Stilwell believes the serial killer has an ego and is toying with the cops to catch him. Why else leave the backpack now with Metier’s disappearance gone stone cold? One of Ballard’s detectives admits that he gets calls from time to time, always from an untraceable burner, asking about Angela’s case. Apparently, the killer wants to poke the bear, thinking he can still outsmart the cops. What Ballard and Stilwell worry about, however, is that the killer may need to kill again just to keep the hunt going.
Stilwell asks Tash, who is an experience hiker, is she would come with him to see the spot where Metier vanished four years ago on the Trans-Catalina Trail. But before they can go, Stilwell finds something else on Angela’s backpack, a squiggle presumably by the killer, that indicates where on the trail Angela’s body was buried. The next day, with the help of a cadaver dog named Sniffy, they find Angela’s grave underneath an Ironwood tree. Stilwell and Ballard now know they are dealing with a very smart and very dangerous killer.
Stilwell has’t forgotten about avenging the death of Quigley and the serious injuries sustained by Ramirez. What he discovers will place his life, and Tash’s, in danger.
Connelly is, hands down, the bets mystery writer operating today. He not only comes with new characters – Stilwell is terrific – but brings others from his past series in for cameos. In Ironwood, Ballard is more that a guest star since she teams with Stilwell to take down the criminal. I won’t spoil the surprises by revealing who else will crop up before the case is closed.
Ironwood
Michael Connelly
Top Shutterstock image by Geartooth Productions
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