After his mother was murdered, Bosch became a ward of the state and was sent to live in the MacLaren Children’s Center. Decades after being closed, a lawsuit resulted in massive settlements for the young people who had suffered abuse while living there. Bosch’s half brother, Mickey Haller, aka the Lincoln Lawyer, brings the good news about the payouts. Bosch, however, doesn’t want the money. He wants justice for Charles Lamb, a young Black boy nicknamed “Chops” who died at MacLaren. Bosch believes he was killed and then hidden in a space under the stairs called “the hollow.” He wants to reopen the investigation and find the man responsible for his friend’s death.
Bosch suspects the killer is a kid named Stokely who routinely bullied the more vulnerable children in MacLaren. Because Chops was Black, there was also a racial element that entered into Stokely targeting the smaller boy. While Bosch was around to protect Chops, he was okay. But when Bosch was temporarily placed in foster care, Chops lost his protector. By the time Bosch returned, Chops was gone and he could not find out how he had died.
The news of the settlement awakened in Bosch an urge to find out who was responsible for Chop’s death. Although the MacLaren files are sealed, Bosch convinces Haller’s office manager, Lorna Taylor, to let him look at the report on Lamb’s death. He begins to piece together what had transpired at MacLaren around the day that Lamb died.
Haller is not the only one worried about Bosch dredging up the past. He’s dating Carmen Hinojos, a psychotherapist now retired from the LAPD’s Behavioral Sciences Unit. In his peak years at the LAPD, Bosch could handle himself physically, if not always mentally. After being diagnosed with a serious illness, Bosch has to be careful not to get into any fights. He’s also recovering from a knee replacement, limiting his physical mobility. Carmen worries that if he gets himself into an altercation, he may be seriously injured.
That’s just what happens when Bosch manages to track down Stockley and is stopped and assaulted by his protection team. Bosch soon learns that the FBI has Stokley under surveillance and he may have unwittingly tipped off Stokely that he’s being watched. The FBI has no choice but to bring Bosch in on the operation.
Central to the FBI’s investigation is The Wonderland massacre where four people were brutally killed while sleeping in that house in 1981. Bosch was a new police recruit working on quality of life crimes when he was asked to get to the house and prevent anyone from going in before detectives and a forensic team could arrive. Against orders, Bosch went into the house and the images he saw of what was done to those victims has never left him. When he discovers that the kid that killed his friend might also be responsible for the massacre, he becomes even more determined to close the case.
Michael Connelly has written another Bosch page turner. The narrative bounces back in time to when Bosch was at MacLauren, the day he entered that Wonderland house, and present time when he struggles with his physical limitations to still bring the guilty to justice.
In an author’s note, Connelly writes that the Wonderland massacre really happened and that MacLauren Hall was a real place, “truly a house of horrors; thousands of children were abused there from 1961 until it was shuttered in 2003.” The lawsuits also were real, doling out $4 billion to the survivors. The facility was razed recently and a city park will be built on the grounds.
In the book, Bosch finally takes the money being offered by Haller and donates it to a charity, Hope in a Suitcase, that provides suitcases filled with clothes and essentials to children entering foster care. Connelly encourages those who care, to make a donation on the organization’s website.
The Hollows
Michael Connelly
Top Shutterstock photo by Ewa Kasza
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