"Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, and his widow gives Bosch a murder book, one that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD twenty years before -- the unsolved killing of a troubled young man. Bosch takes the murder book to Detective Rene Ballard and asks her to help him discover what about this crime lit Thompson's fire all those years ago. As she begins her inquiries -- while still working her own cases on the midnight shift -- Ballard finds aspects of the initial investigation that just don't add up. The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigative team. And they soon arrive at a disturbing question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement -- or to make sure it never got solved?"-- source not specified.