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    The Last Coyote
    The Last Coyote
    The Last Coyote
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Last Coyote

    Written by Michael Connelly

    Narrated by Dick Hill

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Suspended from his job with the LAPD, Harry Bosch must face the darkest parts of his past to track down his mother's killer . . . even if it costs him his life.

    Harry Bosch's life is on the edge. His earthquake-damaged home has been condemned. His girlfriend has left him. He's drinking too much. And after attacking his commanding officer, he's even had to turn in his L.A.P.D. detective's badge. Now, suspended indefinitely pending a psychiatric evaluation, he's spending his time investigating an unsolved crime from 1961: the brutal slaying of a prostitute who happened to be his own mother.

    Even after three decades, Harry's questions generate heat among L.A.'s top politicos. And as the truth begins to emerge, it becomes more and more apparent that someone wants to keep it buried. Someone very powerful...very cunning...and very deadly.

    Edgar Award-winning author Michael Connelly has created a dark, fast-paced suspense thriller that cuts to the core of Harry Bosch's character. Once you start it, there's no turning back.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 25, 2005
    ISBN9781596009318
    The Last Coyote
    Author

    Michael Connelly

    Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books have been translated into 36 languages and have won many awards. He lives with his family in Florida.

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    Reviews for The Last Coyote

    4/5

    1,503 ratings67 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A typical Bosch book with a good plot, but a little too long. If u like the rogue cop with a heart, you’ll like this one.
    • 5/5
      Deep, very deep. History haunts Bosch to a never before seen effect. He's chasing ghosts and people in power, stepping on toes and getting in and out of trouble.
      More troubled than ever he falls apart and slips. Dangerously close to the edge
      Bruised on the inside as well as on the outside he keeps running toward an imaginary peace. Running so fast I wonder if he would even know if he ever found that peace.
    • 5/5
      This is a very good audiobook. I haven't read or listened to a Michael Connelly book that wasn't good!! The narrator was very good too.
    • 4/5
      Harry Bosch, you dumb self-destructive SOB! This is the fourth in a very long series. I sure hope you wise up or I don't see how you're going to make it. Did end with a hopeful little smile though, so that's good.
    • 5/5
      Definitely the deepest Bosch book I have read so far. It really gives insight into why Bosch is the way he is.
      The story is that he is currently suspended from the force for punching out his boss, and decides to investigate the the unsolved murder of his mother 30 years ago.
      This is an excellent story.
    • 5/5
      He puts you clearly in the middle of the action, letting you see all the real cop knowledge mixing with unusual characters. It feels almost real.
    • 5/5
      I am really beginning to like Michael Connelly's writing. These books are really starting to grow on me. I love his Harry Bosch character. You can't help feeling for Harry in The Last Coyote as he searches for his mother's killer. I'm glad to see that Jasmine has come into his life and hopefully he can find some happiness with her. This book kept me interested all the way through and the ending was a complete surprise. I'm looking forward to reading the next installment as Michael Connelly always ends his books with making me want some more.
    • 3/5
      Whether my rating is due to the fact that this is my fifth or sixth Bosch book in less than two weeks, or, just as likely, this work actually deserves three stars, "The Last Coyote" was notably weaker than other Connelly's books within Bosch's universe (so far). It does set a pretty good scene through which you can understand Bosch's character better, but I'm not sure it works as a novel (a short story format would probably be more enjoyable).
    • 2/5
      My review is for the audiobook. The narrator mispronounced too many words for this to be acceptable; every woman had the same accent (I'm not sure which accent the narrator was going for, but the women didn't sound female), and too many of the male characters sounded the same. It took me over a month to get through the book--for two months, scribd has blocked the other audio books I want to listen to until my next billing cycle.

      The confusion over the characters sounding the same made listening to this book tedious (in Chapter 50, Harry is in session with his female therapist who has an accent where instead of saying "you" she says "jou" -- her y's sound like j's. Harry was talking in the therapy session and suddenly HE started pronouncing the y's like a "j". If you compare this narrator with Len Cariou, who narrated many of Michael Connelly's later Bosch books, you'll understand that my complaints with this narration are not unfounded.)

      I was not able to read the book due to a concussion-- that's another reason I stayed with the audiobook. I'm fairly certain the book would have been 4 stars if I had read it-- it would not have been so confusing.

      I started listening Connelly's Bosch books in December. Harry Bosch is one of the most fleshed out and interesting detectives in modern fiction; one thing I enjoyed about THE LAST COYOTE was learning more about Bosch's backstory.

    • 5/5
      I LOVED IT, SO THOUGHT PROVOKING. I COULD NOT KEEP UP WITH THE TWISTS OF THE TALE. BRILLIANT.
    • 4/5
      Very good! Those -lot twists at the end! This series keeps getting better and better.
    • 5/5
      A really, really good story! He is a great author.
    • 5/5
      Great read. Plenty of twists in the story. What next!
    • 4/5
      The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly; (4*)I just love the character of Harry Bosch! He is rough around the edges. He lives and works his job on the edge, giving it his all.He is our damaged hero and yet we can identify with him and I always find myself cheering him on and wanting him to get the solve in every case he works. I love the 'noir' feeling that goes along with this series and also seeing the 'underbelly' of Bosch's city from his eye. This book gives additional insights into why Harry behaves the way he does and why he is driven by a desire to see the bad guys get their just reward. The book is well written and has some surprising twists and turns which kept this reader involved until the very last page. As with the other books in the series I am always left wanting more.
    • 5/5
      Michael Connelly has created another masterful work of fiction featuring one of my favorite characters, Harry Bosch. Harry has once again been suspended and ordered to submit to psychological evaluation with his job hanging in the balance. One of her questions prompts him to do an investigation into the more than 30 year old murder of his mother. During this investigation he is forced to examine a myriad of suspects, motives and coverups but also to examine his own psyche.
    • 4/5
      Gripping, if it was a book definitely a page turner.
    • 3/5
      While on involuntary stress leave (ISL), Harry Bosch starts looking into his mother’s murder, which has remained unsolved for thirty years. As he unravels clues, he finds evidence of a cover-up to protect powerful people. His mother was a prostitute and Harry thinks she didn’t count – in his mind “everybody counts, or nobody counts.” While on ISL, he is expected to see a psychiatrist, who is expected to determine if and when he can return to work.

      On the plus side, it kept my interest. The female reporter and psychologist are believable. I was pleased to see women of color in supporting roles. The therapy sessions provide insight into Harry’s mental state and his many issues. Harry is not a particularly likeable guy (the terms “loose cannon” and “jerk” come to mind), so we need this insight to feel sympathy for him.

      On the minus side, it has many of the same drawbacks I usually find in detective novels. It contains too many twists and red herrings to keep the reader from figuring it out too early, but these must eventually be explained, and the explanations are often unsatisfying. Cliches abound. The romance is clunky and superfluous.

      The audio book is nicely read by Dick Hill. His gravelly baritone fits this type of novel, and his characters’ voices are very well done. I liked it overall, but not sure whether to read any more of these.
    • 4/5
      Good police procedural even though Bosch is suspended. Good dramatic turn at the end.
    • 4/5
      Book on CD performed by Dick Hill3.5*** Book # 4 in the Harry Bosch series has our detective on ISL – Involuntary Stress Leave – after an “incident” involving an altercation with his supervising officer. In addition to having had to turn in his badge and his weapon, his home has been condemned after the latest earthquake. He doesn’t agree that it should be torn down, so he’s sneaking into it and living there while doing repairs on his own. And he’s using his “time off” to investigate a cold case – a prostitute found dead in a dumpster in 1961. This is a pretty dark episode in the series. But the reader gets to know much more about Harry and the way he operates, his background and what drives him. To say he suffers from PTSD is putting it mildly, but that trauma is NOT all related to his service in Vietnam. As his therapist helps to peel back the layers a slightly more vulnerable Harry comes out. Still, this is typical suspense-mystery-thriller, with lots of action, many clues (including red herrings), more than one suspect, and a fast-paced plot. Any fan of the genre will be interested and engaged from beginning to end. Dick Hill does a great job of performing the audiobook. I really like the way he interprets Harry, and despite his natural low vocal pitch, he does a reasonable job of voicing the women characters as well.
    • 3/5
      Solidly entertaining Harry Bosch mystery. This is book 4, I'd read the first three a few years ago and enjoyed them, just never got around to this one. It was a good reintroduction to the series since it goes into Bosh's past, and he even sees a police department mandated shrink. Bosch is a complex character and this is an intricately plotted and smoothly written, noirish mystery novel. I enjoyed it & I plan to work Connelly's books into my regular rotation of mysteries again.
    • 4/5
      Typical Connelly, typical Bosch, though Bosch seems even more cantankerous than usual.
    • 4/5
      Harry Bosch is off duty for attacking his boss, his house is condemned and he has to see the department shrink. He starts investigating his mother's murder 35 years after the fact. What could possibly go wrong. This is a pretty solid story, and if I didn't have an aversion for maverick lawmen and personal mysteries I would have rated it a tad higher.
    • 4/5
      Just really a good overall read. Good character development, excellent plot, not predictable in the least, fast-paced. I am really enjoying reading these Bosch novels. Wish I'd discovered them sooner.
    • 4/5
      In my exploration of this crime/thriller series I have arrived at an important marker for the definition of Harry Bosch’s character, one where his past is explored in depth opening a window on how that past shaped his personality.As The Last Coyote opens, Bosch is home on involuntary leave after he threw his superior officer through a glass wall: while his situation is being examined, he’s been remanded to a series of counseling sessions with the department’s psychiatrist, Dr. Hinojos, where he keeps resisting the doctor’s attempts at understanding what makes him tick. Feeling increasingly restless, despite being busy with trying to fix his house after a damaging earthquake, he decides to tackle a cold case that is very close and personal - his mother’s murder, which happened when he was a young boy, and is still unsolved. The investigation will not only compel Bosch to revisit the past with all its hurts, but most importantly will force him to face himself and understand why he is the person he is now - not to mention that, story-wise, this is a journey that provides many surprises for the reader as well: since I met this character through the TV version first, I thought I knew how events would move forward, but I was delighted to discover that, despite the similarities, there are many narrative threads that are completely different, so I’m certain that future books will offer as many unforeseen developments as this one did.There is an interesting parallel here between Bosch’s house - marked for demolition since the earthquake undermined its foundations - and his present life: in previous books we saw him always pushing the boundaries and going out of his way to thumb his nose at people in authority, but now he has indeed crossed a dangerous line, and it hardly matters that his commanding officer is an inept bureaucrat with a penchant for stupid taunts, the fight that ended with the lieutenant flying through a glass wall might very well be the last straw in a long series of insubordinate stunts. So, just as the house is condemned - no matter how much work Bosch puts into it - his whole career is in a precarious situation, and the decision of pursuing the investigation in his mother’s murder seems like the only element in his life he can control: until now we saw Bosch relentlessly seeking the truth for the victims of his cases, in this instance he does the same for himself and his mother.The reason his mother’s murder is still a cold case some 35 years after the fact is two-fold: on one side there were not enough clues that would lead to a suspect, and on the other she was a hooker, which placed her very low on the scale of “worthy” subjects - this must be at the roots of Bosch’s personal philosophy concerning victims, that everybody counts, or nobody counts. His dogged determination to get to the roots of every case he’s assigned to must come from the realization that justice is not dealt impartially or fairly, and that a victim’s standing determines the level of energy poured into any given case. What’s interesting here is that Bosch does not feel “tainted” by the knowledge of his mother’s profession, that even in his adult years he holds on to the awareness of her love for him; there is a sentence that sums up his feelings quite clearly and shows the depth of his sense of loss - and ultimately the vulnerability he tries to conceal from the world:“I don’t blame her for anything. I blame the man who took her from me. […] All I know is that she did all she could to get me out of there.[…] She never stopped trying. She just ran out of time.”As the investigation proceeds - revealing some unexpected ties into the Los Angeles political scene - so does Bosch’s journey of self-discovery thanks to Dr. Hinojos’ treatment: I really enjoyed the psychiatrist’s character because this is the first woman in the series who does not bend or break under the detective’s rough manners, but instead faces him head on and even forces him to look inside himself and dig for the truth. I hope this is the first in a hopefully long list of female characters who can be strong without being either a proverbial dark lady or a heartless operator, the indication that - narratively speaking - times are changing and moving toward a less biased point of view.Story-wise, The Last Coyote offers a compelling look into Bosch’s investigation as the old clues are lined up and explored, leading toward interesting directions - and a few red herrings that made the final revelation even more remarkable. I enjoyed many of the twists scattered through the book, particularly the one where Bosch quite childishly uses his boss’ identity to mask his inquiries and get broader access, only to have this prank backfire in a spectacularly dramatic way.This book has all the flavor of a turning point in the series: the past is finally dealt with, the damaged house, Bosch’s lair and refuge if you want, is torn down - there are many indications that the next volume will see some changes both in the main character and in the way he faces his job. Curiosity will certainly lead me to the next volume in the series in a very short while…
    • 5/5
      Probably THE BEST in the Bosh series. (mystery)
    • 4/5
      Not a lot of action in this one but its great being in Bosch's head. The ending was a surprise which is always a key to these mysteries and it dodn't feel rushed. Looking forward to th enext one.
    • 5/5
      Detective Harry Bosch is suspended for attacking his supervisor, so he decides to spend his time investigating the death of his mother, which happened when he was a child and is what spurred him towards law enforcement. He gets answers, but not the ones he wanted. I loved the character of Harry's therapist. She seemed like a really well-drawn example of the profession and just what Harry needed to set him on the right track. I also love how Harry is such an out-of-the-box detective without ever *really* crossing the line. He's flawed enough to be relatable, but not so much that you think he might be justifying his means with his ends...
    • 4/5
      Los Angeles Police Detective Harry Bosch has been placed on indefinite stress leave after some sort of incident involving his commanding officer, Harvey Pounds. (We've seen the dysfunctional relationship between Harry and Harvey in previous entries in this series, so it's no surprise that it's come to a head, though we only get the details in drips and drabs.) He won't be allowed to return to active duty until a police psychiatrist clears him, which involves thrice-weekly therapy sessions. He-man Harry has little patience for the psychobabble, but eventually he opens up to the female doctor, who is concerned for his mental health when he decides to spend his free time investigating the murder of his mother, a party girl/prostitute, 35 years ago. Chasing down leads takes him from L.A. to Florida and back again, and he begins to suspect some high-level shenanigans in both his mother's death and the subsequent investigation, which seems more like a cover-up than a quest for justice.Bosch is a classic flawed protagonist. He's harsh, quick to anger, relentlessly un-PC; on the other hand, he cares more than anything about getting justice for the homicide victims whose cases cross his desk. Connelly has given us glimpses of Bosch's back story before, but this book really dives in and makes clear that everything that he is today stems from what happened to his mother. But can he solve her murder without triggering his own?Connelly is not the smoothest or the most lyrical of writers; his background is in journalism and it shows in his straightforward, just-the-facts-ma'am style. But the glimpses he gives readers into the inner lives of his characters feel authentic, and the somewhat convoluted plots hold up well through the denouement. I do wish just once that the bureaucratic obstacle du jour standing in Harry's way didn't always turn out to be a stupid fat woman who gets her comeuppance in physical humiliation. Don't thin, moderately attractive women ever act like petty tyrants?
    • 3/5
      The Last Coyote
      3 Stars

      Detective Harry Bosch’s life is spiraling out of control. His home has been condemned following an earthquake; he is suspended and forced into mandatory psychiatric counseling after striking his commanding officer, and to top it all off, he feels compelled to investigate the decades old murder of his mother.

      This installment is, unfortunately, the weakest in the series, which is disappointing considering that the story of what happened to Harry’s mother has been intriguing from the start.

      The first half of the book is exceedingly drawn out with an excessive amount of psychobabble and philosophical musings as Harry watches traffic jams and sees a lone coyote everywhere. Too much attention is paid to Harry’s meltdown, and it is all far too melancholy.

      There are, nevertheless, some highlights in this section such as Harry’s developing relationship with the police psychologist. Their conversations are particularly insightful as Harry begins to open up and reveals the effect that the loss of his mother had on him.

      The second half picks up with a certain event and the focus shifts more to the investigation into the death of Harry’s mother. The mystery has some interesting twists and turns, and the whole thing reminds me of an episode of the TV show, Cold Case.

      All in all, the writing in this one is too slow and Harry’s angst is becoming rather tedious. Hopefully, things will change now that he has some closure and the atmosphere of distrust and corruption will begin to subside with the developments in the police department.
    • 5/5
      In the many years that I have been reading crime the two stand out characters are Rebus and his creator Ian Rankin and Harry Bosch written by Los Angeles ex crime reporter Michael Connelly. The Last Coyote is no 4 in the series and to me one of the best, in it Detective Bosch tries to finally solve the case of who murdered his mother Marjorie Lowe. The Last Coyote is a lovely thoughtful title and one that Bosch thinks he has an affinity to. One evening he sees a mangled bedraggled coyote and he uses this imagery in his conversations with his psychiatrist Carmen Hinojos, she adds her timely interpretation...."For what it's worth I think it's clear you identify with the coyote, there are not so many policemen like you left and you feel some threat to your existence or your mission."....Connelly's portrayal of Bosch as a lonely maverick of a man using his nonconformist methods to fight crime is nothing short of brilliant..."Loneliness had been the trash can fire he huddled around for most of his life."..."It was always in the silences that Bosch felt most comfortable with the women who had moved through his life."....."He felt the numbness of disappointment that comes from broken hopes and wondered if he would ever talk to her again.".. Bosch is able to devote his time to this case as he has been temporarily suspended following an incident with Lieutenant Pounds and the story naturally plays out in a political arena where the perpetrator has been able to stay undetected for many years. The ending when it occurs will surprise you in a beautifully constructed study of a detective loathed by many, loved by a few, a man not always at peace with himself on an endless search for atonement...."The sex created a world without intrusion. One so vital that it could have lasted an hour or maybe only a few minutes and he wouldn't have known the difference."