Coyote Ugly
Michael Connelly, The Last Coyote, 1995
The fourth book in Connelly's series about L.A. detective and loose cannon Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is an ode to crime writer supremo James Ellroy. Like Ellroy's "Black Dahlia", Bosch has a mother whose brutal unsolved murder in 1961 shapes his later life and depressive personality. Suspended from work after attacking his commanding officer and evicted from his condemned home after an earthquake, Bosch goes solo - like the straggly coyote he occasionally spots on the Hollywood hills - in an investigation into what happened to his mother and why her murder was covered up by the police and local politicians. It's a cleverly constructed, slow-burning plot with the right dose of action and mood, though genre aficionados may spot the final twist a mile away.