Michael Connelly's old hand, Detective Harry Bosch, returns after a 3-year hiatus, to the LAPD under new command and into a new job. He's now one of "the closers," those investigators who specialize in unclosed cases gone cold after many years. DNA testing has opened a whole new world of possibility in crime solving and, sure enough, a DNA hit has pulled out a new identification in a case from 1988.

It puts him together with his old partner, Kizmin Ryder and, in close collaboration, they familiarize themselves with the murder book, the compilation of all the known facts, crime scene and suspect photos, autopsy and officer reports.

The victim, a 16 year old girl named Becky Verloren, was taken from her bedroom, carried up a steep hill, and shot in the chest. The scene at first suggested suicide but some evidence contradicted that conclusion, and it's not one that Bosch and Ryder are buying either. To them, it's a staged murder. The job now includes some distasteful things. Not only arousing the grief of the survivors, like the girl's mother who has left her room undisturbed for 17 years, but to determine whether the lack of resolution might be, in part, to faults in the investigation.

As for the DNA match, it came from a sliver of flesh in the murder weapon, a Mark IV Series 80 Colt that had a long hammer spur with the nasty habit of clipping flesh off a hand held too high on the grip. It did this to its owner, who they will track down, but did it mean he was the killer? Our team knows it's not enough to hold up in court without a confession.

Bosch's difficult past in the department included far too much politics and competition for advancement. So, it's small wonder that a ghost with an old grudge would nail him at the coffee machine on his first day back. Deputy Chief Irving wastes no time with humorless threats that Harry might not see too many more days here. But is this a reopening of old sores by a interdepartmental enemy, or does it have something to do with the case?

But Bosch's welcome back isn't all so negative. He has his first meeting with a Chief in his 25-year career, and the guy turns out to be understanding and supportive (Do we smell L.A. Police Chief William Bratton in this amazing characterization?). Ryder is willing to pick up where they left off, volunteering to leave her plusher job on the 6th floor to get back into action with her old Harry. And the chance that this case provides him to once again be the "speaker for the dead," a self-determined role, gives Harry's work and life meaning and revives his sense of self-identity.

This may not be Connelly's best Bosch case, but another exposed look at the the man's nature makes it good enough to be considered among the most rewarding entries in the mystery-thriller universe this year.