When Harry Bosch was eleven years old, his mother was murdered and
he became a ward of the state, housed in MacLaren Children’s Center,
a notorious facility where abuse was rampant. Decades after its
closure, a lawsuit has resulted in a massive settlement for former
residents. But when Bosch’s half-brother, defense attorney Mickey
Haller, brings him word that Harry is entitled to part of it, Bosch
says he doesn’t want the money. He wants justice.
The news awakens his memories of a place he had hoped never to
revisit, and of a boy nicknamed Chops, a fellow ward who wound up
dead. Bosch is certain that Chops was killed in a hidden space under
the stairs—the kids knew it as “the hollow”—and his murder covered
up. Now he is determined to reopen the investigation and learn the
truth, even if the killer is long gone.
As Bosch digs into the files, he picks up the trail of a predator
who not only survived, but went on to a life of vicious
crime—possibly including one of the city's most notorious unsolved
cases. Forced to face a history that both scarred him and launched
him on his mission as a cop, Bosch must bring down a sadistic
criminal and finally put to rest the demons of his past.
