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Harry Bosch #16.5
Switchblade
LAPD Detective Harry Bosch seeks justice for the forgotten in this original story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly
An anonymous tip puts Bosch on a case that has remained unsolved for decades, the vicious stabbing of a teenage boy whose body was found in an abandoned Old Hollywood restaurant.
Cold cases are often the toughest: With no body, no murder scene, and no fingerprints, Bosch nevertheless gets lucky when DNA evidence from the murder weapon points to a known killer. But the DA insists that science alone is not enough - he needs the case to be bulletproof before he'll take it to court.
Determined to speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves, Bosch has one chance to wrench a confession out of a cold-blooded killer, or risk letting him walk free for good.
In this gripping, never-before-published story by "master of the crime thriller" (Huffington Post) Michael Connelly, Detective Harry Bosch quenches his thirst for justice and shows why he is "one of the most popular and enduring figures in American crime fiction" (Chicago Tribune).
An anonymous tip puts Bosch on a case that has remained unsolved for decades, the vicious stabbing of a teenage boy whose body was found in an abandoned Old Hollywood restaurant.
Cold cases are often the toughest: With no body, no murder scene, and no fingerprints, Bosch nevertheless gets lucky when DNA evidence from the murder weapon points to a known killer. But the DA insists that science alone is not enough - he needs the case to be bulletproof before he'll take it to court.
Determined to speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves, Bosch has one chance to wrench a confession out of a cold-blooded killer, or risk letting him walk free for good.
In this gripping, never-before-published story by "master of the crime thriller" (Huffington Post) Michael Connelly, Detective Harry Bosch quenches his thirst for justice and shows why he is "one of the most popular and enduring figures in American crime fiction" (Chicago Tribune).
72 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 14, 2014
1890 people are currently reading
7513 people want to read
About the author
Michael Connelly
380 books35.1k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly has followed that up with over 30 more novels.
Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) .
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael is one of the producers and writers of the TV show, “Bosch,” which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Michael lives with his family in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida.
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly has followed that up with over 30 more novels.
Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) .
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael is one of the producers and writers of the TV show, “Bosch,” which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Michael lives with his family in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 697 reviews
April 10, 2020
Michael Connelly knows how to write, even in short-short style. 9 of 10 stars
November 14, 2024
4★
“The saying goes that hope springs eternal. So too with homicide. At the Los Angeles Police Department, a decade of successes by the Open-Unsolved Unit in closing old and sometimes forgotten murder cases created a steady stream of inquiries from the loved ones of victims.”
The department decided to hire a civilian to wade through some of the old cases, and it was Emily who saw the ad, applied, and was hired. She brings a case to Bosch, saying she’d had a tip phone call that gave the name of the perpetrator of the brutal, fatal stabbing of a young homosexual man in 1992.
“ ‘I tried to put him on hold so I could transfer the call and he said he wouldn’t hold. He said, ‘I told you all I have to say,’ and then he hung up.’
Bosch frowned. ‘And you think you got the name right?’
‘I think so. He said it twice. He said, ‘Patrick Sewell killed that boy. Patrick Sewell.’ ”
She is astounded to hear that Bosch remembers the case and that he was a detective way back then – all of twenty years ago. She also has trouble making herself use his first name (age, respect, and all that). But Bosch likes her.
“ Emily was not a detective, she understood the mission. That everybody counted or nobody counted. She seemed to take every case to heart, and that was a pitch over the plate to Harry Bosch.”
Twenty years after the crime, DNA and better lab testing of evidence is available, and of course there is a switchblade in the evidence box. Better still, Patrick Sewell is in prison for a similar crime and due for parole in 6 months.
Slam dunk! thinks Harry. The deputy DA thinks not.
“ ‘It’s not even a layup’ he told Bosch. ‘Science can be challenged—how was that switchblade stored? how many people had access to it over twenty years? what about the deterioration of the specimen while it was in the sink?—and don’t get me started on test contamination up at DOJ. You get a good lawyer and there could be a hundred challenges to this, Harry. And believe me, when it comes to murder cases with death-penalty risk, they’re all good lawyers.’”
Find the caller or else. It’s a good story that isn’t going to spoil any of the books I haven’t read yet, which made it especially interesting for me. I’ve just finished The Closers which is where Harry has joined the brand-new Open-Unsolved Unit, so I was glad to see it was still running when this was written.
I both read and listened to this story, courtesy of my local library. Long live libraries! (and Harry Bosch)
“The saying goes that hope springs eternal. So too with homicide. At the Los Angeles Police Department, a decade of successes by the Open-Unsolved Unit in closing old and sometimes forgotten murder cases created a steady stream of inquiries from the loved ones of victims.”
The department decided to hire a civilian to wade through some of the old cases, and it was Emily who saw the ad, applied, and was hired. She brings a case to Bosch, saying she’d had a tip phone call that gave the name of the perpetrator of the brutal, fatal stabbing of a young homosexual man in 1992.
“ ‘I tried to put him on hold so I could transfer the call and he said he wouldn’t hold. He said, ‘I told you all I have to say,’ and then he hung up.’
Bosch frowned. ‘And you think you got the name right?’
‘I think so. He said it twice. He said, ‘Patrick Sewell killed that boy. Patrick Sewell.’ ”
She is astounded to hear that Bosch remembers the case and that he was a detective way back then – all of twenty years ago. She also has trouble making herself use his first name (age, respect, and all that). But Bosch likes her.
“ Emily was not a detective, she understood the mission. That everybody counted or nobody counted. She seemed to take every case to heart, and that was a pitch over the plate to Harry Bosch.”
Twenty years after the crime, DNA and better lab testing of evidence is available, and of course there is a switchblade in the evidence box. Better still, Patrick Sewell is in prison for a similar crime and due for parole in 6 months.
Slam dunk! thinks Harry. The deputy DA thinks not.
“ ‘It’s not even a layup’ he told Bosch. ‘Science can be challenged—how was that switchblade stored? how many people had access to it over twenty years? what about the deterioration of the specimen while it was in the sink?—and don’t get me started on test contamination up at DOJ. You get a good lawyer and there could be a hundred challenges to this, Harry. And believe me, when it comes to murder cases with death-penalty risk, they’re all good lawyers.’”
Find the caller or else. It’s a good story that isn’t going to spoil any of the books I haven’t read yet, which made it especially interesting for me. I’ve just finished The Closers which is where Harry has joined the brand-new Open-Unsolved Unit, so I was glad to see it was still running when this was written.
I both read and listened to this story, courtesy of my local library. Long live libraries! (and Harry Bosch)
December 10, 2013
This does not work as a short story. The plot is good, but it just barely starts to get interesting and then it ends.
October 28, 2018
Switchblade by Michael Connelly is a short Harry Bosch cold case investigation. Harry is assigned a cold case after a tip is called in. Interesting but solved very quickly. All over before it barely begun.
February 15, 2014
Connelly returns with a fresh short story to tease Harry Bosch fans until the next full-length novel hits bookstores and the electronic press. Working on Open-Unsolved cases, Bosch is handed a file when an anonymous tip comes in about a case dating back to '92. While he remembered the case at the time, there were no leads and nothing to link the brutal slaying to anyone in particular. With the tip and a re-evaluation of the evidence, Bosch hits potential pay dirt, leading him to begin interviewing a suspect or two in hopes of moving the file into the SOLVED column. With a great twist in the end, Connelly has the reader verbalising the 'aha!' moment and piecing it all together.
Great work, Mr. Connelly. You have much on the go, but never forget your faithful readers.
Great work, Mr. Connelly. You have much on the go, but never forget your faithful readers.
April 23, 2017
Quite short, but a decent story of Harry working in the Open Unsolved Unit. It underlines just how difficult & drawn out investigations can be. Has an interesting twist, although it was telegraphed a little too well.
This is actually 25.5 in the Harry Bosch Universe. Here is the partial chronology.
24 - The Black Box (Harry Bosch #18), 2012
24.5 - A Fine Mist of Blood, 2012 - Harry Bosch Short Story, published in Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance(April 2012)
24.6 - Switchblade, 2014 (Harry Bosch #18.5)
25 - The Gods of Guilt (Mickey Haller #5 – Harry Bosch appeared only briefly), 2013
26 - The Burning Room (Harry Bosch #19), 2014
26.1 - The Crooked Man, 2014 (Harry Bosch short story, published in In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon)
27 - The Crossing (Harry Bosch #20), 2015
28 - The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Harry Bosch #21), 2016
Here is the full chronology.
This is actually 25.5 in the Harry Bosch Universe. Here is the partial chronology.
24 - The Black Box (Harry Bosch #18), 2012
24.5 - A Fine Mist of Blood, 2012 - Harry Bosch Short Story, published in Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance(April 2012)
24.6 - Switchblade, 2014 (Harry Bosch #18.5)
25 - The Gods of Guilt (Mickey Haller #5 – Harry Bosch appeared only briefly), 2013
26 - The Burning Room (Harry Bosch #19), 2014
26.1 - The Crooked Man, 2014 (Harry Bosch short story, published in In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon)
27 - The Crossing (Harry Bosch #20), 2015
28 - The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Harry Bosch #21), 2016
Here is the full chronology.
May 19, 2020
I'm honestly not too sure how I feel about this. It was super short (even shorter than it seems, since a good chunk is just a preview for Connelly's next book) and got solved quickly, so there's not much mystery to it. I wouldn't call it a thriller, either.
2.5 stars?
2.5 stars?
June 15, 2020
Honestly I feel like I read this story somewhere else before. I just didn't find it that interesting and the story had a ridiculous coincidence in order to make the whole thing work. I always liked the idea that Harry made sure that every murder victim had their day, or tried to give them their day. Everyone counts, or no one counts as this character liked to say. That said, this just felt like a weird segue into the world of Harry Bosch.
"Switchblade" has Harry working cold cases. A young boy was found murdered in LA and it looks like a man that is already in jail for murder may have been the perpetrator. Harry interviews the suspect and does what he can to get the DA to file charges. However, Harry puts a link together and realizes that there is another way to make sure the murdered young man is finally given justice.
I wonder if the story could have worked more if we had Harry bouncing ideas of of someone. Besides the perpetrator, we just have Harry also interacting with one of the women who works in the office and the DA. It just fell a bit flat in the end.
"Switchblade" has Harry working cold cases. A young boy was found murdered in LA and it looks like a man that is already in jail for murder may have been the perpetrator. Harry interviews the suspect and does what he can to get the DA to file charges. However, Harry puts a link together and realizes that there is another way to make sure the murdered young man is finally given justice.
I wonder if the story could have worked more if we had Harry bouncing ideas of of someone. Besides the perpetrator, we just have Harry also interacting with one of the women who works in the office and the DA. It just fell a bit flat in the end.
December 21, 2025
Harry Bosch gets a tip that leads to DNA and a witness to solve an old murder case.
September 30, 2022
A short story, written in 2014, about Harry Bosch working in the Open-Unsolved Unit on an 1992 murder case. The pace was good until the end, when it took a sudden turn and then stopped. It was a four-star short story until the ending. I would have preferred a few additional pages of explanation. Can be read in half an hour.
November 20, 2023
4 Stars for Switchblade: Harry Bosch, Book 25.5 (audiobook) Michael Connelly read by Len Cariou.
This was my first Harry Bosch story. I really enjoyed listening to Harry solve this cold case. I’ll have to go back to the beginning and see how the series got started.
This was my first Harry Bosch story. I really enjoyed listening to Harry solve this cold case. I’ll have to go back to the beginning and see how the series got started.
March 10, 2021
A well done short story. I want more!
August 8, 2021
A very short Harry Bosch read.
Not bad, not great either.
Not bad, not great either.
December 12, 2013
I enjoyed it. It’s good. But it’s too short to spend money on.
It’s is a 28 page ebook about Harry Bosch looking into an old unsolved case. I got it free when I preordered The Gods of Guilt (TGOG).
In Switchblade Harry investigates Sewel. In TGOG Sewel has a small part, but the two books don’t need each other and don’t add information for each other. Read them as two unrelated stories.
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Kindle count: 323, 28 pages. Swearing language: strong but used once or maybe twice. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Los Angeles, California. Copyright: 2014. Genre: crime mystery.
It’s is a 28 page ebook about Harry Bosch looking into an old unsolved case. I got it free when I preordered The Gods of Guilt (TGOG).
In Switchblade Harry investigates Sewel. In TGOG Sewel has a small part, but the two books don’t need each other and don’t add information for each other. Read them as two unrelated stories.
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Kindle count: 323, 28 pages. Swearing language: strong but used once or maybe twice. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Los Angeles, California. Copyright: 2014. Genre: crime mystery.
June 16, 2021
Harry Bosch pursues a cold case murder suspect incarcerated at San Quentin for another murder.
April 29, 2022
Since I was in the Harry Bosch kind of mood and I'd read all the novels, I elected to see if I'd missed any. What I found was two short stories and picked them both up.
This one, Switchblade was about a cold case involving a convicted killer who is coming up for parole, and an "anonymous" tip that leads Bosch to find enough evidence to make sure that the killer will not only be denied parole, but charged and convicted with another grisly murder in which he stabbed his victim to death with a switchblade knife.
The story is too abbreviated, as if Connelly lost interest in it despite a clever plot twist, and simply ended it swiftly, thereby making it into a short story. Good enough for fans of the series, but if you're new to it, don't start here; go to the beginning and work through them. It'll be worth it.
This one, Switchblade was about a cold case involving a convicted killer who is coming up for parole, and an "anonymous" tip that leads Bosch to find enough evidence to make sure that the killer will not only be denied parole, but charged and convicted with another grisly murder in which he stabbed his victim to death with a switchblade knife.
The story is too abbreviated, as if Connelly lost interest in it despite a clever plot twist, and simply ended it swiftly, thereby making it into a short story. Good enough for fans of the series, but if you're new to it, don't start here; go to the beginning and work through them. It'll be worth it.
May 13, 2020
2.5 stars
This was incredibly predictable, felt entirely pointless and honestly didn't feel like it was written by Michael Connelly.
This was incredibly predictable, felt entirely pointless and honestly didn't feel like it was written by Michael Connelly.
November 11, 2021
Good story with a nice twist.
September 23, 2019
An anonymous tip puts Harry Bosch on a case that has remained unsolved for decades, the vicious stabbing of a teenage boy whose body was found in an abandoned Old Hollywood restaurant.
This was a short story (I finished it in about half an hour) without a lot of detail, but it was interesting and I liked the twist at the end, even if I felt it was telegraphed just a bit too much for me to be truly surprised. As a short story, I've read better, but it also could have definitely been a lot worst if put in the hands of a writer who didn't know how to make the most of the story plot.
I would say that "Switchblade" is a quick decently fun read.
This was a short story (I finished it in about half an hour) without a lot of detail, but it was interesting and I liked the twist at the end, even if I felt it was telegraphed just a bit too much for me to be truly surprised. As a short story, I've read better, but it also could have definitely been a lot worst if put in the hands of a writer who didn't know how to make the most of the story plot.
I would say that "Switchblade" is a quick decently fun read.
September 3, 2016
A short story by Michael Connelly. Although Harry Bosch is the detective I failed to recognise him. I am a big fan of Michael Connelly and have read virtually all of his work but this short story just goes through the motions.
July 2, 2017
I love Harry but this was too short. It was barely a story and a waste of my time tbh.
July 6, 2021
A fun short read.
December 20, 2021
A short story from one my favorite series. I really enjoyed this short but would have loved this to be a full book. An anonymous tip comes to Harry about a murder from years ago. He goes to work to find the killer and the anonymous tipster. The quick end has a very surprising twist and seals up this fun short book.
August 24, 2017
A little short story featuring Harry Bosch - not much intuition in this one - legwork does the job. So short not worth the money on Amazon
March 15, 2022
Decided to try one of this authors books since I’ve liked a couple of his movies. It was an alright read … murder mystery. 🤷🏽♀️
May 25, 2021
The longest of the HB shorts so far, and (maybe not coincidentally) the best.
January 22, 2014
A resounding "meh."
I was extremely disappointed to find that the 67 page eBook is only 17 pages of story. The remainder consists of the cover, title page, welcome, about the author, books by the author, newsletters, copyright notices, and a 29-page excerpt from the author's latest "The Gods of Guilt". For anyone keeping track, you get a longer tease of another book than you get of actual "Switchblade"--by a nearly 2:1 margin. Not exactly what I had in mind when I decided to break protocol and buy a novelist's short story only available as eBook.
As for the story, it just wasn't much of anything--O'Brien and Poe would struggle to tell a decent story in 17 pages of eBook, so it's no wonder.
If you can get it free, I can think of a few worse ways to spend 15 minutes or less, but I can't say you get your money's worth for a $1 purchase.
I was extremely disappointed to find that the 67 page eBook is only 17 pages of story. The remainder consists of the cover, title page, welcome, about the author, books by the author, newsletters, copyright notices, and a 29-page excerpt from the author's latest "The Gods of Guilt". For anyone keeping track, you get a longer tease of another book than you get of actual "Switchblade"--by a nearly 2:1 margin. Not exactly what I had in mind when I decided to break protocol and buy a novelist's short story only available as eBook.
As for the story, it just wasn't much of anything--O'Brien and Poe would struggle to tell a decent story in 17 pages of eBook, so it's no wonder.
If you can get it free, I can think of a few worse ways to spend 15 minutes or less, but I can't say you get your money's worth for a $1 purchase.
January 17, 2014
I actually paid money to read this book. It is not a book, it is an advertisment. I have always been a fan of Michael Connelly novels and when I saw this novella nearly being given away as an ebook, I jumped at the chance to read it. I was soon to discover that there was a very brief story, however, over half of the book was an introduction to another Connelly full length novel. Fool me once, ok, but they will never get another chance. This is the first book that I did not rate based upon the story, I rated it for the disgraceful way it was marketed. I hope Mr. Connelly does not need the money that bad.
November 22, 2013
I got a copy of this story early, and for free, by pre-ordering Connelly's upcoming novel The Gods of Guilt, which was a no-brainer, as I was planning to buy that the day it came out regardless.
This short story featuring LAPD detective Harry Bosch on a cold case is more proof -- as if any was needed -- that the well for great Bosch stories is far from running dry.
This short story featuring LAPD detective Harry Bosch on a cold case is more proof -- as if any was needed -- that the well for great Bosch stories is far from running dry.
December 7, 2015
Switchblade
I just started reading the Harry Bosch series and I really enjoyed this short story. I saw where a lot of people complained about this story being so short but I didn't find it that short and it does say Kindle Single when you purchase it. I am looking forward to reading more of this series and also watching the TV series "Bosch" on Amazon Prime.
I just started reading the Harry Bosch series and I really enjoyed this short story. I saw where a lot of people complained about this story being so short but I didn't find it that short and it does say Kindle Single when you purchase it. I am looking forward to reading more of this series and also watching the TV series "Bosch" on Amazon Prime.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 697 reviews