Harry Bosch is a strong and compelling character and that can propel you through even a pretty lackluster story like this one. For starters, the previous booked dealt almost exclusively with Harry having a personal stake in a case and therefore having to work outside of the department, so I think it was a mistake to do that again. (It was done much better in The Last Coyote anyway.) Granted that's not the biggest element to this story, but it is prevalent and felt tired almost as soon as it began. To me this book felt overstuffed. The chunky plot took away from the good character work that usually make this series work so well. It wasn't terrible, just on the low-end of good.