Product Description
When the body of high profile black lawyer Elias Howard is found inside one of the cars on Angels Flight, a funicular in downtown LA, there's not a detective in the city who wants to touch the case.For Howard specialises in lawsuits alleging police brutality, racism and corruption and every LAPD cop is a possible suspect in his killing.Detective Harry Bosch is put in charge.Howard's murder occurred on the eve of a major trial:on behalf of a black client, Michael Harris, Howard was to bring a civil case against the LAPD for violent interrogation tactics that had caused his client the partial loss of his hearing.Harris had been acquitted of the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl, but many, including Bosch, believe him guilty.Howard had let it be known that the trial would serve a dual purpose - to target and bring down the guilty cops and to expose the real murderer of the little girl.Post Rodney King, the 1992 riots and the trial of O J Simpson, the City of Angels is living on its nerves.To discover the truth Harry must dig deep in his own backyard - except that it's a minefield of suspicion and hate that could detonate in his face. And as if he didn't have enough on his mind, his happiness with Eleanor Wish looks to be shortlived.With ANGELS FLIGHT the matchless Michael Connelly has delivered another hugely accomplished, heartfelt and stunningly authentic thriller.Amazon.com Review
Michael Connelly, whose novel The Poet won the 1997Anthony Award for Best Mystery, is already recognized as one of thesmartest and most vivid scribes of the hard-boiled police procedural. Now,with his much-anticipated sixth Harry Bosch novel, Angels Flight,Connelly offers one of the finest pieces of mystery writing to appear in1998. Bosch is awakened in the middle of the night and, out of rotation, heis assigned to the murder investigation of the high-profile AfricanAmerican attorney Howard Elias.When Bosch arrives at the scene, it seemsthat almost the entire LAPD is present, including the IAD (the Internal AffairsDivision). Elias, who made a career out of suing the police, was sadisticallygunned down on the Angels Flight tram just as he was beginning a case thatwould have struck the core of the department; not surprisingly, L.A.'s men andwomen in blue become the center of the investigation.Haunted by the ghostof the L.A. riots, plagued by incessant media attention, and facing turmoilat home, Bosch suddenly finds himself questioning friends and associateswhile working side by side with some longtime enemies.

Angels Flight is a detective's nightmare scenario and is disturbinglyrelevant to the racially tense last decade of the 20th century.Amidst the twists and turns of his complexnarrative, Connelly affirms his rightful place among the masters ofcontemporary mystery fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley ... Read more

Customer Reviews (175)

Bosch at his best
Angels Flight is as good a crime thriller, police procedural as you will ever read. LAPD detective Harry Bosch is called into a highly volitale situation following the murder of Howard Elias, a controversial attorney. This is classic Bosch. Mr. Connelly is by far the best writer of the police procedural and there is not a close second. Harry Bosch is one of the best continuing characters this genre has produced, his subtle complexity grow with each book.

Mr. Connelly's prose is first rate. Here is an example: "The Bradbury was the dusty jewel of downtown. Built more than a century before, it's beauty was old but still brighter and more enduring than any of the glass-and-marble towers that now dwarfed it like a phalanx of brutish guards surrounding a beautiful child. It's ornate lines and glazed tile surfaces withstood the betrayal of both man and nature." That is pure poetry.

Angels Flight is a GREAT READ!! I found it impossible to put down.

After OJ
Wonder how Harry got so cynical, so lonely, so determined? Angels Flight answers all those questions, and more. Called out upon the discovery of the murder of an anti-cop lawyer, he immediately fears that a cop committed the crime. In the post OJ climate of LA, the chief demands a politically correct outcome to this investigation. But Harry has a conscience, and the outrages that occur as he works the scene and the records, threaten to undermine his willingness, and ability, to work within the system. Complicating matters are worries about his marriage. Harry and Eleanor love each other, but she seems to feel the lack of something indeterminate, and he had hoped, when they married, that he could provide the je ne sais pas. If only Harry could come to the realization that no one can do that, that Eleanor must find her own spark. But he can't, and so he suffers. Eleanor's a fool.

Harry Bosch is a curious combination of hard boiled and sensitive. He is his own harshest critic, and his Los Angeles is anything but the city of dreams. Perhaps that is what makes him such an engaging protagonist. The reader feels with him and for him, and trusts him to do the right thing, morally if not practically. In Angels Flight, he is pushed to the limit.

Good story, questionable ethics
Howard Elias is a highly successful civil rights lawyer whose specialty is suing the Los Angeles Police Department on behalf of those the cops have mistreated, which (naturally) has earned him the hatred of every blue uniform in the city, as well as the regard of LA's black population. When Elias's body is found with several 9mm slugs in it -- the caliber of the favorite police sidearm -- the city is poised is erupt again in riots. It's only been a few years since Rodney King and no one trusts the cops to tell the truth any longer, or not to tamper with evidence. Detective Harry Bosch can be a lose cannon but he's also probably the best homicide investigator the department has, so he draws the case -- with instructions to get it wrapped up as fast as possible. But it's not going to be an ordinary case; it never is when Harry's team is involved. Not to mention that his year-old marriage shows signs of crumbling.

But it's difficult to tell just where Connelly is going with the social issues in this book, what his own take on the legal side of things is. Let's look at what's going on here: The first detectives on the scene -- members of the elite Robbery-Homicide Division, no less -- discover who the victim is and realize that the killer is probably another cop, . . . so they tamper with the crime scene and steal evidence, in an attempt to help the killer get away with it. Harry himself, who has nailed his share of dishonest cops, covers up for the RHD guys, though he worries that this makes him a co-conspirator. He also breaks into the victim's apartment without bothering to wait for a search warrant. He orders his partner to do the same thing with the victim's car. (They'll file for a warrant after the fact, if they find anything worth having.) Even the civilian Inspector General, who had an intimate relationship with the victim, is guilty of malfeasance when she gets involved in the case instead of recusing herself. And then she, too, steals key evidence -- and when Harry finds out, instead of nailing her to the wall, he simply uses his knowledge to cut a deal with her. None of these people seem to have any problem with ignoring the Constitution and the rule of law, not even Harry Bosch. Yes, this is a novel, but Connelly works from a life model and there are plenty of stories on the news to back him up as to the situation that prevails, not only in Los Angeles but everywhere in the country. Is it any wonder people don't trust the police? Neither do I.

Having said all that, . . . it's a pretty good story. The characterizations, as always, are multidimensional and in full color, the dialogue flows naturally, and the plot's twists and turns, which involve a re-investigation of the original pedophile-related murder case behind Elias's lawsuit, are un-telegraphed and feel natural. Harry makes mistakes in judgment (besides those noted above), and people die who shouldn't have, and things get politically covered up that ought not to have been, but still -- he does his best. Can't ask more than that, I guess.

HARRY BOSCH SIXBEST SO FAR
The sixth Harry Bosch novel, ANGELS FLIGHT is the best of the first six.Read them in order.Harry Bosch stories are the best police procedurals out there.Harry is no non-sense and this story is one of the best for any series.The death of a black-cause attorney, the cause is usually anti-police is gunned down.Harry and his team, Edgar and Kiz are assigned by the top brass. Bring in IAD as back up, not Harry's favorite and the FBI all the time reporting to the assistant chief and Harry is pulled in every direction.This is a good one with all the twists you need to keep you guessing up until the end.Loved it.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

NO text-to-speech - WHAT?!
What planet is this publisher living on that they haven't enabled text-to-speech conversion?!
I'm really angry about this. I like to read and sometimes I like to listen at bedtime when my eyes are tired.

Amazon won't let me return it either and that sucks.

This is the first book I've bought that had the text-to-speech disabled - next time I'll read the small print.

Shame on you publisher! ... Read more

Product Description
This tale chronicles the final decline of a white family in rural Georgia in the early '30s through the agencies of greed, betrayal and complex sexual entanglements, which eventually lead to murder in the family. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Not sure why this is a "Classic"
In it's time I am sure it was very racy....but not so much now.Very repetitive and simplistic.But should be read by classic literature fans.

fine
this book was the best out of all that i purchased from amazon for school because it was in the best condition. it looked brand new!

God's Little Ace
The book I received was in the exact condition as was advertised.I was pleased with my purchase.

Disappointing
For a book that begins so well, it all comes to nothing in the end.

I could easily see this book being turned into an old PBS videotaped teleplay because that's what it reads like.The characters repeat the same lines over and over, the action, what little there is, is relegated to only a few "sets" and it strives to end on a very serious, thoughtful note.For me, it wasn't enough.

"God's Little Acre" starts out strong but as the book proceeds, it seems as though Caldwell had very few tricks up his sleeve. Ty-Ty, somewhat charming in his eccentricity, becomes annoying and the rest of the family talk circles around one another.The passions and lusts of the family are funny for a while, but in the end Caldwell decides that the best way to resolve things is to begin to decimate the ranks.Motivations and actions become murkier, people don't act the way people act, (not even, I suspect, country folk), and Will, a man who has hardly proved himself as anything more than a letch, is somehow on his way to becoming a folk hero. I found that last part hard to accept. All in all, this book's reputation precedes it but the actual execution leaves something to be desired.

80 million copies in 40 languages...
I think the notion that anyone would attempt to rate this book as anything less than a cornerstone of American literature and a glimpse into what was once a good portion of our country is a little silly. 80 million copies and 40 languages as an indication of success will probably hold up under the weight of a critical Internet Amazon review. In many ways God's Little Acre is a bit like Knut Hamsun's "Growth of the Soil" in the context of simple people and a story is not exclusively American. It is a part of every developing society, regardless language, race, ethnicity, etc., etc...

Simple, uneducated people who comprised the characters in the book, did do not live a life with a perspective derived from college dorms, GameBoy or a value system indoctrination. They didn't know they were racist, they didn't know they were greedy and they didn't realize that being preoccupied with sex was a bad thing. I'm not so sure I did either. I kind of think that is the point, the author's presentation of something he knew and wanted to share with others, a life quite different from ours.

Don't scream and put your head in a paper bag when you read this book. Don't hyperventilate over racism, sex, poverty and a fool's search for gold. The book is good insight, the book captures the reality of a type of person that lived mostly at another place in time. It is a part of American history, it was a part of American life. I was born in the south, but not that long ago. The characters don't frighten me, they don't speak for me, but I know who they are. I honestly don't think going back to 1933 would be necessary to find these types of folks.

A great book, colorful and tantalizing story and it takes only a couple of hours to read. Don't let shrieking PC keep you from a learning experience.
... Read more