When the body of high profile black lawyer Howard Elias is found inside one of the cars on Angels Flight, a funicular railway in downtown LA, there's not a detective in the city who'll touch the case.
Murdered on the eve of a lawsuit on behalf of Michael Harris, Elias' specialty was prosecuting cases of police brutality, corruption and racism. Like every other cop, Harry Bosch believed Harris guilty as accused of rape and murder of a twelve year old girl. Elias' civil action was supposed to expose the LAPD and reveal the real killer. Now it's all down to Bosch - and it means digging deep into a minefield of suspicion and hate buried in his own backyard.

Shocked by his brother's death, Jack McEvoy, crime reporter, investigates a surprising rise in police suicides. A disturbing pattern of coincidences suggests that a cop killer is choosing his victims with terrible care. Coast-to-coast Jack follows a trail of unusual 'suicide notes'. He may be on to the story of a lifetime, but scarier still, 'the poet' knows that Jack is on his tail.