The Hollow by Michael Connelly

 For a retired LAPD cop, Harry Bosch is busy with two cases in the works in The Hollow by Michael Connelly coming out in October. One case has pulled Harry back to the 1960s after a massive class action lawsuit has netted billions in settlement for the former residents of MacLaren Children’s Center, Harry being one of those from age 11 to 16.

 

Entitled to some of that disbursement, Harry wants justice instead, calling upon his connection to Detective Renee Ballard and her cold case division. He was already working with her to finally catch the murderer in a case he had not been able to close in 2001. Using a little ingenuity and a bug hidden in a bouquet of flowers, together they are bringing a successful conclusion to the long unresolved case.

 

Now Harry could devote all his time to the children’s home that was a pit of abuse and neglect and to getting justice for a long-dead teen named Charles “Chops” Lamb. Called inmates because the center was under the jurisdiction of the state probation department, they often fought among themselves, earning time in the hollow, a cramped storage space under the staircase in the administrative wing of MacLaren’s.

 

Working a case as only Bosch can—"everybody counts or nobody counts”—he learns from old case files that Chops’ death appears to have been covered up as little investigation was done. Being Harry, he uses his skills to dig deep, finding a former probation officer who is still alive and was working at MacLaren’s at the time of the boy’s death, albeit he is in a care home with memory loss.

 

With just the right spark of a memory about an incident the day before Chops’ death at MacLaren’s, the retired guard lights the way to Harry bringing down a cruel murderer, putting Harry’s own scarred history to rest. Problem is, Harry’s hunt for justice knocks heads with the FBI’s own pursuit as the killer has a long list of crimes, one a current threat about some missing ammunitions including Hellfire missiles.

 

Note: some of the elements of the story are based on real incidents and real people, and MacLaren Hall was a real place, a house of horrors, open from 1961 until it was closed in 2003 and is being rebuilt as a city park in El Monte, California.

 

This reader is so grateful that Michael Connelly is still writing Harry Bosch stories, this one being the 26^th.

 

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 22, 2026.

I would like to thank Little, Brown and Company, the Hachette Book Group, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.