The Drop

The Drop is the twenty-fourth book by detective and crime novelist Michael Connelly, and the fifteenth book in his series following Detective Harry Bosch of the Los Angeles Police Department. In The Drop, Detective Bosch is trying to solve two crimes. The first is a cold case involving the 1989 murder of a girl named Lily Price; the second is the death of George Irving, the son of Bosch's nemesis Irvin Irving, who fell from a hotel balcony to his death. Published in 2011, The Drop was followed by four other novels in the Harry Bosch series, including The Black Box (2012), The Burning Room (2014), The Crossing (2015), and The Wrong Side of Goodbye (2016).

The Drop begins with the reopening of a cold case involving the death of Lily Price, a college student who was strangled to death in 1989. Detective Bosch and his partner David Chu are working in the Open-Unsolved Unit of the LAPD, and new evidence appears in the Lily Price case involving traces of blood found on the belt linked to Clayton Pell, a child-abuser who was recently released on parole. Bosch and Chu are thrilled until they discover that Clayton Pell was only eight years old at the time of Lily's murder. Although the two investigators decide that their narrative featuring Clayton as the killer is unlikely, they investigate anyway to see if Clayton can lead them to a new suspect.

Clayton lives in a halfway house for sexual offenders, and Bosch and Chu find him there. At the halfway house, they also meet psychologist Hannah Stone, who is working on a rehabilitation program to reduce the rates of recidivism and reoffense among the house’s residents. At first Bosch is skeptical of Hannah’s commitment to helping people he finds reprehensible, but he soon realizes that her work is important not only for the offenders, but for victims and their families. He and Hannah become romantically involved, which pleases Bosch's daughter Maddie, who has been living with Bosch since her mother's death.



Clayton agrees to an interview. In the meeting with Bosch and Chu, he reveals that he was abused and brutally beaten by a man named Chill, who was dating his mother when he was eight years old, around the time of Lily Price's murder. Chill's abuse of Clayton makes him the primary suspect in the Lily Price case, as Clayton's blood was likely transferred when he was beaten with the same murder weapon.

The Price case is temporarily stalled when George Irving falls from a balcony at the Chateau Marmont hotel. George was a business consultant and high-power official in Los Angeles, and was also the son of Bosch's former police force rival, now city councilman Irvin Irving. Irvin asks Bosch to investigate his son's death; though the two men hate each other, Irvin knows that Bosch is a good detective and will discover the truth about his son's death.

At first, because of lacerations on George's body, Bosch suspects that he's been murdered. George was involved with a taxi company in the city, and Bosch suspects that there could have been foul play involving Irvin's enemies from a rival company. However, Bosch quickly discovers that George was not murdered—he killed himself. George's wife, who was hiding details of their divorce from their son to conceal the truth about his father's suicide, reveals that George fell from the balcony of the hotel room they rented for their honeymoon many years before.



Bosch returns to the Price case, where he identifies Chill as a man named Chilton Hardy Jr. He and Chu find Chilton's father in a townhouse, but he claims to have no idea where his son might be. Bosch and Chu investigate further, however, and suspect that Chill might have murdered his own father in order to assume his identity and hide from his more serious criminal charges. Chill reveals his identity when he is arrested, and confesses to the murder of more than thirty-six people. However, due to the statute of limitations, Clayton learns that Chill will never be tried or convicted for child abuse.

Clayton is enraged when he learns that Chill won't be tried for raping him. He breaks his parole by fighting a police officer and is promptly transferred to the same prison where Chill is being held. Once in prison, Clayton attacks and almost kills Chill, but Bosch intervenes just in time to save Chill's life. After the incident, though, Bosch wonders whether he should have saved Chill or let Clayton kill him to get his revenge. Further complications arise when Bosch discovers that Chill's trial will be delayed by Irvin's political rivals, who are trying to kick him out of office.

Michael Connelly is the author of dozens of crime and detective novels, most notably featuring Detective Harry Bosch. His other novels follow detectives Jack McEvoy, Terry McCaleb, and Mickey Haller. He has written two standalone novels featuring female detectives Renee Ballard and Cassie Black. His most recent book is Dark Sacred Night (2018).