History Literature / AngelsFlight

Bosch is assigned to investigate the murder of Howard Elias, a lawyer who specialized in allegations of police corruption and lawsuits against the LAPD. Elias is found shot to death on the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_Flight Angels Flight]] funicular railway in downtown LA. The extremely sensitive nature of the case leads Deputy Chief Irvin Irving to name Bosch as head of a special task force that consists of his partners Jerry Edgar and Kizmin Rider, as well as--much to Bosch's chagrin--three detectives from Internal Affairs. Bosch is especially bothered by being paired up with IAD detective John Chastain, who twice in the past has tried to get Bosch's badge. Harry doesn't have much time to worry about Chastain, however, as his investigation grows to include Elias's last case. Howard Elias was suing on behalf of Michael Harris, a black man claiming that the LAPD had tortured him in an effort to get him to falsely confess to the murder of a little girl.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Downplayed, since it's Bosch, but when Kiz describes his hypothetical web page for "morose detectives who never say much of anything to anybody," Bosch smiles.

* BlandNameProduct: Averted. Black Warrior is an [[https://www.papermate.com/pencils/woodcase/mirado-black-warrior actual brand of pencil]]. Almost certainly does not qualify as ProductPlacement, considering.

** [[spoiler: Harry gives it up and borrows a smoke from the shopkeeper at the end after seeing Chastain get beaten to death by a mob of rioters, and having narrowly escaped the same fate himself.]]

** Bosch remembers his two previous IAD beefs and the trips to the Bradbury building they entailed when he returns there to search Elias's office.
** When he arrives at the conference room, Harry sees the cigarette burn he left in the table top during Literature/TheConcreteBlonde investigation.
** Harry mentions that he used to date an English teacher. This was Sylvia Moore, Cal Moore's widow from ''Literature/TheBlackIce'', who he dated during ''Literature/TheConcreteBlonde'' and broke up with prior to ''Literature/TheLastCoyote''.

** Harry mentions his house being re-built, which was mentioned last in ''Literature/TrunkMusic''. He even specifically mentions that it now has two bedrooms.

** Harry remembers screaming his lungs out at the bottom of the pool when he found out his mother had died (discussed previously more than once), and wonders if Stacey Kincaid ever did something similar.
** After being rescued from the riot, Bosch feels "giddy for some reason, like the times he had emerged unscathed from the tunnels in Vietnam," the first time Bosch's service in the war has been mentioned for a while.

* DetectiveMole: One of the Internal Affairs cops assigned to investigate the Howard Elias murder is the murderer.
* DirtyCop: An LAPD cop killed a troublesome attorney.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Triple meaning title. Angels Flight is a Los Angeles landmark. In the last paragraph of the novel, Bosch remembers the screams of Chastain as he was seized by the mob and thinks about how it sounded like the shriek of a fallen angel flying down to hell. The third comes when Frankie Sheehan remembers the image of Stacey Kincaid's body as being "like a little angel, her arms out, like she was flying."
* DrivenToSuicide: Kate Kincaid kills herself after killing her husband and his security chief, once she finds out that they abused and murdered her daughter.
* EurekaMoment: When Garwood says none of Sheehan's partners ever knew him to carry a throw-down gun, Bosch is struck hard by the realization that Frankie had been murdered.

* GrayRainOfDepression: "Rain always made him sad." The rain fits Bosch's mood after the death of Frankie Sheehan.

* NeverSuicide: It looks like Frankie Sheehan, Bosch's old partner, killed himself in despair after finding out about the truth of the Black Warrior case. He didn't.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Irving finally graduates to this with full honors, in Bosch's eyes, for hypocritically trying to maneuver the investigation rather than let Bosch and his team do their job unfettered. Until now, Bosch had thought of him as "a hard-ass, but ultimately a fair man" and decides that he's going to "clear the case in spite of Irving's maneuvers." Later, it turns out to be much worse, since Bosch and Garwood speculate that Irving was the person behind quashing the IAD investigation into the "Black Warrior" case, which led to the civil case, which led to most of the deaths in the book.

* ParentalIncest: Stacey Kinkaid was sexually abused by her stepfather, Sam.
* ThePerryMasonMethod: DiscussedTrope. When told that Elias has planned to "deliver the murderer" in the Michael Harris civil trial, Bosch thinks that "Revealing the killer in court was Perry Mason stuff. It almost never happened."
* {{Retirony}}: Played straight with Frankie Sheehan, who has given up on caring about police work and is simply counting days until he can retire in eight months. And then....

* ShotInTheAss: Not played for laughs one tiny little bit. The fact that the shooter put the muzzle of his gun right up Elias's backside leads the detectives to conclude that the shooter was a man and the crime was personal.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Bosch is assigned to a special task force for the Howard Elias case that includes John Chastain, his arch-enemy from Internal Affairs. Ultimately subverted when Chastain turns out to be the murderer.
* TraumaCongaLine: Over the course of the novel, Harry [[spoiler: goes through the end of his marriage, learns that Stacey Kincaid had been sexually abused and murdered by her stepfather, found out his former partner and good friend had fallen and tortured an innocent suspect, discovered his former partner dead on his porch from an apparent suicide, realized that his partner had actually been murdered, watched Chastain get beaten to death by a violent mob, and barely escaped the same fate himself.]] No wonder he goes OffTheWagon and needs a CigaretteOfAnxiety at the end.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Irving finally graduates to this with full honors, in Bosch's eyes, for hypocritically trying to maneuver the investigation rather than let Bosch and his team do their job unfettered. Until now, Bosch had thought of him as "a hard-ass, but ultimately a fair man" and decides that he's going to "clear the case in spite of Irving's maneuvers." Later, it turns out to be [[UpToEleven much worse]], since Bosch and Garwood speculate that Irving was the person behind quashing the IAD investigation into the "Black Warrior" case, which led to the civil case, which led to most of the deaths in the book.

* YourCheatingHeart: Bosch finds out that Elias was having an affair with Carla Entrenkin, who just happens to be Inspector General in charge of civilian oversight of the LAPD.

* AssholeVictim: In-universe, this is very much what Elias is from Bosch's point of view; he even calls him an asshole when speaking to Kiz. Bonus points for it being an IncrediblyLamePun.
* BlandNameProduct: Averted. Black Warrior is an actual brand of pencil. Almost certainly does not qualify as ProductPlacement, considering.

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: A horrified Harry starts jonesing hard for a cigarette after Kiz reveals the child porn website to him.

** Harry mentions that he used to date an English teacher. This was Sylvia Moore, Cal Moore's widow from ''Literature/TheBlackIce''.

* DemotedToExtra: Jerry Edgar is ''much'' less prominent in this novel than normal.