Angels Flight (novel)
| Company type | Novel |
|---|---|
| Industry | Literature |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Michael Connelly |
| Products | Crime fiction |
Angels Flight represents the eighth installment by American crime novelist Michael Connelly and is the sixth book centered on Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.
Plot
LAPD detective Harry Bosch takes on the investigation into the killing of Howard Elias, a well-known African-American lawyer, who was found shot on Angels Flight, a funicular railway located in downtown Los Angeles. Alongside Elias, a Hispanic woman named Catalina Perez was also discovered fatally wounded. Detectives from the Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD) initially determine that Perez was an unintended victim, with Elias as the primary target. Elias was recognized for defending minority clients against the LAPD, which earned him a strained relationship with many officers. Given the accuracy of the gunfire, Bosch suspects involvement from within the police force.
Deputy Chief Irvin Irving removes RHD from further involvement because several detectives in the division are defendants in a federal lawsuit that Elias had been pursuing. Elias had represented Michael Harris, who was recently acquitted of murdering Stacey Kincaid, the stepdaughter of local car dealer Sam Kincaid. Harris claims that police fabricated fingerprint evidence and used torture during his interrogation. Both Irving and Bosch worry that Elias’ murder could ignite disturbances in South Central Los Angeles akin to the 1992 riots, especially if a police officer’s involvement becomes known. Bosch also feels he is being set up to fail when Internal Affairs detective John Chastain is assigned to assist him.
Bosch and Chastain learn that Elias frequently stayed downtown while working on cases. Their investigation uncovers evidence of an affair between Elias and LAPD Inspector-General Carla Entrenkin, who later admits to breaking into his apartment following his death. Entrenkin, appointed as special master to oversee attorney-client privilege regarding Elias’ files, clears most documents for Bosch’s examination. They find anonymous letters suggesting Harris’ innocence, including coded notes and a printout from a prostitution website.
Frankie Sheehan, Bosch’s former partner, confesses to torturing Harris but denies fabricating evidence. Elias’ private investigator provides exonerating details proving Harris’ innocence: Kincaid’s mother had her car serviced at Harris’ workplace, explaining the fingerprint presence; homeless witnesses confirm Stacey Kincaid’s body was relocated after Harris had been taken into custody.
Detective Kizmin Rider deciphers additional letters containing directions to a concealed child pornography website exposing long-term abuse suffered by Stacey Kincaid. Rider suspects Stacey’s stepfather; it appears that Elias’ access to this site may have led to his murder. Bosch hypothesizes that Kate Kincaid sent anonymous tips knowing they would implicate her husband. After discovering Sheehan’s wife has left him, Bosch offers him a place to stay.
Kate confirms that Sam Kincaid was both a pedophile and responsible for her daughter’s death. An FBI agent informs Bosch that Sam and his security guard—both connected to Stacey's murder—were found shot dead by Kate, who subsequently commits suicide in front of Bosch. Upon returning home, Bosch finds Sheehan dead from an apparent suicide; ballistics link Sheehan’s firearm to the shootings of Elias and Perez. The LAPD closes the case; Entrenkin resigns as inspector-general to take over Elias’ legal practice representing Harris. Meanwhile, riots erupt in South Central Los Angeles.
Entrenkin alerts Bosch to an overlooked detail: Chastain was scheduled to testify for Elias and had secretly sold information about previous cases. Bosch uncovers that Chastain discovered evidence of Harris’ torture but was pressured by Irving to keep silent. Elias intended to expose Chastain at trial, which would have ended his career and revealed him as an informant. Bosch determines that Chastain framed Sheehan by swapping bullet evidence and murdered Sheehan, staging it as suicide.
Bosch drives into South Central amid riots to arrest Chastain. On his return, his vehicle is attacked; Chastain is dragged from the car and beaten by a mob, dying before backup arrives. Bosch realizes Irving will portray Chastain as a martyr to calm unrest, blame Sheehan for the murders, and that Bosch must remain silent if he wants to keep his position.
TV adaptation
The storyline of Angels Flight serves as the central narrative in the fourth season of the Amazon Studios production Bosch. Notable modifications include Landon Johnson, the funicular operator, becoming the unintended casualty in Elias's homicide instead of a housekeeper. The investigation into Stacey Kincaid's murderer is streamlined into a concise exchange during Bosch and Chandler’s interrogation of Harris. The character of Elias’s lover, Carla Emtremkin, is divided into two separate roles: jury consultant Pamela Duncan and special master Honey Chandler. Chastain is reimagined as two Internal Affairs officers, Amy Snyder and Gabrielle Lincoln, while Robertson and Pierce complete the task force lineup. Sheehan survives in this version, as Bosch’s team apprehends and subsequently exonerates him. Irving transitions from a hindering bureaucrat to a political operative undermining Mayor Hector Ramos’s image and manipulating protest leadership.
The reason behind Elias’s assassination is revised: he was complicit in a scheme alongside Lincoln and Police Commission president Bradley Walker to pursue police brutality lawsuits using confidential information, with settlement funds supporting Walker’s real estate ventures. The arrangement fell apart when Elias insisted on taking Harris’s case to trial after viewing footage of Sheehan torturing Harris. Elias intended to expose Walker during the trial, which led Walker to kill him. Bosch verifies Walker’s alibi—his attendance at a fundraiser at the Biltmore Hotel—but suspects him in the death of Bosch’s mother in 1979 and an associated arson murder from season 3. Ultimately, Bosch implicates Walker by deceiving him into disclosing the location of the murder weapon, connecting him to both Johnson and Elias’s deaths through ballistic evidence recovered.