This is the first of the Harry Bosch mystery thriller series. I really enjoyed it. Harry is a Detective on the LAPD. He might seem like an unlikely hero, he isn't your normal macho hero, but there is something about him I like. He has lots of problems, but he keeps doing what is right. The books are also humorous but not over the top.
In this first Bosch novell, we meet Harry and get a little background on him. He is called out one night to investigate a body in a drain pipe. Everyone from the coroner's people to the other detectives want to write it off as a drug overdose, but Harry sees things that they miss. He also knows this person, from 20 years earlier in Vietnam... The novell takes off running from there on and doesn't stop until the last page.