The Last Coyote

infobox Book |
name = The Last Coyote
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Michael Connelly
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Harry Bosch, #4
subject =
genre = Crime novel
publisher = Little, Brown and Company
release_date = June 1. 1995
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 400
isbn = ISBN 0-316-15390-7
preceded_by = The Concrete Blonde
followed_by = Trunk Music

"The Last Coyote" is the fourth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was first published in 1995 and the novel won the 1996 Dilys Award given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Explanation of the novel's title

Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch has seen and then dreamt about a lone coyote near his home in the hills near Los Angeles and discusses it during a departmental required therapy session. The psychologist interprets it that Bosch believes that there are not many policeman like himself left and that he feels the same threat to his existence as the coyote.cite book |author=Connelly, Michael |authorlink= |editor= |others= |title=The Last Coyote (Last Coyote) |edition= |language= |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |year=1996 |origyear= |pages= p90|quote= |isbn=0-312-95845-5 |oclc= |doi= |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=WyisQtQAh7wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+last+coyote&sig=ACfU3U1RSgCoOwGyX9J4HvyDStacswL7RQ#PPA90,M1|accessdate=]

Plot summary

Bosch is involved in an incident at work and has been put on involuntary stress leave, he must go through therapy sessions to be able to return to work. This involves talking about the incident and himself with Carmen Hinojos a police psychologist. Three months ago Bosch broke up with his girlfriend, Sylvia Moore. Carmen asks Harry to verbalize his mission in life. Harry decides that his mission is to investigate his mother's murder. She had been a prostitute and was strangled when Harry was twelve. He gets the murder book from the police archives and reviews the case. He first goes to visit Meredith Roman, his mothers best friend at the time, another prostitute. The one real piece of information the Bosch gets from her, something that she did not tell the police was that his mother was going to meet Arno Conklin at Hancock Park the night of the murder. Bosch, with the help of the new cop beat LA Times reporter investigates Fox, Conklin and Conklin's close associate Mittel. He discovers that Fox was killed in a hit and run while distributing campaign literature for Conklin. Conklin had been running for District Attorney. He also learns from an old cop friend that Mittel is now a very successful lawyer and campaign fund raiser. He is currently helping Robert Shepard a computer tycoon run for the Senate. On a whim, Harry drives to Shepard's house and ends up attending a fund raising party. He meets Mittel and using the name of his boss, Pounds he asks a waitress at the party to deliver an envelope to Mittel. In the envelope Harry puts a copy of a newspaper article about Fox's death, circles the names Conklin, Mittel and Fox. He writes under the article, What prior work experience got Johnny his job? Harry checks with the city offices and finds out that only one of the original investigating offices is still alive and that his retirement checks are mailed to a post office box in Florida. So he takes a plane to Florida to speak with the retired detective, Jack McKittrick. He learns from him that at the beginning of the investigation his senior partner, Eno was called into the Assistant DA's office and told that Fox was not involved with the murder and he should not be investigated by the department. The only way they could interview him was in Conklin's office. After that interview the investigation went nowhere and was left as an unsolved case.

In order to gain entrance to the gated community where McKittrick lives Bosch pretended he was interested in a house for sale in the community and toured the house briefly. He goes back to the house after leaving McKittrick and eventually has a romantic encounter with the woman who owns the house, Jasmine. He spends an extra day in Florida with Jasmine and they reveal many personal secrets to each other in bed. On his way back to Los Angeles he stops in Las Vegas to visit the widow of the other detective, Eno. He intimidates the widow's sister who is taking care of the ninety year old invalid into letting him take some of Eno's old files. From the files he discovers that Eno had been receiving $1000 a week through a dummy corporation since one year after his mother's murder. He learns that this corporations officers were Eno, Gordon Mittel and Arno Conklin. When he returns to Los Angeles there are four Los Angeles Police Department cops are waiting for him inside his home. While he was in Florida, his boss, Harvey Pounds was found dead in the trunk of his car, tortured. Bosch is brought to the Parker Center for questioning. Harry realizes that when he used Pounds' name when trying to scare Mittel at the Shepard fund raiser has lead to his death. Harry learns from LA Times reporter Keisha Russell that the writer of the article on Fox was Monte Kim and gives Bosch his address obtained from the phone book. Bosch visits Kim and learns that he wrote the article on Fox's death ignoring the illegal activities in his past in order to obtain a job with Conklin. Kim had photo's of Conklin and Fox with two woman (Meredith Roman and Bosch's mother) and used them to blackmail Conklin to obtain the job.

Bosch believing that he finally has enough information to confront Conklin, visits him in his nursing home and discovers that Conklin was actually in love with Bosch's mother. On the day that she was murdered they decided to go to Las Vegas and get married. Conklin had called Mittel to ask him to go with then to be his best man. Mittel declined and told him that marrying her would ruin his career. Conklin believes that Mittel murdered Bosch's mother. After leaving Conklin, Bosch is hit with a tire iron when trying to get in his car and awakes at Mittel's house with his head bleeding locked in a game room. Before Mittel's enforcer can arrive Bosch pockets a billiard ball which he hopes to use as a weapon. Mittel tells Bosch that Conklin has conveniently jumped out of the window of his room right after Bosch left. So the last loose end for him to clean up is Bosch. After Bosch tells him that he left his briefcase with his evidence in Conklin's room Mittel nods to Jonathan to finish off Bosch. But Bosch makes Jonathan miss, hits him with the billard ball and eventually knock him out. Mittel runs off and Bosch follows, Mittel attempts to ambush Bosch and in the struggle Mittell fall off a cliff and dies. Bosch returns to the house but can not locate Jonathan, the police arrive and Bosch next wakes up in the emergency room. Bosch realizes that he can prove that Mittel killed his mother by checking his fingerprints against the print found on the belt that killed his mother. He obtains the prints from the medical examiners office but they do not match. Bosch has gone through all of this and still has not found his mothers killer.

He returns to talk to Hinojos, during this meeting she gives Bosch her opinion on the photos from his mothers crime scene. She noticed that his mother was wearing all gold jewelry and the belt that was used to kill her was silver, which is something that a woman would not normally do. Bosch's mother might not have been wearing the belt, the killer may have been wearing the belt and used it to kill his mother. Bosch believes he finally knows who killed his mother and returns to Meredith Roman's house only to find that several days before she committed suicide. She left Bosch a note trying to explain her actions. He calls 911 and is about to leave when Jonathan confronts him with a gun. He had been waiting for him, letting him find Meredith and the letter. Since Jonathan believes he is going to kill Bosch and escape he tells him the truth that in actuality he is Johnny Fox. He death was faked and he remained with Mittel as his bodyguard, it was Fox who had killed Pounds and Conklin. The police finally arrive and Fox is shot while trying to escape.

Characters in "The Last Coyote"

* Carmen Hinojos — Psychologist for the Los Angeles Police Department
* Meredith Roman — Prostitute friend of Bosch's mother
* Keisha Russell — Reporter for the "Los Angeles Times"
* Lieutenant Harvey "Ninety-Eight" Pounds — Bosch's supervisor
* Jerry Edgar — Bosch's partner
* Irvin Irving — Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
* Arno Conklin — Former District Attorney
* Gordon Mittel — Lawyer
* Jake McKittrick — detective who investigated the murder of Bosch's mother.
* Jasmine — A painter with whom Harry becomes romantically involved with during a trip to Florida.
* Monte Kim — former "Los Angeles Times" reporter

Literary significance and reception

The Library Journal said that "The Last Coyote" had "prose that cuts to the quick, a masterfully interwoven plot and gripping suspense".cite journal|last=Klett|first=Rex E.|title=Book reviews: Fiction|date=1995-04-01|journal=Library Journal|volume=Vol. 120|issue=Issue 6|pages=p129|issn=0363-0277]

Awards and nominations

"The Last Coyote" won the 1996 Dilys Award given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Associationcite book |author=Susan Malling; Peters, Barbara H. |authorlink= |editor= |others= |title=AZ Murder Goes...Classic |edition= |language= |publisher=Poisoned Pen Press |location= |year=1998 |origyear= |pages= p97|quote= |isbn=1-890208-08-6 |oclc= |doi= |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=yavuZTxcpAsC&pg=PA97&dq=%22The+last+coyote%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=5EK0SLGvAYLmygSxpcmoDQ&sig=ACfU3U0cMQw0I8C74jFyMsNVv8zgFXiHhQ#PPA97,M1|accessdate=] cite web |url=http://www.mysterybooksellers.com/dilys.html |title=The Dilys Award |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/5aMnQELWH|archivedate= 2008-08-26|quote= |accessdate=2008-08-26]

"The Last Coyote" was a nominee for the 1996 Anthony Award, the 1996 Macavity Awardcite web |url=http://www.cluelass.com/DDO/action.lasso?-Search&-Database=CLU_Directory&-Layout=DirDetail&-Response=Detail.lasso&xNameID=LIST_00327 |title=DDO Details |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= |accessdate=2008-08-26] and the 1996 Hammett Prize.cite web |url=http://www.crimewritersna.org/hammett/past.htm |title=IACW/NA: Hammett Prize: Past Years |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/5aMtA1vHl|archivedate= 2008-08-26|quote= |accessdate=2008-08-26]

Notes