text: Having read a few Bosch books already (The Closers and Lost Light), I realized that I should probably start at the beginning to get better insight on how Bosch became the Bosch I was reading in the later series.  However, I was very disappointed with this book.  One of the most irritating aspects of this book was the grammatical errors (mispellings and such).  I found 3 or 4 in the first 50 pages (before I stopped reading)!  I thought it was ironic that Connelly was thanking his editor at the beginning of the book, because it did not seem that anyone was editing this book.  Also, I found the book to be too gritty.  It lacked the emotion and soul that I found in the later books.  It seemed that Connelly was trying too hard to make Bosch fit this certain mold, but then transformed the character to be more likeable in the later books that I read.  So it was disappointing that this book could not hold my interest because I just finished reading The Narrows and loved it, and will probably pick up some other Bosch books and just read it out of order.  Connelly's writing seems to be getting better and better, which should explain why I didn't enjoy this book and couldn't finish it.  I gave it 2 stars because it might have gotten better and maybe I was too impatient.  This is one of those series that seems like it is better to read out of order
  