Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and fight for for every case. Now that mentor, J.J. Thompson, is dead, but after his funeral his widow hands Bosch a murder book that Thompson took - outlining the unsolved killing of a troubled young man. Bosch brings the murder book to Renee Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson's fire all those years ago. That will be their starting point.

Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renee Ballard come together again on the murder case that obsessed Bosch's mentor. Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now that mentor, J.J. Thompson, is dead, but after his funeral his widow hands Bosch a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD twenty years before that contains information about the unsolved killing of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals. Bosch brings the murder book to Renee Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson's fire all those years ago.