"Renee Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. It's a frustrating assignment for a once up-and-coming detective, but it's no accident. She's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night Ballard catches two assignments she doesn't want to part with. First, a prostitute...

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...