The Last Coyote characters

Appears from the start

An LAPD homicide detective suspended after attacking his lieutenant. With his badge and gun taken away and his earthquake-damaged home facing demolition, Bosch returns privately to the unsolved 1961 murder of his mother.

First appears in chapter 2

The department psychologist assigned to evaluate Bosch after his assault on Harvey Pounds. She listens past his resistance and uses his memories, dreams, and anger to make him confront why his mother's case governs so much of his life.

Appears from the start

Bosch's lieutenant and the target of the assault that caused Bosch's suspension. Pounds represents the authority and bureaucratic control Bosch rejects, though the conflict also leaves him vulnerable to consequences he cannot direct.

First appears in chapter 5

Bosch's former girlfriend, a schoolteacher who ended their relationship after his work repeatedly shut her out. She remains an emotional measure of the ordinary life Bosch cannot sustain while consumed by old cases.

Also known as Marjorie Lowe

First appears in chapter 3

Bosch's mother, who worked as a prostitute and was strangled in 1961 when Harry was eleven. Her unsolved murder sent him into institutional care and became the central absence around which he built his life as a detective.

First appears in chapter 10

A woman who knew Marjorie during the period before her murder. Her memories give Bosch a personal account of his mother and of the men and pressures surrounding her in 1961.

First appears in chapter 12

A man connected to Marjorie's work and to the original investigation. His own violent death shortly after hers suggests that someone was closing off a line of inquiry.

First appears in chapter 18

A retired detective who participated in the original investigation of Marjorie's murder. Bosch seeks him out in Florida to learn why promising political connections were not pursued.

First appears in chapter 14

A prominent former prosecutor whose youthful relationship with Marjorie brought her near a rising political circle. His later career gives powerful people a reason to keep the old case contained.

First appears in chapter 15

A political strategist who built influence around Arno Conklin's career and remains protected by wealth and connections. His place in Conklin's circle makes him a necessary but difficult person for Bosch to examine.

First appears in chapter 21

An investigator attached to the old case whose later finances raise questions about whether the inquiry was deliberately compromised. Because he is dead, Bosch must reconstruct his choices from records and surviving witnesses.

First appears in chapter 8

A Los Angeles Times reporter who helps Bosch recover archived coverage and background on the people surrounding his mother's death. Her access to old reporting gives him leads missing from the official file.

First appears in chapter 2

A senior LAPD official overseeing Bosch's suspension and eventual fitness decision. Irving distrusts Bosch's unauthorized investigation but also recognizes the consequences if the old case exposes corruption or draws new violence.