Cal Moore, del departamento de narcoticos, fue encontrado en un motel con un tiro en la cabeza cuando estaba investigando sobre una nueva droga de diseno llamada ""hielo negro."" Para el detective Harry Bosch, lo importante no es el hecho aislado, sino el hilo conductor que lo mantiene unido a otros casos todavia abiertos. Y sus averiguaciones sobre el sospechoso suicidio de Moore parecen trazar una linea recta entre los traficantes que merodean por Hollywood Boulevard y los callejones mas turbios de la frontera de Mexico. Una linea fatidica sembrada de cadaveres. / Narcotics officer Cal Moore's orders were to look into the city's latest drug killing. Instead, he ends up in a motel room with a fatal bullet wound to the head and a suicide note stuffed in his back pocket. Working the case, LAPD detective Harry Bosch is reminded of the primal police rule he learned long ago: Don't look for the facts, but the glue that holds them together. Soon Harry's making some very dangerous connections, starting with a dead cop and leading to a bloody string of murders that wind from Hollywood Boulevard to the back alleys south of the border. Now this battle-scarred veteran will find himself in the center of a complex and deadly game-one in which he may be the next and likeliest victim.