Structure

The main event in “Cielo Azul” by Michael Connelly  – the assignment to investigate the death of a mysterious girl abandoned on a hill in Mulholland Drive – is structured gradually, having an exposition, a rising action, a climax, and a falling action. The resolution comes twelve years after the main event when detective Harry Bosch tries to tie loose ends and finally discover the identity of the murdered girl.

Title

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Beginning

The exposition introduces readers to the atmosphere of the story and to the main character. Detective Harry Bosch drives towards a prison where he is to meet a criminal named Seguin, whom he has had convicted of murder twelve years ago:

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Middle

The rising action mostly consists of detective Harry Bosch’s efforts to catch the criminal and solve the mystery of the identity of the victim. The first clues come from the deputy coroner named Teresa Corazon, who studies the victim’s body and discovers that she has been placed in the trunk of a car before being discarded on Mulholland Drive:

While photographing the body the deputy coroner noticed an impression in the skin on the rear left hip. Post-mortem lividity indicated the blood in the body had settled on the left half, meaning the body had been lying on its left side in the time between the stilling of the heart and the dropping of the body down the hillside off of Mulholland (…)
‘A license plate,’ I said when she called me to the autopsy suite to view the discovery. ‘He put her down on a license plate.’ (p. 23, ll. 24-38)

The second set of clues comes from Terry McCaleb, a criminal profiler whom Harry Bosch turned to for help:

What I see here suggests the work of what we call an exhibition killer. In other words, this is a killer who wanted his crime to be seen...

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Ending

The falling action is very short and reveals that Seguin has been sent to prison for his deeds. The resolution presents detective Harry Bosch’ visit to the prison and his efforts to make...

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