For Fictional Crime Needs, Cop Novel’s Got Your Number

Got your speed-dial directory handy? You can add the phone number of fictional L.A. police detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, the rowdy hero of several Michael Connelly novels.

In Connelly’s latest, “Echo Park,” Bosch tells a crime victim’s mother: “I think I got a new cell number since the last time I gave it to you.... The number is three-two-three, two-four-four, five-six-three-one.” It’s a live phone line, not one of those make-believe 555 numbers uttered by characters on television and in the movies.

I dialed it and a recorded voice said, “This is Harry Bosch. [Pause] Please leave a message.” I did and he hasn’t called back. Oh, well, that’s L.A.

Anyway, I realize Harry doesn’t have complete trust in the media. Or maybe he just misplaced his phone; after all, he drops it in a tunnel pursuing a killer in “Echo Park.”

Harry, are you there? I’m one of many who have dialed Bosch’s cell.

“The majority of people who call hear the message and then quickly laugh or say, ‘That’s cool,’ and then hang up,” said Jane Davis, Connelly’s website manager.

“But many people have left very heartfelt messages to Harry about how much they love his books and his mission. They wish him luck catching the bad guys and tell him to be careful out there.”

The funniest caller, she said, was someone playing the part of Jerry Edgar, Harry’s former partner.

In his message, he expressed concern about an accusation in “Echo Park” that Edgar and Harry had failed to interview a prime suspect in an unsolved murder, adding “we need to figure this -- out.”

Long, long distance: Wouldn’t it be interesting to speak to fictional characters on the phone? I’d love to ask private eye Philip Marlowe, for instance, about Owen Taylor, the Sternwood family’s chauffeur who was found dead off a pier in “The Big Sleep.” Was he murdered?

When the book -- with its confusing plot -- was made into a movie, the screenwriters told author Raymond Chandler that no one knew how Taylor met his end.

“Dammit, I didn’t know either,” the author responded, according to the authors of “Bogart.”

Back to real life (sort of): It’ll be a cold day in San Clemente

Food for thought: “Your photo of a sushi restaurant adjacent to a tropical fish store reminded me of a similar funny juxtaposition of businesses in Hemet,” wrote resident Mack Twamley (see photo).

“It’s just a short walk from See’s Candies to Jenny Craig, but sometimes necessary, I suppose.”

On the road: Virgil Harrington of Newport Beach found a sign that is such a famous landmark in Lebanon, Ore., that a road is named in its honor (see photo). Enough to bring a tear to your eye.

miscelLAny: The Thin Blue Line, an LAPD newspaper, reports that in Sydney, Australia, city officials were able to cut down on noisy gatherings of youths in one park by playing high-volume hits by Barry Manilow and Doris Day from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Residents living near the park, however, “said the barrage of ‘Copacabana,’ ‘Could It Be Magic’ and ‘Que Sera Sera’ [was] driving them crazy.”

I think Harry Bosch would have used a more direct method of crowd control.