Mulholland Dive is a 2012 short story collection written by Michael Connelly, consisting of three previously published short stories. The stories:
- "Cahoots" (2002): Six hoodlums play a poker game. Set in 1932 at the time of the Los Angeles Olympics.
- "Mulholland Dive" (2007): Det. Lewiston of the LAPD, a detective specializing in accident investigations, is called out to investigate a fatality involving a car that veered off Mulholland Drive and crashed on the steep slope below.
- "Two-Bagger" (2001): A cop named Stilwell follows a man who has just gotten paroled from Corcoran prison. Stilwell believes that the con is going to carry out a contract murder.
These stories feature neither Michael Connelly's main protagonist Harry Bosch or his secondary protagonist Mickey Haller.
Tropes:
- Call-Forward: "Cahoots", being set in 1932, included this exchange.“Where do you want to go?”
“Las Vegas.”
“Where the hell is that?”
“Nevada.”
“There’s nothing there but sand.” - Continuity Nod: "Two-Bagger" finds the detectives following a paroled criminal who's part of the Road Saints motorcycle gang. The Road Saints are a fictional gang mentioned in several Connelly novels; Mickey Haller's investigator Cisco is a former member. (The first two stories in this collection do not have any connections to the Bosch universe.)
- Fixing the Game: The narrator of "Cahoots" is enraged that McMillan and Boyd are cheating at the poker game. The ending reveals that he and his partner Swain were also cheating.
- Foreshadowing: Clewiston mentions early in "Mulholland Dive" that some of the cars that plunge off the road actually wind up in backyards of the homes at the foot of the hill. That's what happens to him.
- Go into the Light: Lampshaded. Clewiston's car careens off Mulholland Drive and into a backyard pool. He's pulled underwater as the car floods. Then he sees a bright light, realizes that he's dying, and goes into it—except that it's the guy who lives in the house, wielding a flashlight.
- Hired to Hunt Yourself: Clewiston is an LAPD cop specializing in investigating accident fatalities. It's revealed that he actually stages those accident fatalies, and indeed staged the one he's investigating in "Mulholland Dive".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In "Mulholland Dive", Clewiston kills a man by putting a test dummy on the road, causing the target to veer off the road and plummet off the cliff to his death. Clewiston, who also happens to be the investigating officer, passes the accident off as being caused by a coyote crossing the road. As he's driving away from the scene, he sees a coyote on Mulholland Drive and goes veering off the cliff.
- Last Breath Bullet: Milky Vachon slices Stilwell's whole throat open and drops him to the floor—but he doesn't notice that Stilwell lands right on top of his gun. Stilwell has just enough life left to pick up his gun and shoot Vachon four times in the back.
- Left Hanging: "Mulholland Drive" ends with the man who owns the pool diving in to pull Clewiston out of the car and save him from drowning. Does he? Who knows?
- No Honor Among Thieves: The ending to "Cahoots" reveals that Vera betrayed her partners, McMillan and Boyd, to the narrator and Swain.
- No Name Given: For the narrator of "Cahoots".
- Oddball in the Series:
- Neither "Cahoots" nor "Mulholland Dive" feature an obvious connection to the Harry Bosch universe, where all of Connelly's novels are set. (When he writes a non-Bosch novel Connelly always puts in at least one Continuity Nod to tie it to the Bosch 'verse). "Two-Bagger" does—see Continuity Nod.
- The stories are all crime stories and not mysteries. The only Connelly novel that isn't a mystery story is Void Moon.
- "Cahoots", set in 1932, is the only period piece Michael Connelly has ever written. All of his other stories are set at or near the time they were published. It is also the only Connelly work using the present tense for narrative.
- Pretty Little Headshots: The narrator of "Cahoots" gets McMillan with "one neat shot in the forehead" and later is proud to see that it didn't even bleed.
- Present Tense Narrative: "Cahoots" uses this. The narrator lampshades it."This is a journal. I write it in what my partner who read it up to now calls present tense....But everything I write down here has already happened."
- Title Drop: The narrator o "Cahoots" refers to McMillan and Boyd being in "cahoots" with each other.
