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Title: The Black Echo by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0-446-61273-1 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 02 December, 2002 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.28 (60 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Nice to meet you, Mr. Bosch
Comment: I had previously read Connelly's "Blood work", and I was impressed by the author's simple yet thrilling plot and storyline, the complexity of the characters' lives, the seemingly unrelated facts that come together in unusual ways and the pace of the investigation, which starts slow, then picks momentum until you feel like you're in a race course.
"The black echo" was my second book by Michael Connelly. Thankfully, it has all the good elements I found in "Blood work". I enjoy reading police-investigation thrillers, and I like series that feature the same character, if the character is good. Harry Bosch is a good character in the sense that he is a bitter and somewhat unlucky man, which gives him a closeness to the reader; he's not a super-hero and he's certainly full of flaws, like everybody we know. But he's not the common anti-hero, because he's a terrific investigator, and respected as such.
In this first book in the Harry Bosch series, the LA detective comes along a body in a pipe by the Holywood reservoir. Overdose? Homicide? What Bosch knows for sure is the identity of the deceased man, who served with him as a "tunnel rat" in Vietnam, twenty years before. With the help of FBI agent Eleanor Wish, Bosch soon starts to discover that this "tunnel" is much deeper than he thinks.
Connelly won the Edgar Award for debut novel with "The black echo". His writing style is simple and confident, as a former journalist's should be. He doesn't waste the reader's time, everything that's in the pages has some significance, but his writing is not as tellegraphic as James Patterson's, for example. Connelly created a good character and provided him with very good plot, environment and psychology. It could hardly go wrong, and it didn't.
Bosch's books will now be a constant on my shelf.
Grade 8.8/10
Rating: 4
Summary: Great tale-spinner
Comment: I read BLOOD WORK a few months ago and thought it was so enjoyable that I had to read Michael Connelly's other books. THE BLACK ECHO was his first and it was excellent.
Harry Bosch, an L.A.P.D. detective recently demoted from the more prestigious Robbery-Homicide Division to Hollywood homicide, gets a call on what looks like a run-of-the-mill heroin overdose. But Harry recognizes the victim - a fellow "tunnel rat" named Meadows from his Viet Nam days - and he spots evidence that leads him to believe that Meadows was murdered. Harry unearths a connection between Meadows and a huge bank robbery, and after initially being tossed off the case, Harry is teamed with a female FBI agent on the theory that the bank robbers are the ones who murdered Meadows.
Connelly did such a great job in weaving this plot that I just followed the twists and turns as they came, not anticipating the outcome. You will suspect everyone and still be surprised by the ending. What an entertaining novel.
Rating: 3
Summary: A good first book, BUT...
Comment: Connelly's prose is excellent, and I enjoyed reading a story set in the Los Angeles of my youth, but this story failed to engage me otherwise. The tone of the story is very grim, and I found myself constantly putting this book down and hoping it would end.
Despite Harry Bosch's intriguing name, at his core he seems to be a cookie-cutter hard-boiled detective. From the other reviews I have read, it is possible that he becomes more interesting in later novels, but I probably will not continue to read this series. Most of the characters in this novel were flat and uninteresting, with the exception of Sharkey, who was still a fairly unsympathetic character.
Although the mystery plot was intriguing, some of the sub-plots were not. These elements play out more as cliches than real sub-plots. Harry's bosses, and the Internal Affairs people seem to be unnecessarily antagonistic towards him and Harry develops an improbable romance with an FBI agent. These are merely cliches, and seem inexplicable within the novel's context.
While the investigation seems to make sense as you're reading, the denouement strains credibility when the author tries to tie up all of the loose ends with a contrived twist.
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Title: The Black Ice by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0446613444 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0312955006 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0312958455 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Trunk Music by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0312963297 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Angels Flight by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0446607274 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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