The Black Echo

After having watched the TV shows “Bosch” and “The Lincoln Lawyer”, both based on novels by [a:Michael Connelly 12470 Michael Connelly https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1539114448p2/12470.jpg], I decided it was high-time to read a Bosch novel. Titus Welliver's stellar performance as Bosch raised my expectations sky high...In the novels, Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is a homicide detective in Los Angeles, who was named after a painter and whose mother was killed when he was young. He has a daughter with his ex-wife, and follows his own code of ethics. He is a loner and a maverick, who often faces conflicts with his bosses and peers. He is also a Vietnam War veteran where he served as a “tunnel rat”, a soldier who explored and cleared the underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong.He is flawed, damaged, and sometimes reckless, but he is also loyal, brave, and compassionate. He has a strong sense of duty and honour, and he never gives up on a case. He is also very human, and he struggles with his personal relationships and his emotions. He is not perfect, but he is real.In this first novel, “[b:The Black Echo 32508 The Black Echo (Harry Bosch Universe, #1) Michael Connelly https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344265342l/32508.SY75.jpg 48262]”, this is a prominent feature right from the start because a murder victim is found in a drainage pipe which quickly leads to Bosch investigating a bank heist which was carried out through the sewers...“Echo” is an intelligent, well-written police procedural with a Bosch who could have jumped from the TV show back onto the pages of the novel: He's disillusioned, tired, annoyed and angry most of the time and despite all that cannot help but do what's right. He may stretch or break some rules along the way, but he always follows his conscience. I felt myself rooting for him all the way.At least in the beginning of the novel, the writing shows that this was Connelly's debut: It's somewhat wooden and feels slightly clumsy. »He became restless. He looked down into the green glass ashtray and saw that all the butts were unfiltered Camels. Was that Meadow's brand or his killer's? He got up and walked around the room. The faint smell of urine hit him again. He walked back into the bedroom. He opened the drawers of the bureau and stared at their contents once more. Nothing turned in his mind.«After about the first third, though, the writing consistently improves; livelier, more engaging, and more elegant. The pacing was a little slow in the beginning but picked up once Bosch had established rapport with the FBI. The more the story developed, the more fitting and even the pacing felt. From sedate pondering during observations to a wild chase through dark sewage tunnels, overall, Connelly did a great job.“Echo” also seemed a bit dated - when Harry claims dibs on using a typewriter or asks people to look things up for him on the only computer in the department, it is obvious that this novel was first published in 1992. Also, people using public payphones all the time reminded me of those bad old times. I'm glad the TV show pushed things forward in time. I also appreciated the supporting characters: Wish was a highly interesting partner and love interest. Lewis and Clarke, fittingly exploring what Bosch is doing, and trying to find something against him deliver comic relief and, ultimately, get their due... Last and least, Irvin Irving ist an interesting bureaucrat compared to Bosch's relentless pragmatism.The twists during the investigation were quite predictable but that didn't diminish my overall enjoyment of the story. Especially since the excellent ending precisely demonstrated what kind of person Bosch is...Four out of five stars.Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam

Here is my review from my blog; not for promotion, but to inform that this pasted blog is not plagiarized, as Amazon apparently thought one of my pasted reviews was, on their store's site:

This 1992 debut novel of Michael Connelly, and of his classic police detective character, Harry (Hieronymus) Bosch, is nothing short of genius. Harry is a rebel in every way, but his motives are good. We know that the road to hell can be paved with good intentions, and Harry reflects at one point that he thinks his heart is hardened, but his actions are those of a man who has made mistakes, hates falsehood, and takes good turns frequently, no matter the cost to himself.

His partner in “crime”, Eleanor Wish, is somewhat of a kindred spirit, and she works with him from her FBI perch. The crime is a bank caper, but the details are far grittier and complex than the word, “caper” usually evokes in me. Vietnam, street hustlers and tunnel digging figure strongly, and the 508 page paperback edition I read was a slow burn that turned into a page turner halfway through and a raging fire at the end.

Peripheral characters include a pair not unlike Shakespeare's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern if not seemingly anti-semitic, an IAD higher-up who seems like a stooge, and some allied to Bosch, often risking their careers to aid the trusty detective. These characters alternatingly provide dark comic relief, realistic scientific aspects and fraternal help. The supporting cast lend to the plot machinations and contrast that added to my enjoyment.

I was at a family member's home a few years ago and got my pick of several paper shopping bags of books that the person was getting rid of. She said that I could take any and all items wanted, with one stipulation: If I was to dispose of any, I had to sell or donate them; I was not to throw them out. This caveat was not difficult for the son of a book-buyer/librarian, but I am finicky or hesitant, and I only took two volumes of maybe two dozen.

One volume was The Last Mile, by David Baldacci, my Star Wars-like introduction to the great Amos Decker character, the second in the series, thus the Star Wars reference. The other was a book by Michael Connelly about Harry Bosch. I started with the Connelly book, but could not get into it, feeling it was “monochromatic”, with little coloring, no variety.

I then delved into The Last Mile, by Baldacci, and was immediately pleased to identify with the pathos, struggles, successes, and later, even wry humor, of the characters. There was no romance, but there was some chemistry with the primary female character, and the story won for me, hitting on all cylinders.

A couple of years later, my Mom loaned me a book by ‘Connelly, The Black Echo, a paperback from Grand Central, an imprint of Baldacci's firm, Hachette Book Group; a behemoth publisher. She mentioned its story about the detective and his mother, but later I learned she was referencing a different Bosch story.

I kept The Black Echo in the console of my car. Much like my reading glasses, I like to keep accompanying books everywhere I may be: A book in the car, an audiobook in that vehicle's CD player, something on our coffee table, dozens in our office that I like to think of as the library, some on my phone that I'm writing, and more.

When I was parked somewhere waiting, I'd read the book, but only got a little ways in. It seemed like the other ‘Connelly book I'd tried: a little singular in style, no variety. Much later, having exhausted other best reading options and wanting to find something new, I decided to give The Black Echo another try.

This time, I really got into it, and it was highly original and intriguing. There is some lurid content, but I didn't find that the author was tempting me, rather being factual and realistic. There is a lot of bad language, but not to a degree that I felt the writer either wanted to offend or was unable to tell the story without expletives. I had entered a dark tunnel, but while scary and forbidding, I wanted to get to the other side, and see the picture.

My strong feeling is that I was well rewarded. The Bible says that we can't hop the fence into Heaven, but must go through the strait gate and not slip around it. I'm not sure what path the fictional Harry Bosch, with his anger towards evangelists and people in authority is on, but I hope it has a good end. In this book, the character is one I very much admire, plunging into the darkness of humanity, in search of justice for those hurt by the caper.

Executive Summary: A few minor problems, but I ended up enjoying this a lot more than expected.

Audiobook: Dick Hill does an excellent job. He does a few voices that really adds that extra something to make the audio book worth it. I was disappointed he only seems to narrate the first few books of the series then it's all over the place. I was ready to continue on in audio. Now once Dick Hill's run has ended, I'll have to decide what I want to do.

Full Review
This book hadn't been on my radar. I was familiar with the character from the Amazon series but I've never watched it. I used to read a lot more mystery and thriller books when I was a teenager, but in my 20s I mostly switched to fantasy and science fiction.

I've tried to return to mystery genre a few times now, but very little has every really ever grabbed me like it used to. Urban Fantasy loves the detective/cop/mystery framing device, so I guess it was easy enough to get that itch scratched.

I ended up getting this from a buy one get one sale and decided to take a chance. It has a few issues with character development. In particular Special Agent Eleanor Wish initially felt more like male wish fulfillment than an actual character. Harry does come off like a bit of a cliche himself. As the book goes one both develop into something more interesting than they first appeared.

I will say the book did do a good job of keeping me guessing and while I figured out some of the details, others caught me completely off-guard. Most mystery books seem to require a high body count, which never really appears to me. I like heist stories and other crimes far more than another who dunnit. Thankfully that seems to be the case here. There are a few bodies throughout, but while Harry is a homicide detective the case goes much deeper.

We'll see how the next few books hold up. I planned to come back eventually, but that looks to have been moved up a bit with the second book coming up on another buy one get one sale. Hopefully I'll enjoy it as much as this one.

The best word to describe this book is “unpleasant”. Bosch is an unpleasant man. He lies to everyone. He doesn't answer. There's nothing special about him. The other characters are mostly unpleasant people. I don't get the appeal of this series.

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R3RSYLXNWKBVTB?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Harry Bosch #1

I came to this after watching the very excellent “Bosch” on Amazon.

It's interesting to note the differences between the television series and the book. First, the series seems to have run the story-lines of the books through a blender so that bits and pieces of this book's story appear in various episodes; for example, the “Sharkey” element from this story appears in season 4 on Amazon. Second, the series has retconned Bosch's age. On TV, he is a Gulf War vet; in the book, he is twenty years out of service in Vietnam. Third, Titus Welliver is a fantastic Bosch, but the book makes Bosch sound like a description of Tom Selleck.

This book stands alone as a mystery/police procedural. It is roughly 1990. Bosch gets a call about a drug user who has died of a “hot shot” whose body is lying in a drainage pipe. Harry notices details that suggest that the man did not die of an overdose. Harry also knows the man as a former comrade from his days of fighting as a “tunnel rat” in Vietnam. Bosch discovers that his comrade's death involved a theft from a bank, and that brings him to the FBI, and that brings him to a partnership with Eleanor Wish (who is Harry's ex-wife from the series.)

Harry is not a team player. He is at odds with the Internal Affairs department of the Los Angeles Police Department, who have two detectives - Lewis and Clark - watching his moves. He is also at odds with Wish's supervisor, Rourke, who wants to have him kicked from the investigation, but relents when Harry blackmails him into backing off.

The story moves along with plots and counterplots. The ending had me guessing. I thought the writing and plotting were first rate. Bosch is an interesting character, albeit very acerbic. He comes across, at lest in this novel, as a kind of Sam Spade character. The ending reminded me of the ending of The Maltese Falcon - romance be damned, someone's got to answer.

One final aspect of the story that amused me was its late '80s setting, i.e., the world before cell phones. The characters are constantly having to find a pay phone to make their reports. Obviously, these reports are essential for moving the plot along, so that we readers are kept abreast of developments. One thing the advent of cell phones did was eliminate the need of mystery writers to find a way to neatly get their characters to a cell phone without unduly stopping the action.

PSB

Black Echo is a rock solid crime mystery by Michael Connelly. Main character Harry Bosch is somewhat of a renegade detective who seldom does things by the book. Of course this lands him in trouble with his superiors, partners, etc. more often than not contributing to his reputation as a loner; and not a “team” player. But regardless of his unorthodox and undisciplined approach to crime solving, Bosch is a first rate detective with great intuition who always gets his man to see that justice is served. Similarly, Connelly is a first rate author and story teller, who always grabs his readers early on and sees that they are entertained to the end.

The crime mystery in Black Echo is gradually unfolded in bits and pieces and generally keeps the reader guessing with several twists and new revelations throughout the book. The story is further enhanced by Detective Bosch's own Viet Nam experiences including a knowledge of, and personal war relationship with the book's first homicide victim. I rate this book at 3.8 stars and will definitely read more books in the Harry Bosch series. Fans of crime mysteries will not be disappointed by Michael Connelly's Black Echo.

I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It was just okay. I think maybe because the book is so old it was too dated for me and there were so many characters I did not like! I wasn't surprised by the ending at all and with about 40-50 pages left I couldn't understand why he was dragging out the ending so terribly. I'm not going to scrap the series entirely. Since I bought this as a set I figure I'll give it a couple more books before I give up.

Picked up towards the end with some great twists. This increased its rating for me as I finished the novel.

This was a great mystery that led you right to the bad guys, then distracted you away, so when you finally discovered “who done it” you were shocked & had them as a suspect. I also really liked that Bosch was somehow both really vulnerable and a complete asshole. (Side Note: It seems like everyone was a jerk by today's standards, just looking at the smoking and littering!) Enjoyed it and just bought the 2nd in the series.

BLUF: Stereotypical detective story.

In hindsight...

I'm not sure if it's funny, or sad, but little more than a month later, I am having problems remembering what I enjoyed about this book.

The Black Echo follows detective Harry Bosch, a former tunnel rat, whose partner is more interested in selling real estate than solving crimes. This doesn't bother Bosch, who is your stereotypical lone cop that doesn't play well with others or follow the rules. Bosch takes a cut and dry overdose and delves into the possibility of murder. For me, it was too far fetched that this detective would have pushed to research a death that was seemingly straightforward, but it plays into his stubborn nature and, as it turns out, the death was not as obvious as it seemed. To make it more interesting, his department has surveillance on him due to his questionable methods and, of course, his blatant disregard for authority.

I have this bad habit of researching a character that I cannot place and turning to Wikipedia or an online blog in order to figure out their role. Well, Wikipedia gave away the ending for me, which greatly took away from the story. Because of this, it was difficult for me to take the relationships as the author intended.

That said, I found this novel intriguing and easy to follow. Bosch is your typical, arrogant detective who is better than everybody else and a hell of a lot smarter. He works through the case, opening more doors than he closes, and ends up discovering the truth, even though it is a surprise to the readers.

While I wouldn't call this novel suspenseful, I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns of the story and enjoyed this novel very much. It's the classic detective novel I was looking for and I couldn't put the novel down until I finished it.

This was a pretty decent mystery novel. My mom reads a lot by this guy so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

This novel goes back and forth with its pacing. Sometimes, it's a page-turner, and sometimes it's a thought-provoker, and frankly sometimes, it's dull.I don't care much for Harry Bosch. I don't really know why. Well, he's gruff, he doesn't follow the rules, he's got a violent history. But that explains a lot of investigators in books that I do like, so I'm not really sure why I don't like him.I would say I enjoy cozy mysteries and this one is too violent. But I like [a:Elizabeth George 1402383 Elizabeth George http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235518043p2/1402383.jpg], and her books can be violent. I may pick up another in the series. I may read some of the author's other series. Just not anytime soon.

Enjoyed the book for the most part, but it was easy to tell that this was Connelly's first book. The writing seemed rather heavy at times and even a bit formulaic. Loner cop who's better than good at his job but has issues in his past. Good guys who turnout to be bad guys. Slightly more defined than cardboard female character (at least until the last 30 pages or so). I spent a good part of the book wanting to know more about the case that laned Bosch in so much trouble than caring about tunnels and bank heists. I did like Bosch and am curious now to see where the author takes the character.

While the story felt a bit dated - written almost 20 years ago - it was fun to be a bit nostalgic about a time before we were all attached to our cell phones and other smart devices and actually had to make the effort to talk to people.