The Black Echo

My mother was a very troubled young woman. The age difference between us was only 17 years, which meant that by the time I was a teenager, she was still young. Her alcoholism, broken marriages, and difficult relationships with her own family, including my Irish grandmother who effectively raised me and her two husbands, first my biological father and then my step-father, all made for a very challenging emotional landscape for a sensitive only child.

This seminal debut novel in what is now considered one of the finest crime series of all time. It features the series detective Harry Bosch… show more.

Hollywood is a fascinating, exciting place in many people’s imaginations, and I was immediately pulled in by following along with Detective Bosch in the neighborhood’s Homicide division, seeing the crime under the veneer of glamour. This book has a lot of ties back to Bosch’s past (and demons) from his time in the military, and I enjoyed watching him work on a murder investigation. Observing a sharp mind at work is one of the joys of this novel style, and Connelly does a great job crafting that here.

Amazon Prime viewers will also recognize the story as having been adapted… show more.

When I read that homicide detective, Harry Bosch’s motto, “Everyone counts or no one counts,” I was hooked on the character, the book, the entire series.

What I love about Bosch is that physically he is not imposing, his strength emanating from his powerfully focused mind and his mongoose dedication to any case he inherits.

I love his quiet rectitude as he tries to render the permanently wronged justice. In its pursuit, he will unflinchingly bring any means necessary to the job, even at the risk of his life.

I love the idea of Bosch as much as I like… show more.

As someone who does a lot of research about survival situations, I love a good heist book, and this is one of the best I’ve come across recently.

I’d of course read many of Connelly’s other books, but this is his first and, in my opinion, one of the best.

Starting with the discovery of a body, stuffed in a drainpipe, in a remote corner of Los Angeles, what appears to be a standard whodunit turns into a complexly plotted mystery that connects Vietnam vets, drugs, a gang of professional thieves and, yes, a bank job.

This is the first… show more.

In The Black Echo, the first book in his Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch series, Connelly introduces his epic detective. Bosch is a Vietnam vet who served as a tunnel rat, crawling through a massive series of tunnels to ferret out and kill Vietnamese soldiers. His traumatic war experience proves useful as he investigates a dead body found in a drainpipe. The case leads to the water conduits underneath LA, the body of fellow tunnel rat, and ultimately an unsolved bank robbery. He battles the FBI, constant trouble with Internal Affairs, and he must overcome Vietnamese gangsters and his war trauma… show more.

This is the first of more than twenty-five novels featuring Harry Bosch, a Vietnam War vet who is now a homicide detective on the L.A.P.D. Here Bosch investigates the murder of a man found stuffed into a culvert and the case quickly becomes very personal for Bosch himself. Like the detectives above, Bosch is a brilliantly imagined character, and with this series Connelly has established himself as the king of police procedurals.

I love reading murder mysteries; Harry Bosch is the quintessential homicide detective, and Michael Connelly has masterfully created his LAPD detective to anchor this mystery series. In addition, Connelly is a great storyteller. The Black Echo paints a realistic picture of the sordid underbelly of Los Angeles that few see, but one that Harry encounters daily. The detective investigates a friend's murder, and he has to relive their time together in Viet Nam while facing resistance from those in his department. I highly recommend this first book in the Harry Bosch series, which will start you on an exciting journey… show more.

Harry Bosch is the epitome of the hard-boiled LAPD homicide detective. Things get personal when the body of a friend, a man who had fought side-by-side with him in Vietnam, is found in a drainpipe at the Mulholland Dam. Driven by his friendship, Bosch pulls out all the stops to find the killer. But there are enemies inside his own department and rules he must break. I enjoyed his honesty and commitment to truth. The finale ends with a well-planned and daring underground criminal heist during which Bosch learns the surprising true identity of the killer. The Black Echo is… show more.

This book turned me into a fan of gritty crime novels. This was the first one that, to me, made the environment seem real. There have been hundreds of detectives portrayed as broken or near to it, but Harry Bosch is the first one I could identify with. I have since read every one and can’t wait for the next release.