Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312950484
ISBN: 0312950489
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 418
Publication Date: 1993-07-15
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Joined with a seductive FBI agent and pitted against enemies in his own department, Detective Harry Bosch must choose between justice and vengeance, as he tracks a killer whose true face will shock him. Reissue.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The start of the series
Comment: This is the first novel in the Harry Bosch series. While the novels could be read out of order, I would recommend starting with this one because if establishes the background of the main character. The title comes from Harry's experience as a tunnel rat when he served with the US Army in Vietnam. The case involves the death of someone who had been in his unit in Vietnam 20 years earlier. Harry ends up with the case, and there is more to it than meets the eye.

It is a well developed plot and a well developed character. Make my day. He had been disciplined for shooting an unarmed suspect in a previous case (the man was an evil serial killer, and Harry saved the state the cost of a trial). He tends to be a bit of a loose cannon, but he gets the job done.

There are a few surprises in the case. Some reviewers thought that the ending was a bit contrived, but it is an interesting plot that is well written. It won the Edgar Award for best first novel.

The novel is also part of an omnibus collection, "The Harry Bosch novels," along with the second and third novels in the series, "The Black Ice" and "The Concrete Blond."

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Comment: If you're a fan of "hardboiled" or "noir fiction" or whatever they are calling this genre these days, you will enjoy The Black Echo. In Michael Connelly's first novel, detective Harry Bosch is introduced. One of Bosch's tunnel rat buddies from Vietnam is found dead and it is discovered that he may have something to do with an elaborate bank heist where the burglars tunneled into the vault. This is the third book by Connelly that I have read, and I'm finding that his books are consistently good. The Black Echo is a bit formulaic, but it's a winning formula, and like comfort food, I like to come back to a book like this when I need something familiar. With good characters, and a cool story, it's hard to go wrong with this one.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A bit slow & so-so
Comment: Amazon & previous reviewers have done a good enough job of synopsizing the book's setup that I'll just give you my verdict on the book.

This was a decent but rather humdrum police procedural. My biggest complaint was just that the book was much too slow -- very little that was exciting happened in its first two-thirds. The story could've been told more economically in about 300 pages, rather than the 480 that the book comprises. It took me much longer to finish this book than it usually does with others of similar length.

Some other criticisms: While a few noir elements were thrown in, this book wasn't nearly dark and/or violent enough to qualify as either "noir" or "hardboiled." To me it was just a run-of-the-mill procedural with a few noir elements grafted on. Harry Bosch is a bit of a stereotype -- troubled Vietnam vet & loner cop who drinks and smokes a lot, plays by his own rules, and doesn't "get along" or play politics within his department. (Oh, and did I mention he likes jazz?)

As far as the cleverness of the mystery itself goes, it was OK: I figured out the "who" of the crime very quickly, though I didn't decipher the "why" until Connelly revealed it at the end.

Connelly's writing in this book was competent but not outstanding. I might sample a book or two later in the series to see if he gets better as he gets more into Bosch & his world, since it's common for authors' first novels dealing with a recurring hero to not be as good as later ones. (James Lee Burke & Randy Wayne White come to mind in this regard -- both started off good but got progressively better as they wrote subsequent novels starring their recurring heroes Dave Robicheaux and Doc Ford, respectively.)

In sum, THE BLACK ECHO is OK, but far from superlative.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Triple Noir Introduction to a Great Detective Series
Comment: How dark can you make a police procedural? Michael Connelly pushes the familiar noir envelope into new dimensions in this dark-as-night-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea story. I call it a triple noir mystery because detective Hieronymus (rhymes with anonymous) Bosch

1. comes from a horrible family background (his mother was a woman who rented by the hour and was murdered, leaving Harry to the foster care system),

2. lived a nightmare as a tunnel-rat fighter in the Vietnamese War, and

3. this investigation has enough darkness in it to put out a search light.

The book's title is a reference back to tunnel fighting.

Most new detective series begin with a character who is breaking in. During the subsequent books, the detective gradually develops skill and a career.

Connelly does something different: Bosch is a virtually burned-out case who lives only to bring down the bad guys (be they in LAPD or outside). He's beyond the classic rebel without a cause (James Dean would have been frightened of our Harry). This story picks up on Harry after he's well along on a slide in losing control over his anger.

It's the weekend and Harry's partner is out selling real estate. Harry covers what appears to be an OD by an addict until things don't add up. Pushing forward, Harry convinces himself it's a murder. No one is happy about it. But life is proceeding until Harry checks in with the FBI to find out about a bank robbery that seems connected. Harry feels like he's stepped into something he shouldn't, but the icy FBI agent, Eleanor Wish, attracts his interest anyway. Soon, the LAPD Internal Affairs team is after Harry. Can he brazen it out and keep his investigation?

This story has more surprises in it than you would expect. Harry also goes off like a Roman candle at the slightest provocation. His "payback" often reminds me of "Dirty Harry." Some of them are pretty funny, but all are powerful. You'll be cheering.

You'll know something funny is going on in the investigation, but you won't be ahead of Harry in figuring it out. Black Echo makes for a more interesting, adventure-laden story that way.

Very nice!

Start here and work through the novels in the order they were written. You have some amazing treats ahead of you.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The first Bosch novel. A great book and a must read for series fans
Comment: The Black Echo is the book that started it all, the book that began Michael Connelly's career as one of the best police procedural/detective thriller authors in the market today. I've read around half of Connelly's novels, so I know all about Harry Bosch and I know what to expect when I read a Connelly novel. Even though this is the first one in the series, and you could reasonably expect a little less quality, you'll get none of that here. The Black Echo is a great novel and a great introduction into the life of Det. Harry Bosch. On the downside, the novel is incredibly long, perhaps too long. But, overall, it is a great introduction to the series.

The plot begins simply enough when Bosch is called to investigate the death of a drug addict found in a large sewage pipe by a dam. Turns out Bosch recoginizes the guy as Meadows, a former tunnel rat in Viet Nam. The medical examiner first believes the guy OD'd on drugs, but Bosch finds evidence that points to murder. While Bosch investigates Meadows, Bosch finds evidence that indicates Meadows may have been involved in a larger crime. This leads Bosch to begin working with the FBI and agent Eleanor Wish.

Bosch and Wish together investigate Meadows and there are all the twists and turns that Connelly is famous for. Jerry Edgar, his partner is present, as is Irvin Irving, the IAD cop who doesn't like Bosch. The strength of the novel however, is the details of the beginning of Bosch's relationship with Wish. I've read several Bosch novels, but not the ones where Bosch and Wish develop more of their relationship. The turn their relationship takes in this book is really good and surprising and worth reading because of it.

If you're fans of Bosch, read this book. This is one series where the characters really grow on you and Connelly has the talent of creating characters who grow stronger from book to book. You won't want to miss the exceptional beginning to this great series.

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