Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable, if overlong, debut that won the Edgar.
Review: Michael Connelly's debut, which won the Edgar Award for Best 1st Novel, is an engrossing mystery in the tradition of updated L.A. noir. It begins when near-burnout detective
Harry Bosch is called on to investigate the death of a smackhead found in a drainage pipe. Turns out the dead junkie is an old war buddy of Harry's. Other facts about the apparent O.D. begin to bother the lone-wolf detective, and what begins as a routine inquiry turns into a convoluted mystery involving the FBI, the Internal Affairs Division of the LAPD, and old secrets from 'Nam.
Connelly uses a wealth of authentic detail and an intricate-but-never-incomprehensible plot to great effect,
but the book is hampered by hackneyed characterizations and verbosity. In fact, Connelly's over-writing telegraphs many of the surprises of the story, especially when he tries to portray Bosch's thought-processes on the verge of discovery. Bosch's mullings circle important clues again and again, in Connelly's attempt at a kind of angst, until the reader wants to reach into the book and scream the all-too-obvious conclusions at the detective. The book could have been cut by a fourth without losing anything, and the cuts would have strengthened the tautness the mystery's spine.
The character of Bosch himself is not particularly vibrant or inventive, conforming to all the cliches of the genre of wounded, lone-wolf detectives whose only saving graces consist of a plodding perseverance and a kind of reckless courage, although there is an interesting attempt to elevate Bosch's woundedness to a kind of metaphor involving a Hopper painting and the artist who is Bosch's namesake. The other characters are, for the most part, even flatter.
Given that this is 1st novel, however, it is a promising one, especially in its detailed authenticity, and I would recommend it as a starting place for anyone interested in contemporary LA police procedurals.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Debut for a Great Character
Review: Michael Connelly won the "Edgar Award" for Best First Novel with "The Black Echo", which introduces us to LAPD Detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch. Bosch had formerly been a member of the LAPD's elite RHD (Robbery Homicide Division), but roughly a year before this book begins he killed a suspect in the 'Dollmaker Case'. As a result, Bosch was investigated by IAD (the Internal Affairs Department), suspended for a month and demoted to robbery-homicide team of the Hollywood Division. As it happens, IAD weren't entirely happy with this outcome, and are waiting for their chance to get Bosch out of the police force altogether. Malicious ? They make the 'real' villains look good. Bosch proves to be an interesting character. With a reputation as being something of a loner, he's a jazz fan with a taste for coffee, beer and cigarettes. He served in Vietnam as a Tunnel Rat, before returning home and joining the Police Force. It's Harry's time as a Tunnel Rat that comes back to haunt him in The Black Echo. The book begins with Harry being called out to Mulholland Dam, where a body's been found in drainage pipe. Dismissed by other officers at the scene as simply another drug user who'd accidentally overdosed - and therefore, not needing any further investigation - Bosch isn't quite so and decides to run with it. Things take a more personal twist when he recognises the corpse as a fellow Tunnel Rat, Billy Meadows. Things start looking more and more like Meadows was murdered - an autopsy seems to indicate he'd been tortured before he died, while a pawn ticket found in Meadows' apartment links him to a major bank heist carried out the previous year. This bank job is officially being investigated by the FBI and, as Bosch believes the men behind the bank job are also behind Meadows' death, he arranges a meeting with Special Agent Eleanor Wish. Harry's intention was to request a sharing of information but he doesn't exactly get what he wants out of the meeting - and things haven't finished going downhill for him. Connolly's style of writing is excellent - a former Crime Reporter with the LA Times, I would assume there is a great deal of accuracy in his portrayal of a homicide investigation. He has created a very likeable character in Harry Bosch, while his descriptions of the city have left me feeling like I know LA. Definitely worth reading !
Rating:
Summary: Hard To Put It Down Once You Start Reading
Review: This was my first Michael Connelly book, and after breezing thru this I know it won't be my last. The action gets started right away & never lets up. Det. Harry Bosch is a former Vietnam War vet, a tunnel rat who saw plenty of action during his tour there. It turns out the case he's called in to work on involves the body of an old war buddy named Bill Meadows. Harry has to find out who killed him and why. His maverick ways of doing his job have gotten him in trouble in the past, transferring him to Hollywood Homicide where he is under surveillance by 2 IAD detectives named(I kid you not)Lewis & Clarke! I won't divulge any further info but must tell you if you like great mysteries with likeable detectives then get started with this book & look for further books with Harry Bosch as the main character. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Enter Harry Bosch
Review: An absolutely terrific first novel in the superb Hironymous Bosch series, introduces us to Michael Connelly's enigmatic and troubled LA detective. Harry Bosch lives for his job, and the cost to his personal life and relationships is troubling. When we meet Harry, he has already been, in essence, demoted by being kicked off of the elite Robbery/Homicide squad and stuck in Homicide in the Hollywood division. But Harry is a pure detective, and will work every case with the same single-minded tenacity that gets results while alienating him from his fellows and irritating his bosses. A throw-away death of a junkie found in a drainage pipe would have gone unnoticed if anyone but Harry Bosch had caught the call. But Bosch, while having a lousy personal life IS a superb detective, and he sees what many would miss. Not only that, but the victim is someone from Harry's past which further prompts him to look deeper. Harry's investigation causes him to cross paths with the FBI and his conflicts become even more personal when he becomes romantically involved with a female FBI agent. The story unfolds with many surprises and the meticulous detail that we will come to expect from Connelly in the series. First rate all the way. A great beginning.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it
Review: I ordered several Edgar winners from a mystery bookstore a long time ago and this was one of them. It was amazing. I then read The Black Ice. It was also excellent. You should read this if you like this kind of stuff. Connelly is a strong writer. Knows what he's talking about and puts it down like it should be. The Black Echo is a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: mired in a bog of cliches
Review: The main story thread was good, but the book was too long, the story was overshadowed by clichés, had many inconsistencies and a sappy ending.
Harry the maverick cop (how many times have we read about these guys) carrying an SW 9mm? Never, it's too light weight, try an HK 357 or a Para 40. Then at the end of the story we find it is a revolver (SW makes no 9mm revolvers, does anybody???)
Harry the maverick beer guzzling smoker is paired with the fastidious water drinking, anti smoking by the book FBI agent Wish (of course she is beautiful). Then we are supposed to believe that she is ready to share her bed after three days (Harry should be getting suspicious).
Harry is trailed by a pair of dumb IAD cops. Why, in these types of stories, is every cop, but the hero (and his female counter part) stupid, or corrupt?
The ending is sappy. Harry loves to bust bad cops and expose corruption in the force so why would he let Wish of easy?
We know Harry is a hero; he has been built up to be this bigger than life character so, for my ending, try a twist. Let Wish blow away the last bad guy, but then let Harry find out that she is no angel as she pushes him over into the sewer water to drown. No one can trace her to the robberies and murders so, let Wish carry the series.
With some good editing (chop the book down by 40%) to tighten up the story and remove the clichés, Black Echo would be memorable and worthy of an award.
Rating:
Summary: THE ADVENT OF HARRY BOSCH
Review: Once upon a time I had a teacher named Mrs. Milstein. She had a principle. Boiled down to its most simple phrasing, Milstein's Principle states: "if you've heard of a thing once, you will hear of it again."
I have yet to find anything that can stand against this principle.
A case in point: Hieronymous Bosch. At least, I thought, I will never hear of this guy outside of an art-world setting. Once more, I bow to the principle.
Michael Connelly is, as the saying goes--one helluva writer. He and his Bosch books stand at the pinnacle of the loosely grouped writers & fiction known as the "New Noir." I am not a huge fan of genre fiction (especially mystery) but Harry Bosch has made a fan of me.
This first book of the series, The Black Echo, introduces us to a very grim (he gets more humanized in later books) Detective Bosch. He's just been demoted, he's got a painfully bureaucratic new boss, and an old platoon-mate from Vietnam has just turned up dead.
From here things only get more murky and dangerous.
The Black Echo is not the strongest of the Bosch series (which really starts hitting its stride in book three). It is a good introduction to a lot of the characters you will get to know better throughout the series.
Connelly's style is very cinematic. Having honed his skills as a journalist, the author is the master of taking snapshot after successive snapshot and then building these pictures into a compelling story.
As a stand-alone work, the Black Echo is a B+ at best, but I cannot give any higher recommendation to a series of books than I can for those of the Harry Bosch series.
Get a copy of The Black Echo today and dive in.
Rating:
Summary: excellent story, had a problem with tape 5, bookcassette
Review: I am writing this review again, as I tried to send the first one, actually, preview it, and had trouble. This is the first in the series featuring Harry Bosch, LA police detective. Gritty story, good characters. I bought the Brilliance Audio edition but had a problem with tape 5, which they're correcting. It features the investigation of a murdered man, who was a fellow Vietnam Veteran; who was dubbed a "tunnel rat", like Bosch. He has an interesting relationship with his female partner and except for the problem at the end was a great story; well read by Dick Hill. [My apologies to readers of this review, as it wasn't as good as the first one I had written, but an error screwed it up, and I'm going to contact Amazon if it keeps happening].
Rating:
Summary: Connelly is brillant...
Review: I've read almost all of Connelly's stand alone novels (excepting Blood Work, but something tells me I will read that one day too)...Chasing the Dime, Void Moon, The Poet, and the Narrows. It wasn't until the Narrows that I met Harry Bosch. I tend to avoid getting into series if I can help it--unless I start at the beginning with a character (for example, I adore Victor Carl in the William Lashner series). It is mostly because I don't the attention span to go back and read all the novels in a series...who has time to read 8 or 10 or 12 novels when there is so much out there to be read? Well, the Narrows convinced me that Bosch was a worthy exception to my very odd rule. This novel is one of the finest dectective novels I have read. I'm stunned that it was a first novel. It is not very dated--except the complete lack of cell phones and computers--and holds up beautifully. THe characters are complex and the story easy to follow but filled with wonderful details that hold upon further review. What's next? Black Ice of course...
Rating:
Summary: not a masterpiece, but a good fun introduction to Bosch
Review: This is the first and one of the best of a fine series of books written by Connelly. Bosch, a detective on the outs with his LA police department, stumbles into a mystery surrounding the death of an old Vietnam mate. This story unfolds many layers of complex plotting that does not feel contrived or pander to the sensational Hollywood over the top sensationalism... well not too much anyways. Instead, Connelly weaves a tale that harks back to the sensibilities of Hammett and places this into a mid 80's mindset that works pretty well.
I would like to have had this story delve into the character of Bosch a little more, either through conversation or thought. It was a little on the cardboard side of character development. Instead, Connelly holds the reader with his nifty plot. That is why I am marking this book down a bit as far as my review goes. If you read the entire series, Bosch starts to develop, and as a reader you will enjoy the plots that blossom in one novel and take fruition in another. This series is definitely worth reading if you are looking for one, and I would give it five stars as a whole. It might be that only Hillerman and Block (Scudder) have better serials that this.
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