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Summary: Harry Bosch investigates cop killers and Mexican drug cartel
Review: This second in the Harry Bosch police procedural series features Bosch at work in the Hollywood divison after having been reassigned from the prestigious LAPD robbery homocide division. On call over Christmas, he hears about a murder on the police scanner in his jurisdiction and wonders why he is not called. The call involves the apparent suicide of a cop on the narcotics squad. Bosch is suspicious that all is not what it seems and when a folder from the dead cop with a note to Harry turns up, Harry takes up the quest in earnest.We learn about black ice (cocaine, heroine and PCP) a designer drug originally from Hawaii but now made in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S. The intrigue involves rival drug smugglers, a mexican drug cartel made up of men who grew up in barrios (Mexican slums) and crooked cops in the U.S. and Mexico. The ending is a surprise but cleverly set up so you figure it out exactly when Harry does. The fans of Harry Bosch, the loner, anti-establishment cop will enjoy this episode as will those new to the Harry Bosch series.
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Summary: My favorite Connelly so far.
Review: This is the third Connelly that I've read, and the first featuring Harry Bosch. I was really impressed, and this makes me want to pick up all the Bosch novels. In this story about drugs and corruption between Mexico and the LAPD, Connelly creates a character who is a maverick in a believable kind of way. He's hard-boiled but still has some soft points-- also a requirement for the classic mystery detective. I don't think it's going to take me long to work through the Connelly collection.
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Summary: Don't Avoid the Black Ice
Review: The Black Ice, Michael Connelly's second crime novel in the Harry Bosch series is great. Engrossing and well-plotted, the novel concerns the apparent suicide of one of Bosch's fellow LA police officers. Bosch is drawn into the tangled web of the officer's life which brings him to Mexico and deep into the heart of black ice--a potent drug invading LA's streets. The conclusion is surprising, yet still believable. This is an excellent crime novel, very enjoyable.
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Summary: Another Enjoyable Bosch Book
Review: I read this for summer holiday reading, having devoured The Black Echo a year or so ago. I found The Black Ice to be slightly more predictable than Black Echo, but nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed it. I am not a huge fan of crime fiction, but I do love the Bosch novels. There is just something about the hard-bitten maverick cop scenario that appeals to me, as does the seedy portrayal of modern Los Angeles. While not a classic, this is a great crime thriller that satisfies.
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Summary: Warning on Audiobook edition
Review: This is a good book, but for those of you who will be listening to the Audiobook edition, beware. The reading is recorded using the left track and right track independently. You will need to set the balance control first to full left then full right. In some cars this becomes very hard to hear since it is using half the normal amount of amplification. This saves money for the publisher, but is not the most pleasant to use.
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Summary: CHILLING ICE
Review: The second in the Bosch series is not one of my favorites by Mr. Connelly, and I think it's because, to me, it's too easily figured out, so the element of surprise is not present. I also found some of the dialogue a little more wooden than usual, and once again, Harry falls in love at first sight.
However, those things aside, Connelly thrusts Harry into a labyrinth of deception, greed, murder, leading him across the border to Mexico.
Bosch is certainly to be admired in his pursuit of justice at the risk of his own job. Sometimes, it's frustrating for me that Harry seems to focus on nothing but his desires and his wishes. He doesn't seem happy with his job, so why does he stay in it? Wouldn't he be better off as a private investigator. He has no friends, and it's because he's such a lone wolf.
Now that I've sounded off about that, I will continue to finish the Bosch series, as Connelly is a skillful writer. This just isn't one of my favorites.
RECOMMENDED, THOUGH.
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Summary: Murder and mystery cross the border in this "Bosch" thriller
Review: Christmas in California and detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is on call. So begins another fast paced, action packed, mystery thriller by Michael Connolly. Listening to the LAPD scanner, Bosch sits at home alone "enjoying" a roasted breast of turkey and a glass of red wine while he savours the ceremonial opening of his three Christmas cards. A cryptic message in cop-speak from the scanner brings Bosch back to reality and, abandoning his Christmas dinner, he heads off to a dingy motel room and a corpse. Initially it looks like a suicide but certain aspects of the case worry Bosch who is certain it is a homicide. The victim is a police colleague and all the circumstances of his death and the events leading up to it provide a deeply tangled mystery. Is there any link with another homicide in town which the dead cop had been investigating? Is there a link with the new "Black Ice" designer drug being distributed around town and in particular with its source over the border in Mexico? The excitement of the novel builds as Bosch gradually strips away the shrouds of mystery like layers of an onion, but still seemingly getting nowhere. Romantic interludes with the late cop's widow and the thrill of his undercover, even illegal, investigations in Mexico bring the drama to a climax. The reader has to give his/her imagination free rein remembering that this is a work of fiction and that anything goes. Our hero really is a hero and good must surely triumph over evil. Relax and enjoy the ride. This is not Michael Connelly's best novel but it is far from his worst. It sits comfortably in the middle of the pack and most regular Connelly readers will find it an enjoyable and escapist adventure story.
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Summary: bosch getting more interesting
Review: I liked this book more than the black echo(1st in the series). Maybe because i like bosch as a character and connely didn't have to go into detail explaining him as in the previous book.
Black ice again has twists that seem to not be able to link together, but eventually do. It starts a little slower and some of the reasoning is hard to follow, but it all works out in the end. Connely seems to enjoy adding many different twists and subplots to make a point.
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Summary: A dark world
Review: In the second novel of the series, Bosch runs into Black Ice, a new drug on the street, that leads to shady cops, double crosses, a trip to Mexico and a rather predictable ending. I like the character that Connelly has created and that's why I keep coming back, but the plots are filled with way out ideas that don't seem to fit the down to earth Bosch. I find Bosch such an interesting character I keep reading these mysteries in the hopes that the mystery will fit the quality of the hero.
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Summary: well-oil, ten-gear narrative
Review: Hieronymous Bosch, exiled to Hollywood Division for giving a superior a well-deserved smack in the nose, is on the trail of a new designer drug ``black ice.'' He's certain that it's a key to a suicide (NOT! in Bosch's opinion) of a Narc. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Harry's pencil-pushing no-neck boss assigns Harry a bunch of open cases worked by a dipsomaniac detective named Lou Porter who could not detect his way out of a laundry chute. Harry is supposed to solve them all in the next week, cleaning up the murder file to neat and tidy proportions by New YEars. Improbably, one of the Porter cases ties into the Narc suicide. This suspicion is confirmed by the murder of Lou Porter, the dipsomaniac. So Harry heads off to Mexico where all the clues are pointing. There things really become improbable (if they weren't alreaday), but Connelly makes it easy to suspend disbelief. There are also sorts of goings-on and derring-do including an eyebrow raising scene with el Gran Torero, Harry Bosch. If you are still taking this story seriously by now, you clearly need a humor infusion. Unfortunately, despite it's inventive prankery, the story ends with a thud -- as a wholly predictable "surprise" ending plays out. Folks who are surprised haven't been paying attention. Still, I loved this book, but only by looking at it as a great piece of humor.
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