No way around this, the narrator is bland, disinterested in the story and almost robotic. Never will order a preorder again without knowledge of the narrator. It's a prime example of how important the narrator is for an audio book to succeed. And how a bad narrator can destroy an excellent book. This one I'm going have to get the book.

How can this happen with an exceedingly popular and great writer, a cash cow from audible's biz perspective?

First time readers to this series, skip this audio version, find the book in a library or buy it. Listen to any of the other books in this series narrated by Len Cariou or Dick Hill. Frankly, the new preorder system is helpful with knowing about upcoming books, but audible selling preorders in to March 2013 is too far in the future for me and without stated narrators is not working for me, and I wish it was a separate sort function. In the meantime, I'll be skipping over them to actual books released. I can't even rate this Connelly book a 5 star for the story which it may very well deserve, as the story became flat and I couldn't get engaged in this listen.

Not unlike listening to Scott Brick who was once a great narrator but now over-emotes and is impossible for me to listen to any more. Skip those. Audible you are losing biz.

Was it the narrator, maybe. Was it the writer, maybe. Can't put my finger on it but Harry just wasn't the same.

I am actually writing my first negative review after being an audible member for 4 years. Audible shouldn't have even put this book up, until they had a decent narrator. If I was Michael Connelly, I would be irate. He ruined the book. If I could return it, I would.

I have listened to all the Harry Bosch books and will probably listen to the next one. However, the only thing that would have redeemed this installment would have been if Harry realized that he was really loosing it and retired at the end. First of all, everything the reader needs to know to solve the crime is revealed by the end of the first chapter. Unfortunately it is also revealed to Harry who takes until Book Two to put it all together.In addition, despite constantly feeling guilty about neglecting his daughter, Harry needlessly puts himself in a position to make her an orphan.Finally, as others have said the narrator was sub par. He read, rather than performed the book. In addition despite the book being written by a Californian and taking place in California the narrator consistently mispronounced Manteca, calling it Man Tek A, rather than Man Teek A. Annoying!

No, don't like new reader.

Discovering Len Cariou was not reading.

Bring back Len Cariou

NA

Only about 1/3 throught the book, thought i would warn Bosch fans about the reader change. I pre-ordered the book and didn't notice the new reader. Wonder what happened to Len?

Love Connelly, have listened to every one of his books. Thought Len Cariou was the best Bosch narrator, although there have been many good ones. Unfortunately Michael McConnohie has ruined this latest of the series with his announcer-type of narration. Jeez, it's not a commercial on the radio, it's a mystery! Couldn't they get a good actor or narrator for this very successful and excellent writer?

Harry Bosch with Len Cariou narrating is probably my favorite series of audio books. Alarm bells started going off when I noticed that there was a new narrator for Black Box – but I began to listen with an open mind. One thing I liked about the Cariou reads was that Cariou seemed to be aging with the Bosch character in his reads. I am sure the narrator, Michael McConnohie, in other audio book genres would be OK but it simply did not work for this. Sadly, the Bosch image I kept conjuring up in this book was more like Barnaby Jones – a far cry from the Harry Bosch of the past. None of the funny situations worked in this book – it was like someone with no talent for telling jokes simply restating a joke in a monotone fashion. The actual story was decent, it was simply too difficult to get past the lame narration. I wondered why they made the change and did a search on Amazon and found that Cariou actually is the narrator for this book but only on a pre-loaded digital audio player – shame on Connelly for leaving his audience in a lurch and putting out an inferior product. I think that is a cop out. Audible – please work to have the Cariou rendition made available to all of the loyal listeners.

I wish Mr. Connelly would insist that the narrators of his works listen to the previous narrators reads before they find their voice. For example, they would then know that J Edger had a great voice that sounds like Barry White.

Mr. McConnohie does an 'okay' job, but needs to put a little more spark in the presentation. It was like listening to Joe Buck doing color commentary for the World Series - yawn.

Absolutely

Len Cariou 1st choice
Dick Hill 2nd choice.
Dick HIll is a little better, but when I hear him now, I can't help but think of Jack Reacher

Can't wait for Harry's next case

A lot is missing from this book by Michael Connelly, including a competent editor and apparently enough time for Connelly to write a story with actual plot twists and turns. Add to that a narrator who put no heart into the story, as if he was reading an obituary to an empty room; the insipid Mendenhall character who seems to have had no purpose other than to irritate readers over her total lack of sense (e.g., she doesn't know a bullet from a stray piece of wood); and a lot of disconnect, such as the haphazard throwing in of Bosch's teenage daughter, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's son in prison, names of obscure jazz players, the 1992 LA riots, a viscious dog that isn't viscious, a military helicopter pilot who, for no reason given, flies into a house -- all of which (and more) seem to have been added for word count rather than actual mystery content.

Perhaps it's time for Michael Connelly to take a vacation from writing to recover that wonderful passion he once had for Harry Bosch -- and to find a decent editor for his novels.

I love Michael Connelly but this was ruined by Michael McConnohie

No, this was the first Michael Connelly that was too slow.

absolutely

yes, watch out for any books narrated by Michael McConnohie