Harry Bosch Box Set

'The Narrows', 'Echo Park', and 'The Overlook'

By: Michael Connelly

Narrated by: Len Cariou

Length: 27 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

This audiobook includes the following award-winning Harry Bosch thrillers, all voiced by standout Broadway veteran Len Cariou:

The Narrows (AudioFile magazine Earphones Award Winner): FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes - and apparently he has not forgotten her. Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too - from the widow of an old friend. Her husband's death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI...and squarely in the path of the Poet.

Echo Park (2007 Audie Award Winner for Mystery): In 1995, Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket in Hollywood. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn't crack it, and the 22-year-old woman never turned up, dead or alive. Now Bosch is in the Open-Unsolved Unit, where he still keeps the Gesto file on his desk, when he gets a call from the DA….

The Overlook: In his first case since he left the LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit for the prestigious Homicide Special squad, Harry Bosch is called out to investigate a murder that may have chilling consequences for national security. A doctor with access to a dangerous radioactive substance is found murdered in the trunk of his car. Retracing his steps, Harry learns that a large quantity of radioactive cesium was stolen shortly before the doctor's death. With the cesium in unknown hands, Harry fears the murder could be part of a terrorist plot to poison a major American city.

Impressed? Ace detective Harry Bosch is also on the case in other exciting Michael Connelly crime-fiction novels.

©2010 Michael Connelly (P)2010 Hachette Audio

GREAT value!!!!

Awesome stories, almost 28 hours, only one create - what more could anyone ask for!

An odd compilation of titles.

This is definitely a bargain if you're a Harry Bosch fan, but for some reason the publisher assembled it with the books out of order, and this can be a bit irritating because the sequence matters slightly. All three are very good stories, typical Michael Connelly, so this is just a heads-up on what to expect.

The order on the recording is Echo Park (book 12 in the series), The Narrows (book 10), and The Overlook (book 13). If you want to listen in the correct order (maybe slipping The Closers (book 11) in before you listen to Echo Park), The Narrows starts at 4:14:28 of Part 2. The Overlook starts at 0:03:45 of Part 5.

Also, The Narrows is a sequel to another Connelly book, The Poet (book 1 in his Jack McEvoy/Terry McCaleb series). The Narrows is one long spoiler for that book, which is too bad, because The Poet looked like it would have been another great read.

Finally, my only complaint about the narrator, Len Cariou, was his habit of dropping his voice to indicate a female speaker. It's hard to hear and makes the character sound very weak and indecisive.

Overall, this is a great use of one credit.

two out of three

I enjoyed all 3 books but I do not enjoy the music that is included. Echo Park is the best of the three.

Audio issues

Love Bosch series, and this is no exception. Unfortunately this particular recording was not of great quality. There were lots of instances where the audio skipped or got mangled. Real shame.

Great value but the actual file is somewhat corrupted

I have had many skips and some repeats of lines. Don’t know the technical reason but it’s disheartening.

Great listen, despite small issues.

If you love detective thriller/mystery stories, you'll love these. Connelly's Harry Bosch delivers every time. Without negating my overall approval, though, I did find some issues that bothered me.

Sequence: In this box set, Bosch books The Narrows (2004) - sequel to The Poet (but skipped the next one, The Closers (2005));
Echo Park (2006), and
The Overlook  (2007). However, the Audible book opens with Echo Park, skips back two books to The Narrows, then forward again to The Overlook. it's not a fatal flaw; all three books do stand on their own, yet an important recurring character is integral in Echo Park, is introduced in The Narrows... Personally, I prefer to read series in the order written, and I can make no sense of the production team's decision to switch the sequence! Why? I wish I'd known. If you're like me, start with The Narrows.

Narration: I've got about 65 titles in my short time with Audible, and enjoyed every narrator until my previous listen. As a professional narrator of print materials for visually impaired persons for over 15 years, I used state of the art equipment. I know that any reading can be adjusted in myriad ways to make the end product better. This is the second time I have felt that unneeded pauses should have been edited better to give a good flow to the narration - but this was nowhere near as bad as the previous! This was a bit odd, maybe annoying; the previous was awful!

Frankly, I was surprised that an actor of Mr. Cariou's acclaim wasnt a better narrator. His intonations were flat across the board. A hair-raising race against time sounded a lot like a leisurely chat over dinner. His rhythmic pattern & syllabic stresses didn't present sufficient options for the realistic conveyance of the events & moods of the books. Think of it as a play or an opera in which the actors had limited vocal variation. Not fatal, but a big disappointment. Lastly, while it's not usually easy for a narrator to present opposite-gender voices, I found his female voices particularly weak - literally & figuratively! When voicing a female character, Mr. Cariou elevated his pitch only slightly (I assume as much as his natural voice allowed). As if to compensate for the limited difference in pitch, he then softened the female voices to barely audible. This was a problem. First, I often had to pause, back up & increase the volume to understand a longer series of words spoken in the voice of a female. Short phrases I got from context if I didn't hear all words. More importantly, the recurring female characters were intelligent, strong & capable women in law enforcement. Softening the voices made them sound like geishas catering to samurai: uncertain, self-effacing and shy. Finally, to differentiate other characters he seemed to give a bit of a southern accent when neither the location nor character merited it. On the plus side he *nailed* Bosch's Cuban-American partner's slight accent. Perfect depiction of 'born here of Cuban family' sound.

Be warned that this audio version has some technical glitches. What sounds like the result of scratches on an old vinyl record pop up now and then, sometimes causing crackles, sometimes skips or repeats. Again, editing & quality control?!

Several have said they didn't like the music at chapter changes in Overlook. I loved it.

loved this series, great combo

i cant get enough of the author s books ...keep writing ill keep listening in the car in bed when i can not sleep, and during the day...great substitute for T V

Harry Bosch you rock!!!

Love it! Harry's an awesome detective!! Narrator captivated the style and feel of the story...I was riveted to every word.

Why the annoying horn blowing?

I loved everything but the nonsensical horn blowing on top of the reading that distracted from the story. I certainly wouldn't call it music.

Feast for the Bosch fans

Would you listen to Harry Bosch Box Set again? Why?

Yes. To refresh my memory on various development in the character's life.

What did you like best about this story?

Three separate but connect stories gives insight to not only Bosch but to other reoccurring characters.

What about Len Cariou’s performance did you like?

Effective use of silence and pace.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The

Any additional comments?

Previous to this three story set I had only listened (read) the first Bosch book (The Black Echo) and I wanted to learn more about Bosch. The box set was a great way to come to a fuller understanding of the Bosch the man and professional.