The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1

De: Michael Connelly

Narrado por: Dick Hill

An LAPD homicide detective must choose between justice and vengeance as he teams up with the FBI in the first novel of the "thrilling" Harry Bosch series (New York Times Book Review).

For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.

Impressed? Ace detective Harry Bosch is also on the case in other exciting Michael Connelly crime-fiction novels.©1992 by Michael Connelly. (P)1992 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Fills in the blanks

I have read all of the Harry Bosch mysteries over the past few years. While I am not a lifelong Dectective devotee, Harry Bosch is my favorite character and Michael Connelly is my favorite author. Somehow I have managed to read the 13 Bosch books in a random order. This book, The Black Echo, is the first in the series and recounts Harry Bosch's days as a "tunnel rat" during the Vietnam War. It does a good job of filling in the blanks that you only get bits and pieces about in the later works. As a testament to the talented pen of Connelly, much/most of the Bosch character is developed in this first book.

If you haven't read any of the Bosch series, this is a good place to start. If you have read later books, you will still enjoy this one.

Good Start to the Series

If you've decided to start the whole series after hearing a few of the latter books, then here you are. A little too 80's cop movie for me (drug dealers, Vietnam, dirty cops...) but worth the time.

I didn't see that coming

great book with great narration, plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.

Great Start to the Harry Bosch series!

Few detective and legal thriller authors are as talented and successful as Michael Connelly. Published in 1992, The Black Echo is a worthy beginning to the Harry Bosch series. The first Bosch story I read in the series was Novel #7, A Darkness More Than Night which was published in 2001; although it was good I was not very impressed. I finally got around to listening to The Black Echo in 2010. Now all of Connelly's books are in my Audible library. The Black Echo is very impressive. Along with Bosch it introduces FBI agent Eleanor Wish who later became Bosch's wife and who is the mother of his daughter. This novel is simply superb. Narration is by Dick Hill. Connelly should have stuck with Hill, who is consistently great, but he has used several different narrators. His last several Bosch novels are narrated by actor Titus Welliver who plays the Bosch character in the Amazon series Bosch. I certainly highly recommend The Black Ice. It is the best place to start the wonderful series.

The Start of Bosch's career

I think I have read most of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels.This give you a starting point and delves into his tunnel rat experience. If you are a Bosch fan this is a great listen.

Strange Narration

What struck me most about THE BLACK ECHO's audio version was the narration. Nobody, NOBODY, in 1990's Los Angeles talks in the way the characters in the story talk. The young perps are all Leo Gorcey "Bowery Boys," the protagonist is "Sam Spade," and the rest are all exaggerated 1930's or 1940's movie characters.

The book itself tends in the same direction. Passages about anchovies on pizza. Give me a break. It's tired cliche after tired cliche after tired cliche.

The author knows his 1990's streets and geography of Los Angeles but he (narrator, too) DOESN'T know the people of 1990's Los Angeles at all.

But, it's "listenable" and, like an episode of Mannix, it easily holds your attention to the end.

Good Start to a Series

Good start to a series. This is the first of the series I've read. Given this one I'll continue down the rest.

Great Crime Novel!

This was a really good crime/mystery book! I finally found a mystery author I would really like to read again (other than Tana French!) Yes, maybe it is fairly formulaic, but it's a well-done MYSTERY book, after all, not the great American novel. Michael Connelly's writing is straight forward and to the point - not embellished with fancy metaphors that don't work. The plot is exciting and compelling. I had to stay up late to finish it, and that's what I love in a book. I will say that the very ending of this one is a little over the top. The final twist of the "who done it" is a little unbelievable, but really it doesn't spoil it at all, IMHO. The setting (Los Angeles) was interesting to me, too, since I've visited there several times and I could really relate to his descriptions of the various areas. I'll definitely put the next Harry Bosch book on my "to read" list!

Not bad, but not my favorite Harry Bosch book

It was is harder to identify with this early Harry Bosch. He was not as compassionate, a little rougher in character. The story was OK, but there are some obvious parts at the end that drag on.

So slow

Even when the first body was found, it still felt like nothing had happened in the story, except for lots of snarky detective comments made by the lead character, making it feel like an episode of Law & Order. Also I couldn’t get used to the narrator’s constant huffing and McGruff (dog detective) tone of voice. When Bosch made jokes, they were usually very funny.