Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Sep 07, 2011

Eric rated it:

I came at Michael Connelly backwards, reading the entire Mickey Haller series before any of his Harry Bosch books. And after encountering Bosch in The Reversal, I wasn't that compelled to read more about him. But then I found the Kindle version of The Black Echo on sale for 99c, so I couldn't really say no at that point.

I was not disappointed, but blown away instead. This is a perfect detective mystery tale. Connelly's storytelling gifts are many and varied. He is a master of paci More...

5 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Alexa rated it:

I read an article in the L.A. Times about Michael Connelly, and his background as a crime reporter intrigued me, so I decided to read his books. I started with The Black Echo, the first book in the Hieronymous Bosch series, and I am very glad that I read these books in order. Connelly is a masterful writer in that he is constantly referencing past cases and old details in his Bosch series. Some of the characters from his other novels also tend to make guest appearances.

This book suc More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2010

LJ rated it:

First Sentence: The boy couldn’t see in the dark, but he didn’t need to.

LAPD detective Hieronymous (aka Harry) Bosch is a loner and a nighthawk. Called out on a routine drug overdose case, Bosch soon realizes that the victim found lying in the Mullholland Dam drainpipe is no accident case. Billy Meadows was a fellow 'tunnel rat' in Vietnam and Harry swears to bring the killer to justice.

Written and set in 1992, it is interesting to see how times have changed in these 18 More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 13, 2011

Harmonybites rated it:

I liked this one. It flowed well, sucking me in from the beginning and never letting me go, and I got more intrigued--and interested in the protagonist detective, Harry Bosch, more and more as we went along. This is a first novel, but it lays enough backstory that it feels like there were prior books. Bosch had a case in the past so famous he got paid to be a consultant and have his name used in a television series, and he owns a home overlooking Los Angeles as a result. And another case got him More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Joyce rated it:

First in the Harry Bosch series.[return][return]On call on a Sunday morning, Harry Bosch, LAPD homicide detective, catches the call for a dead body in a pipe on Mulholland Drive. He recognizes the corpse as Meadows, a Vietnam vet with whom he served as a "tunnel rat"--those trained to go into the labyrinthine underground tunnels constructed by the Viet Cong to flush out the enemy. It looks as if Meadows has ODed on heroin, not surprising given his record as a drug user. But there a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Tim rated it:

Somehow in all of my mystery and crime fiction reading, I had never read anything by Michael Connelly. His books had always been on my reading list, but for some reason or another he was always bumped in favor for something else. Since it looks like Ian Rankin's great detective John Rebus might well have retired, it seemed like a good time to make the acquaintance of his American counterpart, Harry Bosch. Starting at the beginning of the series, we find detective Bosch assigned to the Hollowood, More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Emily rated it:

Harry Bosch is a law enforcement officer who is "not part of the family," which means he likes to do things his own way, isn't overly concerned about protecting the department from scandal, is more likely to investigate something that others would slag off, and absolutely gets results. This is a bad thing for the criminals and slag-offs he seems to be surrounded by. Harry's first case begins with the murder of a person Harry served in Vietnam with. It looks like a routine heroin overdo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2011

Cathie rated it:

Michael Connelly is one of those authors whose name keeps creeping up on me. He’s a prolific writer and has published more than two-dozen novels in the last twenty years. Until last week, I’d never read anything by Connelly, mostly because he came highly recommended by the two men in my life whose reading preferences couldn’t be more different than my own. But, after more than a little prodding, I gave in and decided to give Connelly a try. After all, what could it really hurt? If I didn’t More...

0 comments like

Oct 07, 2011

Vicki rated it:

Michael Connelly sets the standard for gritty crime novels from the perspective of a jaded but insightful Los Angeles detective. This is the first of several novels featuring Detective Harry Bosch, a loner who is at odds with Internal Affairs and his own supervisor, and is constantly threatened with demotion and/or reassignment for following his own path rather than departmental guidelines.

Harry gets the call on this particular case, which appears to be an overdose death in an above gr More...

0 comments like

Aug 08, 2011

Arthur rated it:

The first Harry Boach mystery set in 1990 and published in 1992, currently on the NYT best seller list. Harry catches the case of a fellow Vietnam era tunnel rat who is found murdered in LA. He works the case with a female FBI agent who is working on a bank robbery involving a tunnel.

The usual page-turning, detail oriented, driving (literally and figuratively) narrative, with a twist at the end. I didn't want to read an older book, but the narrative kept pulling me back in.

W More...

0 comments like

Aug 07, 2011

Jane rated it:

Barely ok. It kept my interest but I wasn’t emotionally engaged. Too many unpleasant people.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I enjoyed other Connelly books so I thought I’d try the Harry Bosch series. This is the first one in that series. It was not nearly as good. My problems follow.

1. This read too much like a police procedural. One guy raising questions, investigating, and uncovering clues and leads.

2. Too many unpleasant and unlikeable characters: Harry’s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 17, 2011

Jeff rated it:

I have failed. I have read the Harry Bosch novels out of sequence. I blame myself. That disclaimer aside I was lucky enough to happen upon the first novel in the series the other day, and read it with great plum and vigor (ok now I'm just teasing). Such an awesome story, and in my subconsiously guilty way I think knowing the characters after this novel helped me appreciate them as they first started. A true endorsement of Connelly's writing style, as he has committed to these characters and More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2011

Mike rated it:

The range of characters in this intriguing story include corrupt Vietnamese police officials, former tunnel rats and MPs, agents of the FBI, newspaper reporters, a trio of teenage hustlers, a mother who does phone sex, Department of Youth Services, and the bureaucratic hierarchy of the LAPD. All the foregoing are connected via a complex and engrossing story which takes place in pre-cellphone Los Angeles and where all the threads logically connect in the end. The story starts with LAPD Homicide More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 03, 2011

Sidna rated it:

WOW! I love this author and this character! This book was written in 1992 and introduced Connelly's character, Police Detective Harry Bosch. As the book opens we are dropped into the middle of Harry's life. The series does not begin with Harry's first day on the job as a detective. He has had an interesting police career before we meet him. We learn details about his past as the story progresses, without all the annoying foreshadowing that is so overused today. It is like meeting a new friend an More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2011

Book Concierge rated it:

Harry Bosch is a recently discredited Los Angeles police homicide detective, now working the Hollywood beat. When he’s called out to investigate a dead body in a drainage pipe it seems routine – a homeless man who crawled into the pipe for temporary shelter and OD’d there. But there’s something not quite right about the scene, and Harry realizes he recognizes the victim – from his service in Vietnam.

Harry has to battle internal affairs, the FBI, and his own past demons to arrive at More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2010

Jenn rated it:

The first in the Bosch series lost a little of its suspense for me because, well, I know how many stories there are to come. That being said, this novel did a great job of piquing my interest in exactly how far the author might go in making his character's life even more difficult. Along the way, it also painted an L.A. in which Marlowe would have been comforted by familiarity and the greatest cynics I know would have been delighted.

The book starts after Harry Bosch's biggest case an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 18, 2010

Jim rated it:

After reading four or five first-rate crime novels by Michael Connelly, my streak is over. I finally ran into a clunker — comparatively speaking, anyway; I doubt Connelly is capable of writing a BAD novel — in "The Black Echo."

The book just didn't lift off the ground for me. The plot felt mechanical, with little genuine dramatic heft. The villains are largely a) not all that villainous; or b) offstage. And the main character, Los Angeles Police Det. Harry Bosch, seems sort More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2010

Donna rated it:

I've somehow misplaced this book and, if I find it, I will likely not feel compelled to finish it. I guess the likely ending doesn't seem like much of a mystery--although I may be wrong, of course.

Any long-time fan of the Harry Bosch novels is likely to be interested this first in the series, The Black Echo, if only for its historical value. It's here that Bosch's background is established and he meets his future wife, Eleanor Wish, and his nemesis, Irvin Irving. Readers of later boo More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2011

Gregory rated it:

I'll be using this book as the accompanying text for the 2011 summer session of my advanced mystery writing workshop for the Gotham Writers' Workshop. It's a solid work, though flawed--which will make it useful as a teaching tool.

It's a grim sort of novel. None of the characters are particularly likable, including the protagonist Harry Bosch. Still, Connelly manages to keep the reader engaged in what the characters are doing and why they're doing it. The conclusion of the story sugges More...

3 comments like

Jan 04, 2009

Dianna rated it:

Harry Bosch is a saltier version of the mystery novels I normally read. I read this as a foray into the world of "guy lit". I just asked a guy friend what I should read, and he said "Bosch". Bosch is a bit of a loner who's on the verge of deciding whether or not he's lonely. It seems like he really only struggles with that question when he's got a pretty girl in his arms (like, "hmmm, this is nice... maybe I am lonely").

There are a lot of similarities b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Jan rated it:

It doesn’t seem to matter in what order you read the Harry Bosch detective novels. Michael Connelly writes in such a way that if you are reading them “in order”, well then, a few of the references to past cases and characters will mean something to you. If you are reading them out of order, the references to past cases and characters just add more information to the present story line.
In this page turner, Harry, our oh so flawed hero, once again finds himself caught between good and bad More...

0 comments like

Oct 04, 2011

Adam rated it:

I honestly don't have much to say about Michael Connelly's The Black Echo. I gave it three stars so it obviously did not blow me away but, kind of like Jim Butcher's

Storm Front, it has a very compelling quality to it. I can definitely say that Connelly deserves all the awards he has received and actually does deserve to be on the

NY Times list. Harry Bosch is a very likeable main protagonist as well, but in the way that most viewers enjoy seeing what Dr. Gregory House is More...

0 comments like

Jul 11, 2011

Gina rated it:

This is the first in the Detective Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. The book went pretty slow for me. I haven't read any of this series yet and had the opportunity to buy the first nine books at a discount price. First of all, it was written in 1992, and the dated descriptions were very distracting, especially all of the pages that had to be answered by walking to a phone booth. There are also a lot of slang terms that are dated. I know nothing can be done about it but it was a distrac More...

2 comments like

Jul 04, 2011

Devon rated it:

The Black Echo is the first book in the magnificent Harry Bosch series. It's slower then the majority of the series and the long chapters may be a bit harrowing but once things get rolling they don't stop. Bosch is an incredible, intricate character and though he may not always be the most like able, he never fails to grab your interest.
The thing I love about Michael Connelly (and specifically this book) is how amazing and unique the plots are. You'll never find a book like The Black Echo. More...

0 comments like

Nov 07, 2011

Aaron rated it:

Two books in and I really appreciate the following things about Michael Connelly:

-- Kinda smarmy main characters. And it isn't that Harry Bosch is smarmy, persay. That's not the right word. But he isn't incredibly likable, which is, oddly, his most likable quality

-- Break neck plotting. There's pretty much a believable twist and turn about every other page. Even better: the plot twists in such divine ways that the crime Harry is ultimately forced to solve is about six degrees More...

0 comments like

Jun 03, 2010

Martha rated it:

I have read Harry Bosch books, maybe book, before. I went bak to the beginning of the series. Harry is a homicide cop who works a case like a dog with a bone. He picks up a case on the weekend and his partner is needing to work his moonlighting job, so Harry goes himself to see the body in a drainpipe. He recognizes an old buddy from the army, from Vietnam. They were "tunnel rats" together and it looks like he took an overdose or some bad drugs, but little things don't sit right with H More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 05, 2011

Maggie rated it:

I had read three of the Lincoln Lawyer books, two of which include Harry Bosch as a character. I viewed those books as a bit of junk food reading --fun while you are consuming but not so good for you. This first book about Harry Bosch, however, is a different story. The writing is much less fip and cliched than in the Lincoln Lawyer books. Harry is a troubled soul--a Vietnam War vet who worked in the tunnels with other tunnel rats, one of whom is the initial murder victim in this book. Harry More...

0 comments like

Aug 28, 2011

Marcus rated it:

Now and then I like to take a break from my usual diet of history books/sci-fi/fantasy and stuff I need to read for my work. When that happens I do like to emerge myself in a real dark noir detective story. You know, the kind where there is only one good cop with at least a couple of fundamnetal character flaws is on a mission. The kind where the hero is surrounded by incompetent idiots and corrupt officials. One where the murder is of peculiar nature and seemingly unsolvable and where there is More...

0 comments like

Oct 26, 2009

Dave rated it:

I stumbled across this on our local libraries digital downloads list. I couldn't resist trying a mystery series where the protagonist is named Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch. I found the story interesting and as plausible as most books I've read in the mystery/detective/police genre. I found the author's style crisp and direct. Being the first in the series the narrative included a significant part of Harry Bosch's back story. Anchoring mush of the story in the war in Viet Nam made it more interes More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 30, 2009

J B rated it:

A pretty good mystery/action thriller. The first in a series with Connelly's LAPD detective character Harry Bosch. In this story, Harry is assigned to a potential murder investigation involving someone he fought alongside in Vietnam. At first it appears the victim just OD'ed on drugs, but Harry discovers clues leading to a much bigger case in which he works alongside the FBI, and there meets a love interest in agent Elanor Wish.

Overall, it was a fun story to read. There were some More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews