Connelly

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (1992)

A man is found dead in the hills above Los Angeles, California, USA. Soon after, a witness to what happened to the man also turns up dead. A bank robbery gets the FBI involved, and a police officer is shot and killed. The story The Black Echo tells will introduce the world to Homicide Detective Harry Bosch and be the first in a series of novels. As of May 2024, there are forty-three books in the “Harry Bosch Universe”.

Harry Bosch is a fascinating character. He is a Vietnam War veteran who served as a tunnel rat — someone who would scout out Viet Cong tunnels with a gun and flashlight. It was a deadly job with a very high mortality rate, but it made Bosch almost fearless. The book’s title, The Black Echo, refers to the absolute darkness and silence in those tunnels and the games it plays with the mind. Bosch is also an orphan. His mother was a prostitute, so he was constantly taken away from her and placed into state juvenile homes. Then when he was twelve years old, she was murdered. Her killer was never caught. These experiences molded Bosch into a hard, tough, cynical, but driven and relentless man. He is a deeply flawed character who became a police officer to fight for the forgotten and get justice. To him, “everyone matters or no one matters.”

The Black Echo does a really good job pulling you into the story. Every character is nuanced and three-dimensional. They feel real because they are so imperfect. The plot starts off quickly and is easy to follow. Events and conflicts are plausible and follow a logical cause-and-effect. Connelly, a former Los Angeles journalist, is an excellent writer. He is meticulous and careful without being boring or predictable. It’s refreshing. The scene-building that leads to the book’s climax is skillful and tense. I could not put this book down and read it in less than a week. The entire series is similar (so far… as of this writing, I’m only through Book 16).

While there is a common central hero, Connelly doesn’t waste a lot of space linking one book to the next or to past installments. The author’s focus is on the present plot, not to rehash older books. This allows the story to move freely. Once in a while, an installment will reference something that happened before. In these cases, Connelly will add a sentence or two that summarizes the reference, but past knowledge isn’t necessary to enjoy these books. Each one, therefore, makes for a first-class stand-alone story while being a good episode in an excellent series.

Connelly respects his audience. Bosch is a cop who has been on the job a long time and has seen everything. His profession has its own customs, traditions, and language. Connelly seems to understand that most readers are outsiders who won’t understand most cop jargon. Connelly also understands how fake it would sound for a veteran cop to unnaturally explain a term or idea in conversation with another cop. An officer is not going to stop mid-sentence at a crime scene to spell out some term or process to another officer, even if that officer is a rookie. Instead, conversations are kept as realistic as possible with a lot of code and slang. Connelly waits for a break in the natural flow of the conversation then adds one sentence to quickly explain something. This method keeps the story moving while helping the uninitiated reader understand what’s happening.

The Black Echo is an excellent neo-noir mystery and thriller with good action and intelligent characters. It is a solid first book in a terrific series. I was first introduced to Harry Bosch through the Amazon TV series of the same name. The show is well written and well-cast. Check it out.