Time saver tip: if you've read my review of any Harry Bosch book, you've read 'em all. Since I don't reveal plots and reserve my comments to the overall book/author, characterization, style, etc...I just don't feel the need to repeat myself as in most cases series books if any good at all do remain consistent. The star ratings might change, but not my opinion of the series as a whole.Michael Connelly is a well know and very popular author in the mystery/detective and police procedural genres. Exploding onto the scene in the early nineties with his first six novels, and topping it off just recently with his 18th Bosch novel (The Black Box), Connelly has garnered most awards worth getting. Let's face it, the awards are well deserved, especially for those first novels (more on that later). Having emerged onto the fictional world after a career as a journalist, culminating with his job as crime reporter for the LA times, and admitting to becoming interested in writing fiction as a result of reading Raymond Chandler early on in his journalistic career, Michael Connelly has since involved himself in several collaborations: notable the television series Level 9, and as co-writer with Val McDermid's Wire In the Blood series (and that spawned the wildly popular grim, noir BBC television series of the same name). If you're into Noir than this TV series is a must see.Connelly has a knack for writing suspenseful tales that take quite a few twists and turns before being resolved with a stellar Who-Done-It that has most readers guessing till the very end (at least in his earlier books).Heironymous (Harry) Bosch, the hero in this series, is named after a Renaissance painter who specialized in earthly sins, debauchery, fanciful and gruesome visions of hell, violent consequences from high above if not detailed looks at the tortures reserved for earthly residents. Score 1 for Connelly in choosing a very apropos name for our own tortured detective Harry Bosch.Bosch is a complicated and conflicted character, a character that slowly develops across this series but whose emotive origin lies in the Viet Cong tunnels where Harry got his education in fear: underground, claustrophic, dark, drenched with blood, gruesome deaths, peopled with a savage enemy crawling within the absence of all light, hunting for the American soldiers like bloodthirsty rats. From these dark tunnels emerges Harry Bosch, LAPD detective, bent on setting the world right. From this darkness where pacific military command has sent Bosch to discover the inevitable conflict between a military order and the reality of carrying out that order, we find a detective in perpetual defiance of LAPD authority.The Harry Bosch series, for me, are divided into two sets: the first 4 books, and the rest that follow. As mentioned earlier, the classic early 90's novels were better for me. Books starting with The Black Echo on through The Last Coyote all inherit the tortuous origins of Harry's artistic namesake. Reading these books I could actually feel my heart begin to race as I sped towards the inevitable ending, ones that actually kept you guessing to the very end. One reviewer (sorry, can't remember who it was) says the following of these earlier book titles:[...]Even the titles of the books used to be cleverer. Compare The Drop (a simple reference to Deferred Retirement Option Plan) to The Concrete Blonde (a reference to both lady justice statue on the courthouse and the body of a blonde entombed in concrete. [...]Compare that to the later books in the series where we find a Harry Bosch notably mellower in his older age, where we find endings easily guessed at, where procedure begins to trump a superb plot. Bosch no longer smokes, doesn't drink and drive, doesn't slap people around anymore, where his defiance of LAPD authority is tempered by retirement, and let's face it, where my heart just doesn't race as often anymore. Let's say that his later novels are beginning to show an author's haste (is it me, or are the novels shorter and shorter?)Don't get me wrong, I still love reading the latest Bosch novel. Where the earlier novels have a few things that can be improved on (dialogue could have been better) the later novels are polished, almost a little too much so. After 18 Bosch novels, is Connelly tiring? Maybe.Beginning with the last 90's novel (Angels Flight) in which we are introduced to Bosch's latest romantic interest, Eleanor Wish, with whom Bosch is to have a daughter this mellowing process takes root. Connelly is absolutely right to introduce this notable character shift in Bosch from this book forward because as I can attest to in my own personal life: when you see your child born, a fundamental shift takes place in a man. For me, I was reborn from a devilish bachelor into a man who now bore the responsibility of an innocent life. It completely turned around my life for the better. And so it is with Harry Bosch. It is the presence of his daughter that transforms him from Heironymous to Harry.Overall, I highly recommend this series.
Originally on my book blogBook:Echo Park< | Author: Michael Connelly | Started: 3/12/14 | Finished: 3/18/14 | Rating: 4 starsSynopsis: In 1993 Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket. Harry Bosch worked the case but couldn’t crack it, and the twenty-two-year-old was never found. Now, more than a decade later, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the District Attorney.A man accused of two heinous murders is willing to come clean about several others, including the killing of Marie Gesto. Taking the confession of the man he has sought-and hated-for thirteen years is bad enough. Discovering that he missed a clue back in 1993 that could have stopped nine other murders may just be the straw that breaks Harry Bosch.My review: Harry Bosch once worked a case involving a kidnapped teenager. Thirteen years later, he’s still not sure what happened to her. Now he’s working in Open-Unsolved and has the opportunity to find out what happened to her.This prologue started out thirteen years prior when he was first alerted of the case. The book then starts off more than a decade later and he’s still caught on the case. Only now, thirteen years later, he finds out that there was a clue he should have seen back then that could have solved the mystery. So will he solve it now? Or will the guilt make it more difficult for him? I was not expecting this book to turn out the way it did but I loved it nonetheless.I was trying to find a way to describe Harry and how he deals with cases like this, but then I found the quote in the book. Rachel Walling says “Knowing how I have seen you take a case straight to heart, Harry, I wonder, then, if it is wise for you to be dealing with this man now. ”. That describes Harry Bosch to a T. He gets emotionally invested in these cases and wants nothing more than to see justice being served.And then someone else says “I don’t know you. I know your type. You have an addictive personality, Detective. Murder cases, cigarettes, maybe even the alcohol I can smell coming out of your pores. You’re not that hard to read.” Connelly writes in a way that other characters will explain the main character for us so we can identify better with the main character. Bosch does have an addictive personality and maybe I didn’t realize until I read this line.I think this book really showed that side of Harry more than most because the whole book is centered around a case that has been eating at him for 10+ years. All the other books that I’ve read of his start and end in one book. We do get to see how serious he takes his job, but this one showed how emotional he gets about certain cases, especially ones he never solved.This is my third Connelly book in a row and I’ve said it in every review: Connelly can write characters extremely well. This one was no different. The characters that I was supposed to hate, I hated. The characters I was supposed to love, I loved. The awesome thing about Connelly’s book is that he’s not only a fantastic character writer, but he’s also good at writing relationships between characters. Rachel Walling shows up in this book and I just love them being together. They’re great work partners but not so great at anything else.The ending made me really sad for reasons that I’m not going to say because I don’t want to give anything away. I just felt that things didn’t end up in certain areas the way that I wanted them to. It’s still a great book and I would definitely read it again. I would recommend it to anyone that likes crime and mystery novels.Things I got from this book: Rachel Walling needs her own book series. Bosch does take things to heart in a way that most detectives in other book series’ do. The Open-Unsolved Unit books are probably my favourite right now.
What do You think about Echo Park (2006)?
REPERCUSSION IN ECHO PARKIn my quest to get all caught up with the Harry Bosch series, I just finished book #12, Echo Park. I'm trying to get caught up so I can read the latest, Nine Dragons, which just came out this month. There's only one book standing between me and the dragons and that's The Overlook, which I hope to read shortly. With Echo Park now under my belt, this puts the grand total of Michael Connelly books read by me at 18. This means that I've read more books by this author than any other author. Guess it's safe to say he's one of my favorites. This is the second book that finds Harry working in LA's Open Unsolved Unit trying to close those "cold cases"...some of which have haunted him for years. This is really the perfect job for Harry Bosch as he considers himself a true detective...."one who takes it all inside and cares." In his world, "everybody counts or nobody counts." Whether the victim is a prostitute or a millionaire, they are all the same to Harry. This philosophy most likely dates back to Harry's own mother who was murdered while he was a young boy and her means of support was none other than prostitution. Harry would probably be a dream patient on a psychiatrist's couch, especially since he was able to make something out of his life after a very poor beginning. Connelly describes LA as a "sunny place with shady characters" and this statement really sets the tone for this book. The Echo Park case is one Harry has been trying to close for many years. The victim, Marie Gesto, has never been found and Harry is presented with a deal whereby he will be led to her burial ground if only he will fall into play with the LA politico. Fans of Harry will know that he is not easily led down someone's else's path and, in this case, he will fight tooth and nail to stand his ground. Harry's partner, Kiz Rider, will be right by his side as he interrogates the so-called killer and the two of him will go on the field trip together, with the killer, to find Marie's body. This field trip is not your usual junior high trip to the zoo. It's a trip into the dark side from which some never return. As with all of Connelly's books, I thought this one was well thought out. Connelly has a way of allowing the reader to enter Harry's mind and come up with some of the clues at the same time as he does. I did pick up one or two a little earlier than Harry did but I'm sure Connelly wanted it that way. I have to say that I have enjoyed reading these last few books in the Harry Bosch series back to back. When I finish these, I might just do this with one of the other series of which I find myself in the middle. So now it's on to The Overlook. Just wait for me "Dragons".....I'm almost there.
—Nancy (Hrdcovers)
Although it's the 12th book of Connelly's Bosch series, I jumped right into it as my first book (unabridged) to accompany my trip from Denver to Indianapolis last week. I enjoy a good mystery, and as a Scarpetta fan, I recognise that protagonist series like this has it's up and down books. Without a comparison to other Bosch books, I would guess that this is a good one, but assuming there are better in the series since this one is not especially riveting. The plot does send your emotions back and forth (Bosch was wrong; Bosch was right), but when it came down to brass tacts, I felt the result was a little far fetched...not that the political machine wouldn't work that way, but that it would have been started in the first place for this particular incident. I did think the FBI agent girlfriend-for-a-plot was more distracting than helpful to the plot, except for the painfully obvious issue that Bosch needed to sound ideas out aloud with somebody he trusted since his partner was unavailable.It was nice to see the struggles of a the good guy and it's not the background, but the decisions that put people on the road they follow. I would read more Bosch stories, but probably more out of convenience than desire.
—Marian Willeke
What if you could solve a case that has been on your 'unsolved' list for over thirteen-plus years? Would you jump to solve it? What if the key to solving it, to putting it away, lay in accepting the confession of a serial killer to that and ten other murders? Oh, but there's a hitch. No death penalty permitted for any of the 11 homicides. Still want to take it? This is the issue that faces Bosch in ECHO PARK, as LA gears up for election season and everyone is out stumping.Bosch hears the confession of a serial killer who agrees to take eveeryone out to the scene to show where and how it was all done. Jumping at the chance, he heads out into the deserted area and sees all the mistakes he's made in the investigation. When things go terribly wrong, Bosch is banished from the fallout investigation and his partner has been compromised. When has this ever benched Bosch before? Using the fire in his belly, our favourite member of the LAPD dives in, head first, to get to the bottom of what ends up being a murky pond of deception, lies, and politics.I thoroughly enjoyed the book but am beginning to wonder how restless Bosch is getting with all the changes and hoops Connelly has him jumping through. That said, I have loved the evolution of his character.
—Matt
