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.
I decided a while ago that I wanted to tackle the Harry Bosch series of books by Michael Connelly in order. I read his first novel a long time ago but it had been so long that I figured I should just start again at book 2 and try to read one every few weeks. Michael Connelly is a very successful author like many other crime greats such as Peter James, James Patterson and Lee Child but his writing style is not necessarily the same. Yes there are parallels in the majority of the crime genre books but that is to be expected. The one thing that is instantly noticeable for me is his attention to detail. This may not be favourable for some people but for me it makes a refreshing change. The other advantage to the detail is the advantage of getting to know why characters make the decision they do, especially when you know that this is an ongoing series.The main character is Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch who is an ex-Vietnam soldier who is now on the force. Harry is a great character who is your typical cop who is strong willed and does things his way. People may complain about stereotypical `cop characters' but lets be fair, who wants to read about a cop who wants to play by the rules? Nothing would ever happen if that were the case.Harry is quite a loner but he knows what's what and he smells trouble with a capital T when he sees Cal Moore dead in a motel room. The story itself did take a bit of time to gain pace but when I was about halfway through all the threads in the story seemed to come together and I was glad of all the detail.Michael Connelly excels at describing the scenery and places that Harry visits and I could picture the dusky Mexican city that he ended up in. The great thing about this book was that although it may not have been as fast paced as some others I have read recently there was a great story behind it. The characters were well written and he added in a fantastic twist at the end which I admit I didn't see coming.I regularly check out review stats on various websites and can see that Michael Connelly's earlier Harry Bosch books were not as popular. All I can say is that if that is the case I can't wait to carry on with the series.
What do You think about The Black Ice (2003)?
I do love Harry B. His instinct and heart take him to career-ending decisions. And because he's the main character of a successful series, he never quite falls over into complete failure, lives to tell (and sometimes regret), may get to love albeit briefly, and always, always, gets the better of one of his betters (usually evil disguised as a good guy.). Harry has a complex mind which he is willing to take on crazy "what if" musings all in the interests of solving the mystery. In fact, I think Harry is more interested in and engaged by the work of finding the solution, than he is concerned about getting the criminal. Nailing the bad guy is an outcome but not the goal for Mr. Bosch. he's also able to be sensitive, compassionate, and loyal.I do love Mr. Bosch .On to #3
—Becky
A few years ago, I went through a phase in my reading habit when the only fiction I read was mystery. It was during this time that Michael Connelly introduced me to Harry Bosch. I've been a fan every since. I'm enjoying doing a re read of the series through the audio books. It's easy to look overlook the faults in a series that is one's favorite and I freely acknowledge this tendency. However I think I get Harry Bosch. He is a driven individual. He is basically alone in the world (some exceptions). He is obsessed with justice. He has very little patience for police that don't take their calling seriously. He is flawed. He can be arrogant, disrespectful and a risk taker. Sometimes when he is pulling his shenanigans, he makes me very nervous and even a little embarrassed for him. But I understand why he does what he does. Justice. At the end of the day I wish we had more like him.Now one other thing, it has been nice to watch him mature. I knew it was happening but it was gradual and it became clearer upon rereading these first books. And despite that I like the newer Bosch better, I've missed the younger renegade a little. This is a tightly woven plot, that manages to surprise and entertain. You'll like how all the pieces fit together in the end.
—Banner
In Connelly’s second novel to feature demoted detective Heironymous “Harry” Bosch, Harry investigates the death of a fellow cop, as well as two other murders that seem strangely connected to the import of a new drug, Black Ice. From L.A. to the Mexican border, Harry follows the clues and uncovers a set of relationships that strangely parallel his own experience. Also, he gets more play than most other middle-aged cops I’ve known.Harry’s lone wolf persona and dogged pursuit of the truth, usually not the easy answer, puts him at odds with the bureau’s higher-ups, which he generally handles by just solving cases. He’s too valuable for them to bust down, but too much of a loose cannon to be given free rein. More of his personal history is revealed, in drips and drops, which I believe will continue until we know his whole history. This serves to make him a very interesting and dynamic character.The writing is well-paced, but I did have a problem with some of the dialogue. Fairly often, the characters seem incapable of speaking in contractions. This would work if it were consistant, or a feature of just one character, but as it is, I find myself contracting the words as I read them. “I will go and see if I cannot find out what he is not telling us” for example. I don’t know anyone who talks like this, much less when it’s interspersed with cop slang like “ten-four” and other abbreviations.On the whole, though, I really like reading these books. I will continue my way through this series.
—Emily
