The Black Echo (A Harry Bosch Novel) ANNOTATION
Lone LAPD detective Harry Bosch must walk the line between criminals and crooked cops following the death of an old war buddy. Billy had been a fellow "tunnel rat"--fighting with Bosch in the nightmare underground war in Vietnam. But soon Billy's murder is linked to a bank robbery via complex tunnels beneath the bank.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch -- hero, maverick, nighthawk -- the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal.
The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell. 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 to the tortuous link that must be uncovered, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.
Joining with an enigmatic and seductive female FBI agent, pitted against enemies inside his own department, Bosch must make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, as he tracks down a killer whose true face will shock him.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Connelly, a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times , transcends the standard L.A. police procedural with this original and eminently authentic first novel. Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch--former hero cop bumped from the L.A. homicide desk to the lowly Beverly Hills squad--gets the call on a drug death at Mulholland Dam. Harry recognizes the corpse as that of a fellow soldier in Vietnam; both were ``tunnel rats'' who searched for Viet Cong in the network of burrows beneath Vietnamese villages. Investigation connects his old pal to an unsolved bank job--the vault was tunneled into from the storm drains below--and Harry takes his information to the FBI. The Bureau alerts the LAPD, which reactivates internal affairs surveillance (the previous IAD episode is explained throughout the narrative), only to have the FBI backtrack and request Harry as liaison on the case. Paired with beautiful FBI agent Eleanor Wish, Harry makes sense of the Vietnam connection to the bank job--a discovery that puts them both in danger from deadly ex-Marines and a powerful insider from either the LAPD or the FBI itself. Police higher-ups are somewhat cliched, but Connelly avoids L.A. stereotypes and delivers this front-page story with military precision. (Jan.)
Library Journal
Los Angeles police detective Hieronymus (a.k.a. Harry) Bosch discovers something odd in what appears to be a routine drug overdose case. The victim has a face from Harry's past, a fellow ``tunnel rat'' from Vietnam named Billy Meadows. Convinced that Meadows's death is really murder, Harry searches for the killers and soon clashes with the FBI, investigating Meadows for another reason. Trying to walk through a minefield of deception and corruption in high places, Harry works with FBI agent Eleanor Wish to solve the case before they both get killed. Whose tracks have to be covered at the cost of their lives? Fans of Joseph Wambaugh and William Caunitz will enjoy this realistically detailed police procedural. Connelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times , knows his turf well and demonstrates it in this complex and satisfying thriller. This one could very well hit the best-seller lists; highly recommended for any popular fiction col lection.-- Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.
School Library Journal
YA-- Harry Bosch likes order, contends that there are no coincidences, and keeps meticulous records in his ``murder book.'' When the body of a former ``tunnel rat'' from Vietnam is found in a drainpipe, Harry is the detective on duty and is called to the scene. His identification of the body begins an investigation that leads to more murder, bank robbery, heroin, diamonds, and betrayal. Connelly's descriptions of autopsies, murder scenes, and police procedure are vivid and realistic. The use of acronyms and police jargon puts readers in the middle of the action. A real page turner with gutty realism and an unusual twist.-- Debbie Hyman, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
AudioFile - Susan F. Wagner
Harry Bosch, LAPD homicide detective, finds the body of a Vietnam War buddy. Investigating his drug overdose leads Harry to an unsolved bank theft. This Edgar Award-winning novel is well-read by Lloyd Battista, whose gravelly voice is perfect for Bosch. Other voices are equally well done and easily distinguishable from each other, no mean feat in this novel, which has scores of different characters. An intricately plotted and exciting novel, The Black Echo is worth listening to. S.F.W. ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine
Home
