The Black Echo – Michael Connelly

General Information
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Title: The Black Echo
Author: Michael Connelly
Read By: Dick Hill
Copyright: 1992
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Isis Audio
Series Name: Harry Bosch
Position in Series: 01

File Information
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Number of MP3s: 167
Total Duration: 13:19:24
Total MP3 Size: 375.02
Encoded At: CBR 64 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
ID3 Tags: Set, v1.1, v2.3

Book Description
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From 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. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.–

From 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 Copyright 1992
Reed Business Information, Inc.

From 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 collection. Dean James, Houston
Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
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.
(c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Kirkus Reviews
Big, brooding debut police thriller by Los Angeles Times crime-reporter
Connelly, whose labyrinthine tale of a cop tracking vicious bank-robbers
sparks and smolders but never quite catches fire. Connelly shows off
his deep knowledge of cop procedure right away, expertly detailing the
painstaking examination by LAPD homicide detective Hieronymus (Harry)
Bosch of the death-scene of sometime junkie Billy Meadows, whom Bosch
knew as a fellow “tunnel rat” in Vietnam and who’s now o.d.’d in an
abandoned water tunnel. Pushing Meadows’s death as murder while his
colleagues see it as accidental, Bosch, already a black sheep for his
vigilante-like ways, further alienates police brass and is soon shadowed
by two nastily clownish Internal Affairs cops wherever he goes–even
to FBI headquarters, which Bosch storms after he learns that the Bureau
had investigated him for a tunnel-engineered bank robbery that Meadows
is implicated in. Assigned to work with beautiful, blond FBI agent Eleanor
Wish, who soon shares his bed in an edgy alliance, Bosch comes to suspect
that the robbers killed Meadows because the vet pawned some of the loot,
and that their subsequent killing of the only witness to the Meadows
slaying points to a turned cop. But who? Before Bosch can find out,
a trace on the bank-robbery victims points him toward a fortune in smuggled
diamonds and the likelihood of a second heist–leading to the blundering
death of the IAD cops, the unveiling of one bad cop, an anticipated
but too-brief climax in the L.A. sewer tunnels, and, in a twisty anticlimax,
the revelation of a second rotten law officer. Swift and sure, with
sharp characterizations, but at heart really a tightly wrapped package
of cop-thriller cliches, from the hero’s Dirty Harry persona to the
venal brass, the mad-dog IAD cops, and the not-so-surprising villains.
Still, Connelly knows his turf and perhaps he’ll map it more freshly
next time out.

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