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The Black Echo
The Black Echo
The Black Echo
Audiobook13 hours

The Black Echo

Written by Richard Powers

Narrated by Dick Hill

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

An LAPD homicide detective must choose between justice and vengeance as he teams up with the FBI in the first novel of the "thrilling" Harry Bosch series (New York Times Book Review).

For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal . . . because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. 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, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 16, 2017
ISBN9781543612806
The Black Echo
Author

Richard Powers

Richard Powers is the author of thirteen novels. His most recent, The Overstory, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Book Award, and he has been a four-time National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Reviews for The Black Echo

Rating: 4.082255950066875 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,243 ratings104 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really surprising end. Grest plot twister...not what I expected.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Rereading the books. Still outstanding the second time around.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This one is an oldie, but goodie. I enjoyed it. There isn't a Bosch novel that haven't liked though. There definitely a few twists that I didn't expect.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this first Harry Bosch novel very much. It was a well-plotted story with lots of twists and turns that keeps you guessing until the end. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ninth chapter was unnecessary and a waste of time, but beside that everything else (characters, plot, writing style) was perfect. I'll definitely read it again and, if you like realistic police fiction, I suggest you to give this book a chance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Black Echo by Michael Connelly; (4*)A mystery/police procedural with a distinctive 'noirish' twist to it. The first of the Harry Bosch series, I found it to be both enjoyable and frightening. A body has been found in a reservoir pipe in Los Angeles (Harry's precinct area) and he recognizes the man as someone with whom he served in Nam. As Harry works the case he finds that he is not only fighting the clock to close the case but also fighting some of those within the internal 'blue line'.Well done, Connelly. You have drawn me into your grasp.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Harry Bosch is a recently discredited Los Angeles police homicide detective, now working the Hollywood beat. When he’s called out to investigate a dead body in a drainage pipe it seems routine – a homeless man who crawled into the pipe for temporary shelter and OD’d there. But there’s something not quite right about the scene, and Harry realizes he recognizes the victim – from his service in Vietnam.Harry has to battle internal affairs, the FBI, and his own past demons to arrive at the truth. He’s not sure whom to trust, and a possible love interest is clouding his judgment. Ultimately he will have to choose between justice and vengeance.Connelly plots a good story and there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader on his/her toes. There’s something appealing about Harry … an honest cop, but with his own code of conduct. I didn’t guess the extent of the plot, and was surprised. But I didn’t really enjoy the ending. It felt forced and “untrue.” Still, I feel I should give Harry Bosch another try; he’s a character who may grow on me.I listened to the audio book on CD produced by Brilliance Audio and performed by Dick Hill. Hill does a credible job of narrating, though his “female” voice is irritating. The particular version I got was abridged, but didn’t seem to be missing any real plot points. What I didn’t like about it was the way it was engineered. Each disc had 96 to 99 tracks! Some were as short at 7-9 seconds. Really? You couldn’t record a longer track and have a more normal 20-25 tracks per disc? I just found this irritating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The first of a great series. Bosch is a rugged individualist with great detective instincts. With still vivid memories of his days serving in Vietnam, Bosch is called to investigate the murder of someone who served with him. in a plot with many twists, and indelible characters who keep us guessing as to who is on which side of good or bad, Connelly presents us with a protagonist who shows humanity along with ingenuity. Paired with a female FBI agent, Bosch is soon on the trail of bank robbers who seem to be tied to his homicide victim. There are Internal Affairs investigators, pompous Police Captains, and officious FBI operatives, but somehow Connelly avoids stereotyping. Definitely recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really like this narrator. Great voice acting. Good opener to Bosch's life. 3.5
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I wanted to start a new mystery/detective series as it had been quite some time since I had read any books of that type. I decided on Michael Connelly because people seem to enjoy his books. I enjoyed this first book of Connelly's Harry Bosch series and I will read the next for sure.

    With that said, this book was simply another one of those books where it was nice to read, quick and fun, but left no last impressions. I can't say I didn't like it, but it was something to read at the end of the summer as a simple joy. It was an older book, so part of the enjoyment was the lack of technology - like the police having to run to cell phones every so often to call in - and the simple formula of a detective story. That is pretty much all I have to say about it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Enjoyable story with twists and turn leaving you guessing who is behind it all
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book drew me in to Harry Boach characture when is was first realeased and even today look forward to every new book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was drawn to this series because of the TV show. I was happy to discover the stories are different. The TV show was good, the books are better
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Suspenseful with endless twists and turns. Really enjoyed it and so will you
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've listened to this audiobook because I enjoy the Bosch television series, and though the context is slightly different, this narrative is perhaps even more exciting. Many twists. The narrator did a fantastic job as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excelente novela policiaca , una trama de intriga y traición a todos los niveles. sin embargo nada fuera de la realidad que vivimos actualmente. Excelente comienzo para la saga H.Bosh.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The beginning. Where the world first meets Harry Bosch.
    There are only a handful of writers whose first books are this good. And even then the quality goes down over time. That is not the case with this author.
    This is an outstanding fantastic series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a re-read for me - I read this first book in the Bosch series back in the early 90's when the book was originally published.

    When we're introduced to Harry in this first book, he's a detective with LAPD and has already been through the wringer in that job. Initially part of the elite homicide unit, he's now been demoted to working the detective desk in the Hollywood station. He's a cynical, world-weary, chain-smoking, jazz-loving loner. He's got a strong moral compass that lands him on the wrong side of department politics. But once he's on a case, he sticks with it until it's solved.

    I've always loved this series (and the Mickey Haller and Renee Ballard spin-off series). And I was completely blown away by the long-running HBO series staring Titus Welliver. (And sadly now at the end of it's run, but SO good).

    For this re-read I listened to the special edition audio, narrated by Titus Welliver, with a heart warming interview at the end with Welliver and Connelly.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First of the Bosch books that's I've read. I now need to go back and binge Season 3 ...

    Really good guilty pleasure reading - no politics, nothing to learn. Two things - the "love interest" thread seemed so forced and the hypnosis was way out there. Only two gripes I had about the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have to say that I knew "whodunnit" pretty quickly but kept with the story and was glad I did. It had enough action to hold my attention but not so much as to make it unrealistic. Overall it's a good read and I jumped into the sequel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Black Echo is the first book in the very successful Harry Bosch series. If the rest of the books are as good I’ll understand it’s success. I came to learn about these books through the videos on Amazon Prime. The series was great but very different storylines from the book, So don’t worry if you saw the shows it will not hurt your enjoyment of the books.The novel starts out with a dead body found in a pipe near the Mulholland Dam. Harry a 40 year old LAPD homicide detective gets the call out. Everything about the scene shows as either a suicide or an accidental OD by a hype,ie. An addict. Harry starts to feel something is wrong from the very beginning he can’t say why but he believes it maybe a murder staged to look like an OD. Adding to the difficulty of the case Harry knows the victim. They were both tunnel rats in Vietnam 20 years earlier, often working together. Though they mostly lost touch after the war Harry believes the victim, Billy Meadows got clean over a year ago when he called Harry, out of the blue, looking for help. Things are just not adding up for Harry. When the autopsy confirms that this could be a murder, Harry begins the laborious process of investigating Billy’s last hours and pulling together a murder case. Just as things get going the FBI takes it over and Bosch is off the job. Harry never one to leave well enough alone continues with his on the side investigation. He discovers a connection to a bank robbery a few years earlier and is able to muscle his way back onto the case and is put on loan to the FBI to work with their agents. The plot is well developed with a storyline that takes many twists and turns most of which I didn’t see coming! From the very beginning the tension starts to build and never let up. This was one heck of a ride!I listened to this on an audiobook. It would of been a great way to enjoy it except the narrator annoyed me. He did Bosch’s voice ok but it seemed the other voices were a stretch for his abilities. Therefore I cannot recommend this form for the book. I do on the other hand highly recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys mysteries and police procedurals!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Started reading the series after the Amazon Prime series ended. Good consistently between them. A complicated plot with a number of surprise endings.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Harry Bosch is a Noire-ish detective in the unlikely setting of Hollywood. He's a bit of the stereotypical hero policeman, a slightly loose cannon with less interest in making friends or following the rules than in uncovering the truth. This particular story hinges on his past as a Vietnam veteran, and includes a mildly silly romantic element, but the whole thing holds together pretty well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I admit it: I’m a latecomer to this party. Michael Connelly is an enormously successful writer and his series about Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch is his best-known work. But it’s taken me nearly 30 years to read one — and now I’m hooked. Connelly writes in the best traditions of both the police procedural (Ed McBain) and the LA-based film noir (Raymond Chandler). This book focusses on “tunnel rats” — American soldiers who during the Vietnam war would go down into underground tunnels in pursuit of Viet Cong fighters. I had the privilege of interviewing an American veteran of the Vietnam war who did exactly that, and have never forgotten what he told me. Bosch also, apparently, does hypnosis (another subject that, for the moment, intrigues me) — although doesn’t get a chance to demonstrate that skill in this book. Connelly has apparently written 30 novels, so there go my weekends for the rest of this year.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I didn’t plan it this way, but I do find it rather appropriate that my first book review of the new year is of the book that introduced one of the most popular fictional detectives in recent memory to the world. The Black Echo, published in 1992, was the first of Michael Connelly’s “Bosch novels.” Now, depending on how you count them - and it does get a little bit tricky - there are at least 26 novels featuring Harry Bosch. Most recently, Bosch has been teamed up with a new, younger partner called Renée Ballard, but beginning in 2008, Bosch has also been paired with his famous half-brother in four of the “Lincoln Lawyer” novels. In fact, just this morning I stopped by a Target store to purchase a copy of last November’s The Law of Innocence, the latest Lincoln Lawyer novel in which the brothers join forces. Interestingly, Hieronymous Bosch is already forty years old when readers first meet him. Harry even lives alone in the same stilted-house in Los Angeles that readers have come to know so well over the last almost-thirty years. But most tellingly, he is already in trouble with his police superiors, a state of being that will become the norm for Harry in many, if not most, of the next two-dozen books. Too, many of the characters that will become mainstays in later books are first introduced - although not always in a positive way - in The Black Echo. It is in this first book that readers learn enough of his backstory to understand why Harry is so ready to fight the system and why he is such a loner and a rebel. The experiences that Bosch had as a tunnel rat during the war in Vietnam play a crucial role in The Black Echo, but readers also learn enough here about the detective’s mother and his boyhood to understand why he still carries such deep emotional scars.The Black Echo begins when Bosch gets called to work a possible crime scene at Lake Hollywood where a dead body has been discovered inside a large drainage pipe. It is likely that the dead body belongs to an addict who has suffered an overdose, but cause of death will need to be determined before that can be confirmed. After Bosch has had time to study the scene and the body for a few minutes, he realizes two things: the death is probably not accidental and he knows the victim, a fellow Vietnam War tunnel rat - someone Harry helped into rehab a couple of years earlier but had not spoken with since. That’s when things start to get complicated and Harry begins to realize that there is more to this case than some very powerful people want to see exposed. Harry Bosch, though, is not a man who can easily be stopped from carrying an investigation through, no matter where that investigation may lead him or who tries to shut him up. He continues working the case, picking and choosing what information he will share with others involved in the investigation, despite the two Internal Affairs cops who trail him all the while in hopes that they can finally claim his badge as a trophy. Harry is just not a real popular guy with the LAPD or the FBI.Bottom Line: The Black Echo is an excellent introduction to Harry Bosch and the Los Angeles police department environment he must survive if he wants to do his job. I can tell you from experience that you do not necessarily have to read this first book in the series before jumping into the series at some later point, but it will certainly help you understand the character if you do. This is particularly true for the Vietnam-based portion of Bosch’s backstory. The Black Echo is an impressive debut novel. Even more impressive is the way that Michael Connelly has lived up to all the promise shown in the novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I do love me some hard-boiled detective fiction. :) I think it all started when I plied the big bookshelves at my grandparents' house beginning in my early teen years. Those bookshelves were a trove of everything from astronomy to animal husbandry to romance, historical, classic, mystery, SF--it seemed to have everything. So I got my first taste of the likes of Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, which turned into a lifelong affinity for the genre.

    The Black Echo speaks to me on that level, although it has a contemporary setting and echoes of the Vietnam War. The main character is the loner who might still find love, who does the right thing as he sees it, who wants justice. The plot is nicely complex and the supporting characters intriguing, and of course there's that interesting twist at the end. Really enjoyed this read--it was engaging and fast-paced. I've read Michael Connelly before and find him a very reliable storyteller.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Review of Black Echo, Black Ice, Concrete Blond, Harry Bosch series #1 #2 #3 by Michael Connelly

    This review covers the first three books in the Harry Bosch series.

    Set in those pre-mobile phone days in and around Hollywood the main character is introduced with a back story that forms a major part of the plot of the first novel and is also apparent in the following two but to a lesser degree. Harry Bosch is built up pretty fast which is not surprising as detective novels are usually pretty tight.

    He is pretty much the stereotype but there is no shame on that, it means that we can just get on with the story and not have lots of sidetracks to fill in the plot. I liked him in that 2 dimensional way, even though he is quite solidly built.

    The plots are like all good detective plots, merely a frame on which to hang the detective's skills and issues, yes, he has a few issues, and so he should to be convincing.

    The stories themselves are coherent and engaging and well thought out, there's no second guessing here you have to read it all out to get to the end.

    After reading three I could have happily read more but my backlog needs reducing.

    You will not be disappointed here, top quality craftsmanship as you'd expect from Michael Connelly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Titus Welliver narrationReview of the Special Edition audiobook (2020) of the 1992 originalTitus Welliver owns the role of Harry Bosch and it is impossible now to think of anyone else ever playing the role. This Special Edition is his re-recording of the first Bosch book from 1992, which was previously recorded by veteran audiobook reader Dick Hill in The Black Echo (2006). Welliver takes slightly longer in the reading at approx. 14 hours and 15 minutes compared to Hill's 13 hours and 50 minutes. The extra feature here is a 40 minute discussion and Q&A session with author Michael Connelly and actor Titus Welliver where they discuss various trivia about the writing and the television show. I wouldn't say there were any great revelations from the Q&A, but I was reminded that the Bosch of the novels has a moustache which I had totally forgotten about and which I think is now rarely mentioned. The largest revelation was probably that it took Connelly 4 years to write The Black Echo, presumably because he was still working at his newspaper job at the time. Now as a professional book writer he is able to produce 1-2 books a year, and I would say without any drop in quality.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For quite some time now I have been thinking about branching out of my preferred “stomping ground” focused on speculative fiction, not so much because of reader fatigue but rather for a healthy change of pace through a more varied choice of reading material. In the past, besides SFF, I’ve always enjoyed books in the thriller/crime niche, and I’ve recently marked as interesting several titles in these genres that were showcased by my fellow bloggers, but what really compelled me to finally turn those good resolutions into reality was a tv series. In the past I had noticed, in the customer suggestions from Amazon Prime Video, the series Bosch and at some point during the lockdown months I decided to take a look: in the space of a handful of episodes I was won over by the story and characters, so that once I discovered they were based on a series of books by Michael Connelly, I decided that my new “reading adventure” would start there - and it turned out to be an inspired choice, indeed.Mr. Connelly’s successful series focuses on the character of Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, a L.A.P.D. detective whose dogged determination in solving cases equals only his total disregard for departmental politics, which makes him quite unpopular with the powers that be and always on the brink of dismissal. In this first case, Bosch is called on the scene of what looks like a death by overdose, and only a few conflicting details and the fact that he knows the victim - a former comrade, and like Bosch a Vietnam vet - will drive the detective to investigate deeper into what is beyond doubt a murder staged like an accidental death. Despite the inherent difficulties and the bureaucratic obstacles in his path, Harry pursues the elusive evidence that leads him to discover a long-planned, convoluted heist that will not only put him against well-organized masterminds and unfriendly co-workers, but will force him to face some of the demons of his past.One of the most noticeable differences between the tv series and the book is of course the time setting: while the former takes place in the present, the latter - published in 1992 - is set some 30 years in the past and this accounts for the lack of some elements we have come to take for granted, like cell phones, easy internet searches or information merge between law enforcement databases. Still, this does not detract from the story in any way, and one of its major themes - the predicament of overseas wars’ veterans, who come back home and struggle to reclaim their place in society - is as actual now as it was back then. What I found truly unsettling, however, was the protagonist’s chain smoking: it’s not just that now we are more aware of the dangers inherent in smoking than we were back then, just as it’s not only that as a reformed smoker (I’m proud to say that I quit in 1982 and never relapsed) I now look at it as a ghastly habit - there was so much virtual cigarette smoke in the book that I often felt the need to air the room…. :-DApart from these minor distractions, The Black Echo proved to be a very compelling read, one that blends intriguing characterization and an interesting plot that managed to surprise me at several turns, encouraging me to look for the other books in the series: this is Michael Connelly’s debut novel, and it shows already a firm grasp of pace and characterization, so that I know I can only expect the rest of his works to keep improving from this remarkable starting point.Storywise, I found the depiction of the city of Los Angeles quite intriguing: forget the glamor that’s part and parcel of the world’s entertainment capital, forget the endless, palm-lined avenues and the beaches where beautiful people laze in the sun - here you will get to know the dirty, shabby, ugly face of the city, its graffiti-stained walls, its concrete drainage ditches and the abandoned pipes where the homeless and the dregs of society take refuge. This far from rosy view of L.A. is mirrored by the stark depiction of a police department more focused on bureaucracy and internal politics than in crime-solving work: at some point we learn about Bosch’s partner’s alternate activity as a real estate agent, a job that gets more attention and energies than the man devotes to his primary one. This is the main reason that sets Bosch apart from most of his colleagues: he’s grimly determined to go to the bottom of things, to bring justice to the victims, and he does so with a dogged persistence that stems from an event in his past, one that’s mentioned in passing here and will certainly come to dominate his attitude as the story moves forward.What is interesting is that while Bosch’s dedication is admirable, he’s not portrayed as the proverbial square-jawed, unblemished hero: on the contrary he’s a deeply flawed individual - a lone wolf rather than a team player - one who seems to go out of his way to keep people at a distance or to be unpleasant, as if he enjoys aggravating them. This aspect of his character is in synch with the overall noir atmosphere of the story, evident in the often blunt prose that nonetheless manages to be vividly descriptive. There is a darkness in Bosch’s soul that both keeps him apart from the rest of humanity and compels him to look in places others prefer to ignore: the book’s title refers to a feeling he experienced as a “tunnel rat” in Vietnam, the sensation of the darkness coming alive in those stifling, claustrophobic spaces - he lost something of himself in those tunnels, and only facing his fears he might find it again. There is a passage in the novel where we get a glimpse of Bosch’s mindset through the description of a painting that fascinates him, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.He mostly sees himself as the man sitting alone on one side of the counter, but there is a part of his mind that hopes he might be the other guy, the one sitting alongside the woman: it’s this drive toward normality, coexisting with his cynical acceptance of reality, that makes him such a fascinating character whose exploration is just as intriguing as that of the mysteries he needs to solve.As a first foray into new “territory”, The Black Echo proved to be a very encouraging attempt, and it will certainly not be the last in this compelling series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Should I be disappointed that the twist at the end was completely predictable? Or should I feel clever for having figured it out? I think more disappointed, because I figured it out based on tropes for how this kind of story usually works, rather than from careful reading. Having read later books in the series, it was interesting to go to the very beginning. I'm surprised how steady Connelly's writing has been, and also his characters, Bosch and McEvoy at least. That was a bit disappointing. I think Connelly tries harder here to give Bosch a good backstory, and I appreciate that, but the small details of police procedure and the Los Angeles area were more lacking here than in later books. > The leaning in and out of his face was a technique Bosch had learned while spending what seemed like ten thousand hours in these little rooms. Lean in, invade that foot and a half that is all theirs, their own space. Lean back when you get what you want. It's subliminal.