The Black Echo (Harry Bosch #1)

By Michael Connelly

 His is Michael Connelly's first novel and when I first tried reading it I found it hard going. Perhaps I was too young, too inexperienced or the human connection that I look for in a novel just wasn't there. either way, I just couldn't connect. Years later, after reading The Last Coyote I felt I' had made a proper connection with the Hartry Bosch character and I was hooked, going back to the beginning and reading through all of the series with barely a single break.

Synopsis

"Bosch stared at the photograph until fatigue and alcohol pulled him down ... almost dreamlike. He remembered that last tunnel and he rememebered Billy Meadows."
One Sunday LAPD homicide detective Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch gets a call-out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mullolland Drive, Hollywood. The body looks like yet another OD, but Bosch isn't convinced. The one new puncture wound amidst the scars of old tracks strikes an odd note. And something else: Harry knows him. Billy Meadows wasa fellow tunnel rat out in Vietnam, running against the VC and against the fear they used to call the Black Echo. Harry let Meadows down once, he won't do it again.

Author 

Michael Connelly began writing for the Los Angeles on the Crime Beat. He turned out his first novel in 1992, Bill Clinton was spotted purchasing Michael’s third novel, Concrete Blonde, in 1994 and he never looked back. 26 novels later and he’s still going. On a personal note, with the title “The wrong side of goodbye” I’m a little nervous about reading the 2016 novel for fear of Harry dying off… no comments giving that away people, I’m hoping to address that demon over Christmas.

Books by the same author

There are so many novels he's written, a full list can be found here. But I'm going to focus on what I consider to be the most significant in terms of Harry Bosch's character development.

The Black Echo (1992)
The Last Coyote (1995)
A Darkness More Than Night (2001)
Nine Dragons (2009)
The Drop (2011)
Switchblade (2014)