Michael Connelly -- The Black Echo (1992)
It has been over a decade since The Black Echo was published, introducing mystery readers to one of the best authors (and detectives) to come along in quite some time. During the intervening years, Michael Connelly has gone on to demonstrate that the promise showed in this book was not misleading. He has consistently proved that he is one of the finest writers of detective fiction ever.
The Black Echo opens with LAPD Homicide Detective Harry Bosch being called out one night to investigate a suspicious death. The body of a dead junkie has been found inside a large pipe above the Mulholland Dam. Everyone seems to think it's a simple case of overdose and are ready to write it off. Harry might be inclined to do the same, except there's something familiar about the dead man. Staring into his face, Bosch begins to suspect something that is finally confirmed by a tattoo on the man's shoulder: Harry knows him.
The remains are that of one Billy Meadows, a man Bosch knew a lifetime ago in the jungles of Vietnam. The two served together as "tunnel rats," scared young men whose specialty was searching the underground warrens of the Vietcong that lay beneath so many Vietnamese villages. That shock of recognition is enough to prompt Bosch to investigate further and more closely that he probably otherwise would have. Before long he discovers that not only was Meadows murdered, but prior to his death he had been part of successful scheme to tunnel into the vault of a bank and make off with millions.
Before becoming a mystery author, Connelly was a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times. His experience as a journalist shows in his ability to grab the reader quickly with concise, descriptive prose. Connelly enables you not only to see through the eyes of his detective, but to feel what it's like to be in his skin. When Bosch has nightmares about being back in those Vietnamese tunnels, the author makes sure you smell the sweat.
Connelly also demonstrates time and again how well he knows the territory. Whether he's taking us into the halls of Parker Center, the homicide desk at the Hollywood station, or the smoky rooms of a downtown Las Vegas casino, he gets all the sights, sounds, and smells just right, giving the aura of reality and believability to his fiction.
When it was first released, The Black Echo won a well-deserved Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel. Back then, nobody knew that Michael Connelly was embarking on what was going to become such a superb series, the finest to emerge within the past decade. Even from the beginning, though, the author wrote with a firm and confident hand, weaving a masterful web of deceit with his flawed, haunted detective right at the middle of it.
Along with Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder, Harry Bosch is the most intriguing detective in the mystery genre today. Connelly hits all the right notes with his protagonist, striking a fine balance between weary cynicism, vulnerability, and investigative brilliance. He remains endlessly fascinating, never failing to pique the reader's interest in both his professional and personal lives. The whole series (now numbering ten volumes) should be read and savored.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
