All good novels. Hard to read three in 14 days :-( ( )

My overall rating of these three books is 3 stars. I gave each book a standalone rating that you can see further below. My overall summary of these three books is that Harry Bosch is flawed and acts like an asshole most of the time. He seems to have a good brain, but his ability to use people (the ends justify the means) turned me off pretty much in book #2, and in book #3 I was bored senseless of him and his issues. I started reading these books because I love the Bosch tv series. All of the characters I started to watch and love are totally different in these books. So if you start reading these books expecting a total match-up of the tv series you are going to be disappointed.

THE BLACK ECHO (4 stars)
The first book in the Harry Bosch series. This one takes a while to get moving, but once it does, boy does the whole story hum. It takes a while for readers to figure out what's going on. Prior to the events in this book, Bosch was in a different division until he made a mistake and shot a serial killer who he thought was reaching for a gun (The Dollmaker). Because of that, he is busted down to the Hollywood division and is partnered with someone who is more interested in selling houses, than solving crimes (J. Edgar). Called into a scene where it looks like an accidental overdose leads Bosch into his past and linking a present day crime with events that took place back in Vietnam.

Bosch is angry and bitter in this one, but also vulnerable (only around women he is interested in it seems). Being knocked down to a division that he hates, he still comes into work but seems to look his nose down on a heck of a lot of people. Frankly I wonder why he even wanted to be a cop in this one since his main purpose seems to be annoying the ever loving life out of all around him.

This book introduces Irving, J. Edgar, and Eleanor Wish (working at the FBI). Harry ends up partnering with Eleanor Wish in this one, and man oh man, the lovelorn act that Harry was doing was terrible. I agree with Moonlight Reader who said that most detective novels are pretty much the male version of romance novels (wish fulfillment) especially because I can't see what in the world attracted Eleanor to Harry. And due to the ending you realize it would have been smarter to not get involved at all.

I thought the writing in this one was really a bit too technical. I had the same issue while reading the first Lincoln Rhymes book. Some things, not all flew a bit over my head. It's pretty apparent that Michael Connelly did a great deal of research. The description of the L.A. that Harry inhabits gives the whole book a very noir feel to it. I honestly gave this book 4 stars though because some of the language and outdated thinking regarding women and gay men was off-putting. At one point when Bosch meets Eleanor Wish, he remarks how rare it is to see a woman armed with her weapon, unlike female detectives who carried their guns in their purses.

I did think the flow could have been a bit improved.

I really did rate this book so high because once Bosch realizes what is going on you think that he is going to be able to put a stop to what is going to happen. But we get a crazy ending that I definitely did not see coming.

THE BLACK ICE (3 stars)
After the events in book #1, Bosch is back at work. Angry because he wasn't called into a scene of a probable missing cop's suicide (and seriously, angry Bosch is a bit tiresome, he's always ticked at something) Bosch ends up digging into whether it really was suicide or not.

I have to say that Bosch in this one was damn near insufferable. I say damn near because I of course read book #3 after this one and man he was tiresome and insufferable in that one. There is no real reason for Bosch to even stick his nose into this case except he feels like it. He is asked to call on the dead cop's estranged wife to let her know that he's dead and than pretty much has insta-love when he first sees her.

The woman's name is Sylvia Moore so be prepared to read it a lot in this book. He keeps thinking about her, her face, her eyes that seem to see so much of him (gag, double gag) and feels at home with this woman for no reason that is shown to the reader. It's random and odd. What makes it also somewhat gross (at least to me) is that you find out that Harry is having an off and on thing with someone in the Medical Examiner's office (Teresa Corazon) who he uses for information and leaks it, even though he knows that she's trying for a promotion (there's that unrepentant asshole thing).

We have reappearances of Irving and J.Edgar, but honestly J.Edgar was barely even in this one besides Harry calling him up now and then.

The story moves to Mexico and Bosch finally finds out what corruption really looks like in the police forces.

The writing and flow in this one was not that great due to a lot of repetitiveness. And I really think it makes absolutely no sense for the bad guy in this one to even draw Bosch in like he did. And there were a lot of plot contrivances (all of a sudden three cases Bosch is looking into are tied together).

I have to say that I totally called the ending on this one. The author seemed to have Harry so focused on seeing the main villain that I knew that it can only be leading to one thing.

THE CONCRETE BLONDE (2 stars)
Harry is going on civil trial for shooting and killing Norman Church (the Dollmaker serial killer) that we have heard about in books #1 and #2. Church's widow is bringing a civil lawsuit against Harry saying that Norman was not the serial killer, and Bosch shot and killed the wrong person. Due to similar crimes which fit the Dollmaker's MO popping up around L.A., Harry and others are trying to figure out if there's a copycat or if the Dollmaker is still out there.

This one was so tedious and boring. Who knew reading about a trial and investigation going on at the same time could put one to sleep. I finished this up yesterday afternoon/last night and I could feel my brain slowing down.

There is also a lot of angst going on in this book. Bosch is now dating Sylvia Moore (it's been about a year since the events in the last book) and Bosch is having trouble opening up to her. They keep discussing the issues he has with opening up, he keeps saying he has secrets and she keeps saying she knows he has secrets. I hated both of them so much while reading this. I also kept saying please oh please break up.

We have the usual characters in this one, along with a psychologist and the trial attorney, Honey Chandler (gah her first name) is out to get Bosch.

I have to say that the overall book didn't work. They should have either focused on the trial or the copycat, not both. And can I just call BS on the whole this is who the murderer is reveal? It didn't make a lot of sense, and then we had a bad guy monologue scene.

The book limps along to the ending, and I guess we have to wait to see what book #4 has in store for Bosch and Sylvia. More angst I assume. ( )

Hieronymus Bosch is a well established cultural icon now that Connelly's books have been adapted into a wildly popular streaming series. A couple years back I picked up this omnibus of the first three novels to keep me busy while waiting for a new season to drop for binging. I read the first one and enjoyed it a great deal, on its own. And it has to be on its own because, while Connelly and producers of the streaming series firmly nailed Bosch's character, the setting and supporting cast and stories are quite different in the books. J. Edgar is still here and he still fancies himself a real estate pusher more than a cop at first, but his relationship with Bosch is much more complicated. Eleanor Wish is still here, but she is much darker and her character arc very different.

All three of the books here feature Bosch in all his glory, and all his pain. But you have to read them in context, the context of the 90s Rampart scandal and LAPD's emergence as a deeply flawed police department, for them to make sense and for Bosch to make sense. You also have to recognize Bosch as the bastard stepchild of Hammett, Chandler, and Spillane.

[Black Echo] has Harry after a tunneling crew robbing banks; [Black Ice] has Harry chasing a corrupt cop who has faked his death; and [The Concrete Blonde] tells some of Harry's back-story as he returns to the serial murder case which caused him so much trouble, now wondering if he got it wrong.

I resisted quite awhile before picking up these popular novels, as I always end up disappointed and wishing I could get those few hours back. But Connelly raises the stakes with Bosch, pushes past the typical boilerplate pulp. These are modern-day noirs, a foot firmly in the old Los Angeles of Phillip Marlowe but with the eyes of a contemporary gunslinger.

4 1/2 bones!!!!
Recommended ( )

I wish more publishers did this with popular series - three excellent novels in one book. ( )

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