The Black Echo

In comic strips and fiction, our favorite characters rarely age. Beetle Bailey hasn’t changed a bit. James Bond would need a super-spy walker if Ian Fleming’s character grew older with time. Suspense author Michael Connelly allows the passage of time play a part in his stories, and in “The Black Echo,” he introduces a character that has become his stock-in-trade.
Mrs. Bosch named her son, Hieronymus, but is no surprise that the LA detective prefers to be called Harry Bosch. A Vietnam veteran who makes a mark on the police force, Bosch is a hero who takes a fall over a shooting death. Despite its name, his reassignment to the Hollywood division is hardly a glamorous post.
Bosch doesn’t believe in coincidence, so when he discovers the body of a veteran he served with, he won’t write it off as an overdose, and his investigation uncovers a link to a major bank robbery.
Connelly is a former crime reporter and his contact with law enforcement undoubtedly provides the gripping authenticity he manages in following the case. In his “Black Echo” introduction of Harry Bosch, Connelly provides a solid foundation that has now endured through twelve novels, with the latest – “Echo Park” – released this fall.
There are offbeat and eccentric crime fighters – Preston and Child’s Aloysius Pendergast as an example – then there is serious and straightforward Harry Bosch. He follows the clues, follows his instincts, and follows the rules.
Michael Connelly also writes stand-alone suspense, which allows him to present enough background in each Bosch outing to thoroughly flesh out his story. To know Harry Bosch though, is to know Hieronymus – his name, his style, and his background – and in getting to know suspense writers, there are few better than Michael Connelly and “The Black Echo” is a great starting point.