Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's catch-up time, and what a great way of doing it!, 15 Oct 2000
Michael Connelly, with his eponymous LA detective Harry Bosch, has undoubtedly reached the top-rank of crime thriller writers. When broadsheets like The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph pen hugely enthusiastic reviews, all echoing reaction from the tabloids, uncertain readers can be pretty sure they're on to a good bet. And there's no doubt at all that the 750 or so pages of the "The Harry Bosch Mysteries" will do two things: it'll garner a whole new army of fans, and let those who've already discovered Connelly and Bosch in later books catch up on how the saga of the LA cop started and got firmly established. Apart from anything else, there's an extra bonus too. Many of the Harry Bosch books contain fleeting, though relatively unimportant, references to events and incidents which have gone before. For new readers, "The Harry Bosch Mysteries" will explain virtually all of those. "The Black Echo" is the first book within the book and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel when it was published. It's hard to imagine a reader who'll find that surprising as the last page is turned. The hallmarks are the author's apparently encyclopaedic knowledge of LA police procedures (which, amazingly, never become boring or tedious) coupled with a fast-moving storyline and a high possibility of keeping the eventual pay-off hidden until the last few pages. "The Black Ice" expands on Bosch's pre-police life and provides an even more startling finale after taking the detective to Mexico. It also hints at replacing the love interest from "The Black Echo" with...but that'd be giving too much away. And then finally comes "The Concrete Blonde" with an even more startling finish - an ending which (let me stick my neck out here) most readers simply won't spot coming. Here's a hint though: one of Connelly's strengths is his willingness to sacrifice characters he's carefully painted in earlier, either in previous books or simply previously. All in all, "The Harry Bosch Mysteries" has to be one of this year's bargain buys - over 750 pages for less than the price of a discounted hard-cover. Bosch fans, snap it up. And for those yet to discover Connelly's creation: trust me, you're very unlikely to be disappointed!
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, 15 Jun 2002
By A Customer
I picked up THE HARRY BOSCH MYSTERIES just because I wanted something new. I normally just stick to Ian Rankin or other british writers. But once I got into it I couldn't stop. Really I finished 'The Black Echo' the day I bought it, I bought it at about 9 in the morning, got home at about 10 am, and started reading at about 10:30am, and I didn't stop till about 11 that night, I just took the phone of the hook and enjoyed the magic that comes with reading an excellent book.
In 'The Black Echo' we find out about the main character Harry Bosch, we learn about his past in Vietnam (he was a tunnel rat). Also a body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mullholland Dam, Hollywood, and thats how the story starts.
In 'The Black Ice' the corpse of a missing LAPD Narcotics officer is found in a hotel room, and the LAPD are quick to declare his death a suicide, but Harry Bosch is not so sure.
And in 'The Concrete Blonde' we find one of the most important parts of Bosch's history brought back to life, he is being charged of killing the wrong man (Norman Church THE DOLLMAKER)- LA's most bizarre serial killer. Church's wife is accusing Harry of killing the wrong man, and to make things worse, Harry has just received a taunting note that appears to be from THE DOLLMAKER himself. This is a seriously good novel, with a twist that not anyone on the face of the earth (except Michael Connelly, or maybe he didn't even expect it) could expect.
This is well worth 9.99, buy it, read it, and it will haunt you for the rest of your life, BRILLIANT.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great writer, Great stories, Brilliant detective!!!, 29 Sep 2003
What can I say, I just love Micheal Connelly's books and cannot get enough of Harry Bosch stories, He is my 'anti hero' never one to 'Kow Tow' to his superiors, always arguing and going off on his own to solve the case, nearly always successfully.
I could not suggest that any one novel was better than the other, they were all excellent, all different, buy it you will not be dissapointed,wait with baited breathe for the next one.
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