|
Echo Park Reviews
Harry Bosch is still on the job, working out of LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit, and despite his best efforts
at holding his antiestablishment impulses in check, he's in trouble again. This time the problem is an unsolved case that has haunted Harry since 1993. Now it appears that the killer has been caught, apprehended by
chance and connected to a string of nine additional murders. As cops and prosecutors debate a plea bargain—the killer will confess to the murders if he can avoid the death penalty—it is revealed that Harry and his
partner may have missed a crucial clue back in 1993 that could have solved the case then and prevented the later murders. But something doesn't feel right. As in The Closers (2005), Harry once again may be the victim of a politically inspired conspiracy, or "high jingo" in cop talk. Connelly remains a master at constructing plots that, like contrapuntal themes in music, echo one another. As we watch Harry confront the train wreck that could destroy his career, we also see him dealing with a potentially even more serious crisis being played out internally: Can he recover from the knowledge that his oversight may have resulted in nine murders? Is he a good cop with no tolerance for phonies, or is he, in fact, as his enemies have always argued, an uncontrollable rogue whose hubris costs lives? The answers to these questions are not as clear cut as one might assume, with Connelly forcing Harry's many fans to accept the harsh truth that the genre's most compelling hero may also be one of its most flawed. Superior crime fiction, as suspenseful as it is psychologically acute.
— Bill Ott, Booklist * Starred Review
Bestseller Connelly's compelling 12th Harry Bosch novel (after 2005's The Closers) offers some new wrinkles on a familiar theme—the aging detective
haunted by the one who got away. In Bosch's case, the elusive quarry is the man who abducted a 22-year-old equestrian, Marie Gesto, in 1993. Having returned to active duty as a member of the LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit,
Bosch repeatedly pulls the file to see if he can discover something new and give some small solace to the victim's parents. When a chance police stop of a suspicious vehicle nets serial killer Raynard Waits, who's
carrying body parts in his van, Bosch assesses the murderer's claim that he was responsible for killing Gesto, too. The weary and cynical detective soon suspects that Waits is trying to barter information for a
reduced sentence of life imprisonment. Political motivations connected with the upcoming DA election also cloud the investigation. Smooth prose and plausible characters—even the secondary figures—elevate this
several notches above the standard cop vs. serial-killer thriller.
— Publishers Weekly * Book of the Week
Harry Bosch, back with the LAPD in the Open-Unresolved Unit, wrestles with a teasing
case from his salad days in Hollywood homicide. Back in 1993, equestrienne Marie Gesto vanished without a trace. Ten days later, her car turned up in the garage of a landmark apartment building, her clothing neatly
folded inside. Then nothing, from that day to this. Harry Bosch, who caught the case, worked it obsessively and even took a copy of the open file into retirement with him. Frustrated that he could never make a case
against Anthony Garland, the worthless son of a high-rolling oilman, Bosch reviewed the evidence every chance he had when he was back on the job in Open-Unresolved. Now, suddenly, the crime has evidently been solved
without his lifting a finger. Raynard Waits, a window-cleaner caught red-handed with the dismembered body parts of two murder victims in his car, is trying to avoid the needle by confessing to nine earlier
homicides, including Marie Gesto's. But Harry can't help looking this gift horse in the mouth. He doesn't trust Freddy Olivas, the Northeast homicide detective in charge of the case, or Rick O'Shea, the prosecutor
who plans to ride it into the top job at the DA's office. And he doesn't trust Waits, not even when he provides information about the crime only the killer could know and offers to lead the cops to the spot where he
buried Marie Gesto. Readers who feel confident they can see what's coming will be thrown off-stride by the crafty series of surprises Connelly has up his sleeve. But nobody familiar with Bosch's checkered career
will be shocked when the malfeasance reaches past Raynard Waits to the highest levels of city government. Connelly offers a stellar demonstration of why, as Harry says, "taking it straight to the heart is the
way of the true detective," whatever the costs to himself and others.
— Kirkus Reviews, * Starred Review
Michael Connelly returns with Echo Park, his newest in the LA Detective
series featuring Harry Bosch. Echo Park is now the 12th in this famed series and the 17th work of fiction by Mr. Connelly. He has built a remarkable body of work and if Echo Park is the measure he only getting better.
Once again Harry gets to solve an old case that has haunted him. A serial killer has taken the blame for a murder Bosch could not solve. In fact, he may have
made a mistake that allowed the killer to continue murdering for many years. What follows is an impossible-to-put-down novel. Connelly's detailed narrative is as brilliant as ever. He has always had the ability to
make an ordinary situation fascinating. It has made his novels believable on a level many other writers cannot approach. For example, without any red herrings or plot frills, a scene when he firsts interrogates the
suspect took my breath away and demanded re-reading. As always, his characters are real, his insight into the dark side of LA and the human condition are at the pinnacle of today's modern fiction. I have highly
praised Michael Connelly over the years, both for his writing skills and for being a gentleman to all of us in the book business. He is simply one of the greatest authors of our time and stands with James Ellroy and
James Lee Burke as the writers who have taken the crime novel and turned it into today's modern literature.
— Richard Katz, Mystery One Bookstore
Why are maverick policemen so popular with readers of crime fiction? In real life they would probably drive you crazy. In Michael Connelly's Echo Park Detective Kiz Rider, who partners one of the most famous of all mavericks, Harry Bosch, is finding it harder than ever to cope with his increasingly reckless disregard for the consequences of his actions. Working in the Open-Unsolved unit of the LAPD has given him the opportunity to keep going over the files of an old case he himself failed to solve, the disappearance of a young woman. Now a man accused of two murders has confessed to several others, including that of the missing woman, and Harry is devastated to discover that he had missed a clue which could have led to the killer all those years ago. But Connelly's plots are never straightforward, and he keeps us guessing until the exciting and bitter conclusion to this latest episode in a splendid series.
— Susanna Yager, The Daily Telegraph (London)
Michael Connelly kicks ass in Echo Park, the latest mystery novel starring Detective Harry Bosch. This is a tight, captivating, mystery
whose pages almost turn automatically before your eyes. Echo Park finds Harry Bosch exorcising another old demon though this time the demon is himself and how he handled a murder case some thirteen years ago. While he tortures himself with the guilt of not having caught a killer who then killed at least nine other women Bosch still has to solve the original case and other similar ones. It all begins when Reynard Waits is pulled over and found holding a bag with parts from two different corpses. Facing a lose-lose situation, Waits makes a deal with the D.A and confesses to the murders he committed, including that of Marie Gesto, a case Bosch could not solve thirteen years ago. Bosch does not believe Waits' claim, especially since he has always had another suspect in mind. When he discovers an entry in the Gesto murder book that shows Waits contacted him and former partner Jerry Edgar thirteen years ago, Bosch starts to question his abilities while trying not to drown in the wave of guilt that follows that discovery. This is but one aspect of Echo Park,
the latest mystery novel by Michael Connelly. There is also the usual game playing by Bosch's superiors at the LAPD, the reappearance of FBI agent and former flame Rachel Walling, and Bosch's usual tendency to be a
lone wolf and a bit of a loose cannon. Add to this Connelly's usual tight and quick pacing and you've got yourself one hell of a detective novel. Connelly is at the top of his game here. You sometimes have the
distinct impression he is actually playing games with the amateur detective we all become when we read a mystery. He plants clues an intelligent reader will figure out and then has Bosch or another detective reveal
their solution much too early on in the novel for said clues to be that meaningful. You know Connelly is messing with your expectations and all you can say is, "Please, Sir. Can I have some more?" Echo Park is by far the best mystery I have read in a long, long time including past great efforts by Connelly.
— Richard Lanoie, TheMysterySite.com
As a public librarian, hundreds of books pass through my hands every week and I am constantly being asked by patrons for suggestions of new books or
authors they will like. Many of Michael Connelly's books have gone across the checkout desk, but I never had a chance to read any. Echo Park will alter that very quickly. This is one of those books an avid reader develops a love-hate relationship with. On the one hand, you simply hate to put it down when the clock strikes one; on the other, you berate yourself the next morning because you did stay up so late. Harry Bosch is the ideal mystery protagonist; flawed, obsessive, haunted by small things that later assume larger proportions. In Echo Park, he finally gets the opportunity to bring to closure the case of Marie Gesto who vanished 13 years ago, leaving only her car in a vacant apartment garage with her clothing including undergarments, neatly folded on the front seat. Even after leaving the LAPD, Harry couldn't let go of this one and it is one case he returns to after rejoining the force. Now, a fortuitous stop by two other officers is going to give him the opportunity to put the case and Marie's ghost to rest. Or will it? Michael Connelly has written a real squirmer in Echo Park.
As you read, you can't seem to shake the feeling that somewhere a few pages further into the book, the boogie man will roar out of the closet and send you screaming down the hall to lock the bathroom door and hope
for salvation. This book will have me going back and reading all of the books featuring Harry as well as suggesting my hard-core mystery patrons do the same, it's that good.
— John Clark, TCM Reviews
Harry Bosch is a no-nonsense police detective with an ex-wife, daughter and a thing going on with a pretty psychological profiler. Back in 1993, he investigated the case of a missing girl who has never
been found. The case has haunted him ever since, and every few months he'll take out the file, do a bit of probing and call the girl's parents, just to let them know he hasn't forgotten their pain. But now, Harry's
problem is a politically-ambitious district attorney with an election coming up. And a very creepy serial killer, who has confessed to the girl's murder and several others, in a complicated deal that will spare him
the death penalty. The DA is anxious that this deal should go through. But Bosch isn't happy about this plan at all. Something just doesn't add up. But powerless against political might, Bosch goes with the
entourage as the killer takes them to the place where he claims to have buried the missing girl's body all those years ago. And then all hell breaks loose. This is a gripping thriller, set in a not-so-glamorous
Hollywood. It's the character of Harry that really made this thriller come alive for me. He's methodical, hardworking and, like a dog with a bone, he just won't let the case of the missing girl go. He lets the
human tragedy of murder victims and their families get to him and is not the most diplomatic of souls when it comes to internal politics. And to make things even more tricky for Harry, his attention is drawn to a
lead he and his then-partner allegedly missed all those years ago. Could this have saved the lives of a further nine people? And what is going on with the serial killer's two aliases? Echo Park is a good, solid read, perfect for cold winter evenings. Michael Connelly has written 11 thrillers involving Harry Bosch. He also wrote the legal thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer,
which was selected for Channel 4's Richard and Judy's bookclub.
— Belfast News Letter (Northern Ireland)
Detective Harry Bosch is haunted by a crime he failed to solve 13 years ago: the disappearance of Marie Gesto. Then Raynard Waits, a man accused of the murder of two prostitutes, admits to killing Marie: but is this
because somebody high up in the force, trying to protect the real murderer, has told Waits that making a fake confession will save him from the electric chair? The cop who allows his one failure to overshadow all
his successes is a clichéd figure, but admirers of Connelly's Bosch novels will know that his depiction of his dedicated hero always has the ring of authenticity. And, amid the excitements of his vertiginous plot,
Connelly takes the time to consider whether Harry's determination to get his man is worth the sacrifices he makes.
— Jake Kerridge, The Daily Telegraph (London)
Among all the nefarious killers that Michael Connelly's complex and competent homicide detective Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch has dealt with, there was one he never caught - the murderer of Marie Gesto, who disappeared
in Hollywood 13 years ago. But now a man who has been arrested literally red-handed (and with female body parts in his car) is willing to confess to Marie's murder and reveal the site of her grave, in return for a
deal that would enable him to avoid the death sentence for a series of murders. It looks as if a tragic case is finally about to be solved, but there are one or two details Bosch is worried about . . . Connelly has
produced another blindingly good plot which, mixed with spellbinding action, takes us deep into a corrupt world. Not for the first time do we discover that there is a very fine line indeed between criminals and the
police. This is crime thriller writing of the highest order.
— Matthew Lewin, The Guardian (London)
There is something that publishers would gladly kill for - it's called the Richard and Judy effect. When the TV duo endorses a novel, sales go through the roof. Case in point? American author Michael
Connelly. For many years, Connelly's crime novels featuring hard-boiled Vietnam vet-turned-LAPD detective Harry Bosch had enjoyed respectable sales. But after the R & J appearance of his The Lincoln Lawyer,
Connelly acquired a whole new readership. Echo Park proves to be every bit as entertaining and new Connelly readers will make their first acquaintance with the wonderful Bosch, who makes a welcome reappearance here. It's the realisation of Harry's troubled character that makes Connelly's books so memorable. Even the overfamiliar motif of an alcoholic detective is handled with skill, banishing thoughts of cliché. Back in 1993, a young woman vanished after leaving a Hollywood supermarket and the case wound up with homicide detective Bosch. Thirteen years pass and Harry is now in the Open/Unsolved Unit - although he's never forgotten Marie Gesto's disappearance. He receives a call from the DA's office: a man accused of two murders is proposing a deal to avoid the death chamber. He will confess to a slew of other victims, one of whom is Marie Gesto. Harry now finds that he must become close to a man he has both hunted and despised for years. This is Connelly doing what he does best: delivering a beautifully structured, richly atmospheric crime novel.
— Barry Forshaw, The Express (UK)
LA police detective Harry Bosch messes up several times in the course of his latest case. The recovery is problematic and painful—and invariably complicates his life. It's a common happening in most of Michael
Connelly's Bosch police procedurals, of which there are an even dozen now with the arrival of Echo Park. Harry is in the Open-Unsolved Unit this time, obsessed with a still-open file on the
disappearance of a young woman 13 years earlier. Then an accused murderer comes clean on the cold case. Because Harry and his partner missed clues at the time, the killer was able to murder nine more people before
getting caught. Full of surprises galore, Echo Park is right up there with the best of Bosch, ensuring fans an all-night, nonstop read.
— Michael J. Bandler, GO AirTran Airways Magazine
On the back of the book jacket for Echo Park the publisher writes that Michael Connelly "...has won every major prize for crime fiction." The thing about braggadocio like that is you'd better have the chops to back it up—and Connelly does, in spades. I've been reading him since a Northern Wisconsin fishing trip turned into a rain-soaked washout—salvaged only by Connelly's The Poet.
That was nearly a decade ago and, frankly, as much as I loved The Poet, Connelly has just kept getting better. There are some guilty pleasure books I read on the subway with the covers discretely hidden from
prying eyes; with Connelly I hold it up in people's faces sort of saying, "Hey, if you knew what's good for you, you'd be reading this." Echo Park is vintage Connelly, featuring everyone's favorite detective, Harry Bosch. Thirteen years ago, Marie Gesto vanished after walking out of a supermarket. She was never found and it's been a case that has haunted Bosch throughout his career. In the present day, a sadistic killer makes a stupid mistake and is caught with two bags of chopped-up women in his van. At his arrest he admits to killing Marie along with nine other victims. It turns out Harry had a chance to stop this freak 13 years ago, but blew it. Now he's got nine more ghosts he could have saved following him around. But, is this butcher behind bars Marie's real killer? He knows where she's buried, so he must be. Or, is someone pulling the strings to make it seem that way? Full of twists, surprises, red-herrings, and heart-stopping suspense, Echo Park confirms that if you want a literary thriller, there's simply no one better than Michael Connelly.
— Michael Phillips, Senior Writer, Zooba.com
Connelly's last book may have been the excellent THE LINCOLN LAWYER (and I for one was amongst those that enjoyed the book immensely) but many of us were wondering when we would see the return of Harry
Bosch, last seen in THE CLOSERS. ECHO PARK sees his long-awaited return. Still on the job and working in the LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit, Bosch finds himself haunted by an unsolved case that goes back to 1993. The
case in question is that of the abduction of a young horse rider. Bosch's attempts to see if he can discover any new clues initially stall until by chance it appears that the police may have caught a suspect. The
man in question has also been connected to a number of other additional murders after being stopped and having been found with some body parts in his vehicle. Bosch suspects that the serial killer Raynard Waits
wants to barter information for a reduced sentence of life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. While the prosecutors and the police debate the merits of a plea bargain, it is revealed that a crucial clue may
have been missed by Bosch and his then partner back in 1993. This may be the case but there is a niggling feeling that there is something more amiss and it is not solely because the political manifestations
connected with the upcoming DA elections are obscuring the investigation. There are remnants of THE CLOSERS in this latest book as well. Try as hard as he might Bosch still has problems holding back his
anti-establishment impulses. Is Harry Bosch the victim of a politically motivated conspiracy? In ECHO PARK, readers will in turn be surprised and dismayed at the behaviour of Bosch. Is he on course for the
self-destruction of his career (something that he has held close to his heart for a long time) or will he allow his guilt over the fact that he may have been able to prevent nine other killings create a crisis that
may be his death knell? Is the Bosch that we see in ECHO PARK the Bosch that we all love and root for or is he in fact the rogue cop that he has always been accused of being? There is no clear-cut answer to this and
Connelly does an excellent job in compelling Harry Bosch's legion of fans into accepting the fact that one of the best protagonists around has his own blemishes, which have been too apparent to hide. There are many
tense but enjoyable moments in this latest book and one can easily see why Connelly is considered to be amongst the best. The twists and shocks in ECHO PARK will not only leave you stunned but also riveted to your
seat. Read and be stunned. Harry Bosch will never seem the same again.
— Ayo Onatade, ReviewingTheEvidence.com
Following on the heels of The Closers, Echo Park revisits similar thematic material as Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch is drawn back to another cold case, this one an unsolved murder and kidnapping from the '90s that has haunted him ever since. Bosch has even gotten into trouble for periodically "checking up" on his number-one suspect, the son of a millionaire who can afford to buy his way out of almost anything. Now, however, the District Attorney believes he has found the culprit: a sadistic serial killer named Raynard Waits who confessed to the crime as part of his plea bargain. Never having run across Waits in his investigation, Bosch is understandably skeptical... until evidence turns up that Bosch and his then-partner had the killer and unwittingly let him go. With guilt and rage clouding his feelings, Bosch becomes part of a team that leads Waits into the woods to find the body. This section is the centerpiece of the novel, and it's a show-stopper. Its breathless unraveling draws much-deserved attention to Connelly's storytelling skill. I was reminded more than once of the climactic sequence in Seven,
which this one rivals for nearly unbearable suspense. Like all the best detective fiction, Echo Park dwells in regret, using the past as a dark backdrop to its present-day storyline. Already one of the more memorable modern series characters in crime fiction, Bosch's anguish over his past missteps fuels his determination to right his wrong — and, most intriguingly (and humanly), blinds him to his present mistakes. There is no finer writer of crime fiction working than Connelly. The proof is in the pages — or, more precisely, how quickly they swim past. Echo Park is the sort of book you wait to read on a Friday, lest you wind up calling in sick to work to finish it.
— Chris Bolton, Powell's Books
Chaos and corruption swirls around Hieronymous Bosch no matter how much he tries to whip the world into shape. His creator, bestselling author Michael Connelly, has set him down in a maelstrom of serial killers and
moldering cases, and a haunting fear of his own imperfection. Bosch is a detective with the LAPD. He's tried once to retire, but is now back on the detective force, working with the cold cases unit. In Echo Park,
a hotshot young detective demands the file to an old case of Bosch's that has haunted him for years, he demands to be in on whatever is going down. It turns out they have a killer ready to confess to the murder and
that Bosch and his partner may have missed an important clue all those years ago. In an age when media sells itself to the lowest common denominator and many authors are willing to write down to their readers, it is
refreshing to find a hard-boiled detective who is as intelligent, complex, and well-written as Harry Bosch is. Michael Connelly writes with intelligence, but never with arrogance. He gives us a character with a
strong moral sense who feels his own failings keenly. Echo Park is tautly written as a suspense thriller should be. Connelly manages to weave in sufficient doubts that we're never quite ready to believe that things are going to go well or that anything is what it appears to be. Rather, we're drawn into Bosch's skepticism and an uneasy feeling that the truth is being well-hidden. As a thriller, Echo Park works very well for this reason. It maintains the suspense right up until the very end. Even when you think you have it figured out, there are a few more turns. Throughout the story, Connelly explores the themes of corruption, responsibility, and chaos. Bosch may have a keen moral compass, but he's also a very violent person, one whom has little faith in any sort of system and places politics on nearly the same level as crime. He's also not one who can get relationships together. He tries, but there don't seem to be women who are capable of understanding his intensity or his drives. Even his partner falters, though she has good reason to and up to that point was one of the few people capable of keeping him in any sort of line. I did grow rather frustrated with the FBI agent who walks into his life. They very quickly re-establish a relationship with references to the past that the new reader is simply left out of understanding. However, she has this obsession with being safe, even if it means others are put in danger. When it comes to courage, she appears to have very little of it and of loyalty even less. In an interview, Michael Connelly hesitated to recommend one of his early books in the Harry Bosch series to someone who was just getting started. He acknowledged that while it might make sense chronologically, he'd like to think that he's gotten better as he's progressed through the series. Echo
Park very much has that air about it—this isn't a book churned out on the yearly schedule just to keep the royalty checks coming in. Rather, it is written by an author with a deep commitment to improvement and excellence. Echo Park makes a great introduction to the series and a very large enticement to go back and read more of Bosch's history. It leaves the reader curious whether his life has always swirled with such chaos or whether the man has ever gotten a break.
— Epinions.com
It's almost becoming a cliche to heap praise on a Michael Connelly novel. Sure, some of his mysteries stand out more than the others, but none of his Harry Bosch police procedurals or his stand-alone
thrillers has disappointed. Few authors could publish a collection of nonfiction crime stories and have it be as well received as was Connelly's "Crime Beat," written during his stint as a newspaper
reporter, published earlier this year. The man writes his first legal thriller, "The Lincoln Lawyer," and finds it nominated for several best novel awards. ("The Lincoln Lawyer" recently won the
Shamus and Macavity awards.) Connelly's novels have never been just business as usual – each has reached deeper into characters, plot and startling twists. So it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Connelly's
17th novel, "Echo Park," doesn't just continue his high standards, but delivers a rich police procedural, a timely theme and an intense look inside LAPD detective Harry Bosch. In "Echo Park,"
Connelly expounds on two themes – the intertwining of politics and police detecting and how a simple mistake made during an investigation can have tragic consequences. And few authors could make a correlation
between a police investigation and the discovery of a jazz treasure and make it sound inspired, as Connelly does. In "Echo Park," Bosch has a new interest in Los Angeles politics – his former police chief,
and nemesis, Irvin R. Irving, is running for city council. Bosch has been making generous contributions to Irving's opponent. But that's not the election immediately affecting Bosch. Richard O'Shea, a grandstanding
candidate running for district attorney, is muscling in on one of Bosch's cases. Since he's been assigned to the cold case squad – the Open-Unsolved Unit – Bosch has regularly been looking into the 1993 abduction of
a young woman, Maria Gesto. Bosch and his former partner were the original detectives assigned to the case, and Bosch has made it his "mission" to continue his investigation through the years. Bosch
thought he knew the case inside and out: "It was the little questions that always bothered him, filled the hollow inside with dread." Now O'Shea and ambitious detective Freddy Olivas believe they have the
solution: Serial killer Raynard Waits also claims responsibility for the Gesto case. Waits' confession will clear several cases; in return, the D.A. has promised the killer life in prison instead of the death
penalty. Clearing those cases will make O'Shea look good to the voters. "Politics and police coming together in a violent collision." Bosch doesn't believe Waits, and he admits to being a bit disappointed
that he hadn't solved the case. Bosch even had a suspect he'd pursued so diligently that the man took out a restraining order against the detective. Drawn into the case against Waits, Bosch starts a parallel
investigation that has repercussions in his personal and professional lives. A mistake that may have been made during Bosch's first investigation shakes his confidence as a "true detective" and may bring
him to a "raw edge." As his police work intensifies, politics intrudes. Connelly confidently moves "Echo Park" with a compelling plot and an intriguing character study. The author has been
writing about Bosch since 1992, starting with the Edgar-winning "The Black Echo." During the years, Connelly has taken breaks from Bosch with frequent non-series novels, but he always returns to this LAPD
cop. Connelly shows Bosch's heroic side, but he also isn't afraid to show the character's flaws, which are on clear display in "Echo Park." As a result, Bosch has always seemed not like a character, but a
real person, adding texture to Connelly's series. He is, as one character says, "the Zen master of homicide," but also deeply complicated and troubled. Each Connelly novel shows the reader a different view
of Los Angeles as an important aspect as any character. "Echo Park was about four minutes and forty years from downtown. ... The languages on the shop signs had changed, but not much else." As with Bosch,
Connelly showcases the beautiful and ugly sides of the City of Angels, sometimes "the city of angles." Right now, three novels are vying for my top mystery of the year. "Echo Park" is one of them.
— Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Few in the trade have Connelly's juice these days. His books are Top 10 staples (this should be his second straight #1), and they have some staying power. He's surpassed Parker in both laydown size and
run time, which is no mean feat; and become a true heavyweight, genre not withstanding. Of course, Connelly's most-loved creation is Harry Bosch, evangelist of truth. Head down, shoulders back, loins girded, he is
the Everyman avenger. He speaks for those of us that can't, to a system geared to shut out such noise. As longtime readers know, "everyone counts, or no one counts." The philosophy by which Bosch has
always been driven, is the reason he's so at home in his current assignment, the Open/Unsolved division of the LAPD. In Echo Park, Bosch is back into a case he never really left alone, the 1993 murder of
Marie Gesto. It's one of the cases that haunted Bosch to the point when he left the force briefly (a period recounted in Lost Light and The Narrows), he copied the file and worked the case as a
citizen. It was now in his regular rotation of unsolved cases to review and suffer over. So much so that a suspect in the case acquired a restraining order against Bosch's later inquires. So when he gets a call from
another division, and is informed of a confession, the game is on. Harry and his partner, the mighty Kiz Rider head over to another division and interview one Reynard Waits. The confession is the story of a serial
killer in bloom--from random attack and kill during the LA Riots, to the abduction and murder of Marie Gesto, to finally a much more organized series of killings. As Bosch begins to dig into the case file's newest
elements, an archival report is discovered in the official case file that casts serious doubt onto the thoroughness of Bosch's original investigation. Like Bosch needs any more weight on his shoulders, right? Not
only that, but the confessor, Reynard Waits, is willing to take Bosch to the one thing he could never find; the remains of Marie Gesto. At this point, Bosch is doubting everything, including his own instincts.
During an elaborately-planned excursion into the woods, there is, as you might expect, trouble, and Waits escapes into the woods. Connelly puts Bosch through about every kind of wringer you can imagine in Echo Park,
and to great effect. One of the things we love about the guy is the way he just hammers his way through both of the key protagonists in his life; the suspects, and the bureaucracy. Both forces conspire to keep Bosch
from his mission, making sure everyone counts. So we as reader's see Bosch's struggle on both sides dragging him down, eroding his instincts, testing his faith. In Echo Park, he's aided by FBI agent Rachel
Walling, who has become a staple in Connelly's world. First encountered in The Poet, the well-traveled agent is now based in LA, and her past with Harry brings her into the action as confidante. She also
brings some welcome light into Harry's life. Because God knows he needs some. If there is light, there must be darkness, and in Raynard Waits, Connelly delivers another black hole of depravity, right up there with
Robert (The Poet) Backus. As Harry and Rachel track him down, we feel the despair created by Waits' evil. Connelly uses the story elements here to really make a stand about where Harry is now. Everything from
his Viet Nam tunnel-rat days to his eternal nemesis, the hated Irvin Irving, is woven into the proceedings to wind up the reader into a knotted rope of anxiety as he builds to a sweaty finish. Echo Park is largely a journey of self-doubt for Harry Bosch. He is bombarded by it on many fronts, and the way he deals with it results in both success and failure, in large scale. Connelly has re-defined Bosch with all the qualities and flaws we already knew he had. If that sounds a bit circuitous, it won't after you finish the book. There are also major "series events" that immediately give it a new status quo. A left, then a right. That's what a heavyweight does....
— Don Crouch, NewMysteryReader.com
If any living author is channeling Raymond Chandler, it has to be Michael Connelly. With clipped prose and startling simile, and a hero both complex and hard-boiled, Connelly writes crime with
unsurpassed élan. And if it is clear by the end of his new novel, "Echo Park," that L.A. Detective Harry Bosch isn't yet at the end of his career, it is equally obvious that Connelly is a writer at the top
of his game. In 1993, Bosch was a homicide detective with the LAPD's Hollywood Division. He had a bad feeling after he and partner Jerry Edgar found Marie Gesto's clothing neatly folded in the front seat of an
abandoned car. It wasn't that the clothes sent a clear signal that the young woman, missing for 10 days, was dead. The officers had already surmised that. It was the feeling that they would never find the body and,
without a body, they would never find the killer. In the intervening years, Bosch has left and returned to the LAPD. Hoping to find some new leads, he took a copy of the Gesto file with him when he retired to become
a private investigator. Now that he's back on the force, his assignment to the Open-Unsolved Unit gives him a perfect spot to continue work on the case. His partner, Kiz Rider, is long familiar with Harry's
obsessions. "Rider knew about the case and what it meant to him. She gave him the space to work it when they had nothing else pressing." Bosch receives a call from North East Division Homicide Detective
Freddy Olivas, requesting the Gesto file. It seems there is a lead in the long-dormant case. In exchange for avoiding lethal injection, an alleged serial killer is willing to confess to a set of previously unsolved
murders that include the Gesto case. Raynard Waits was stopped at 2:30 in the morning, driving a white van with stolen plates into the Echo Park neighborhood. The officers noticed blood leaking from black garbage
bags and investigation revealed dismembered bodies. A search of Waits' apartment revealed he had been preying on young women for quite a while. The case has turned highly political. The prosecuting attorney is
running for his boss' job, and he has a very good shot at it. But the margin between him and his main opponent - a man running on a civil rights platform, promising to watchdog law enforcement - is narrowing.
Apprehending Waits has yielded good press, and closing the case just prior to election day is very desirable. Letting a serial killer walk, even if it is away from the needle to life in prison, runs counter to every
belief driving Bosch's work. But he cannot turn away from the chance to finally solve the Gesto case. He agrees to work with the prosecutor to verify the validity of the information from Waits. Bosch is skeptical
that Waits is telling the truth. There are several pieces of information that don't seem to fit. Waits had kept photos of his earlier victims, but there was no picture of Marie Gesto. The prosecutor waved away that
objection, figuring that Gesto was early in Waits' criminal career, that he would have refined his methods as he moved forward. But Bosch is also bothered by the fact that he has long thought that he knows who
killed Gesto. All his intuition pointed to Anthony Garland, the son of in influential local oilman, as the perpetrator. But a lot of money can be an effective shield, and he was never able to gather enough evidence
to prosecute. The driving force of character sets Connelly's work in general, and "Echo Park" in particular, apart. There is nothing inherently wrong with crime novels that turn on events; that is where
most of the genre lives. But it is hard to deny the lure of the inner workings of humans, and this is mortar binding the walls of Connelly's intense structure. Bosch has long been a character driven by the precept
that unless everyone matters, no one matters. But in "Echo Park," his passion for doing what is right is also very nearly his undoing, on a couple of levels. His passion for the case becomes an Achilles
heel, blinding him to some important facts until it is nearly too late. Driving him also is guilt, which arises after Olivas points out an entry in the murder book that shows Bosch and his partner may have missed a
link to Waits during the Gesto investigation. Connelly also fully develops Waits' character, and the escalating cat-and-mouse game between the hunter and hunted is nicely finessed. And, as though all of this isn't
enough, it looks as though Bosch might have finally met up with a woman who could give him a shot at happiness and, perhaps, peace. The package is wrapped up and delivered in prose that packs a punch. Connelly
distills the essence of Bosch in the first chapter: "Bosch thought of the clothing neatly folded on the front seat of the Honda. He felt that pressure on his insides again. Like his body was wrapped in wire
being tightened from behind." And as events unfold, revealing wheels turning within wheels, he writes: "It was said that L.A. was a sunny place for shady people. Bosch knew that better than most."
Indeed he does. And "Echo Park" is a richly imagined and finely crafted piece that grabs the reader on Page One and locks him but a half-step behind Bosch on every page that follows.
—Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post
Hieronymus Bosch is back, and mystery lovers everywhere will know that Renaissance art is not involved. It's "Harry" Bosch, the jazz-loving, tough-as-nails, fair-minded homicide detective, staring in his 12th outing
under Michael Connelly's sure-footed direction. In Echo Park, Harry duels with a serial killer who is already behind bars when the story begins. Raynard Waits was caught red-handed with bags of body parts in
his van, but it's what he claims to have done in the past that gets Harry, now serving on the cold-case squad, called in to help. Waits says he killed a girl whose murder Harry was never able to solve, a 13-year-old
case he desperately wants to close. Of course, there is more to Waits than meets the eye, and Harry won't rest until he knows the whole truth—wherever it takes him. There are stereotypes galore in Echo Park:
the out-of-retirement detective haunted by his past, corrupt politicians who would rather get reelected than help the people, a lover who provides crucial help at the right moments. But none of that will matter to
readers who crave fast-paced, well-written suspense stories with West Coast settings so perfectly portrayed that Los Angeles feels like a hometown even to someone who's never been there.
— Chris Scott, Nashville Scene
In his new novel "Echo Park" Michael Connelly's endearing bulldog Harry Bosch frets that the disappearance of a young woman named Marie Gesto is still unsolved 13 years later. Familiar to Connelly
readers, Bosch is a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department's Open-Unsolved Unit, regularly reviewing the Gesto case file for information he may have missed.
He keeps returning to question the man he suspects is her killer and informs the missing woman's parents that he has no new leads. Bosch's deep feelings about the case are one characteristic that seem to set him apart from other loner cops in fiction. Here's a paragraph from the new novel, which also reveals Connelly's calm, insightful writing: "Bosch had plenty of unsolved cases in his history. You can't clear them all and any Homicide man would admit it. But the Gesto case was one that stuck with him. Each time he would work the case for a week or so, hit the wall and return the file to Archives, thinking he had done all that could be done. But the absolution only lasted a few months and then there he was at the counter filling out the file request form again." Now a prosecutor in the district attorney's office, a leading candidate in the upcoming DA election, says Raynard Waits, arrested as a serial killer in other cases, has confessed to killing Gesto and agrees to show police where her body is buried. At the wooded burial site, an unshackled Waits grabs a gun, kills two cops guarding him and seriously wounds Bosch's partner, Kiz Rider. Helping Bosch solve Gesto's murder and find Waits is a former Bosch lover, FBI agent Rachel Walling. That's the setup for the story in which Bosch's instincts— and his understanding of the motives of his fellow law enforcement officers— are questioned. Through Bosch, not only do readers see the procedures and politics of the LAPD but are faced with the uncertainties of life and the randomness of death in the City of Angels. Bosch is a rogue cop, sometimes acting on his own before informing supervisors. Naturally, that rankles the LAPD bureaucracy, but it's part of Bosch's surly charm. "Echo Park," Connelly's 11th novel set in LA, should more than satisfy fans of Bosch and continue his status as a best-selling author. For readers who still can't get enough of Bosch, check out The New York Times Magazine today, which is to present the fourth of 16 installments serializing part of Connelly's next Bosch fiction titled "The Overlook."
— David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal
To call Michael Connelly's newest Harry Bosch tale one of the best in the series is high praise. Each of the 12 novels ranks high in American crime fiction. But Echo Park, which goes on sale today, is an
especially well-plotted saga about a psychotic killer, a haunting cold case and Bosch's own demons. From the get-go, it demands reader attention. A prelude describes a 1993 case in which a young woman disappeared
from a supermarket. Bosch is haunted by the missing woman, Marie Gesto, and, as a detective in the Open-Unsolved Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, returns to the file periodically. In the present, a routine
traffic stop turns up a serial killer responsible for two grisly crimes and probably more. To escape the death penalty, Raynard Waits will confess to several murders, including that of Gesto. When the Gesto file is
inspected yet again, a significant clue that links the victim to Waits appears to have been overlooked back in 1993 by Bosch and his partner. The volatile Bosch, who lives and breathes his job and who has thought of
Gesto almost every day for 13 years, is devastated. He forces his way and that of his partner, Kiz Rider, onto the investigation team and into the confession room. Waits agrees to lead police and attorneys to the
ravine where he said he buried Gesto's body. About a third of the way into the novel, chaos breaks out. As the party is leaving the scene, Waits escapes, leaving death and confusion behind. Echo Park is loaded with the unexpected. The most climactic scene occurs 75 pages before the novel's end; more surprises come, including the identity of one of the main perpetrators. Bosch's flaws, especially his commando approach to his job, make him relentlessly interesting while the vulnerabilities of most of the characters, including the most sinister, add humanity. At their confrontation, Bosch and Waits realize they were both wards of the state who, as juveniles, lived at different times in the same facility. "At McLaren they used to pass around that saying about every man having two dogs inside. One good and one bad," Waits says. "They fight all the time because only one can be the alpha dog, the one in charge. . . . And the one that wins is always the dog you chose to feed. I fed the wrong one. You fed the right one." The novel can be read on its own, but fans of the Harry Bosch tales will appreciate the returning characters: Rider is shaken by events and a new lack of self-confidence; the slimy Irvin Irving, the former deputy chief, finds ways to harass Harry; Bosch's former partner Jerry Edgar deals in his way with the 1993 mistake; and FBI profiler Rachel Walling returns as a love interest for Harry. Echo Park follows The Closers,
the Bosch novel published in 2005. Both involve cold cases, but Echo Park adds the immediacy of current murders. The title refers to the section of Los Angeles that was home to the first film studios, territory where critical scenes in the plot occur. But it also reverberates to include past and present murders and the recurring habits of the man who solves them.
— Nancy Gilson, The Columbus Dispatch
"Michael Connelly does not disappoint in this one, and there are more twists in Echo Park than a Minnesota State Fair pretzel."
— ArmChairInterviews.com
"As always, Connelly delivers violence, betrayals, and big surprises, as Harry follows 'the way of the true detective' and pushes the limits again and again."
— Bookloons.com
"If you're a Connelly fan, don't miss this novel."
— WantzUponATime.com
It's 1993, and LAPD detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch is on the trail of a young woman who's gone missing. Her abandoned car is found in the parking lot of a riding stable, her clothes folded neatly on
the passenger seat. Her killer is never found. Skip to 2006, and Bosch is back with the open-unsolved unit after a brief retirement, still fighting many of the same demons as his artistic namesake. When a confessed
serial killer admits to murdering Marie Gesto and offers to lead police to the body, Bosch is skeptical but can't resist the chance to close a case that's been haunting him. When evidence comes to light suggesting
that Bosch and his old partner flubbed the case, he becomes more determined than ever to bring Marie's killer to justice. Connecting with his ex-lover, FBI agent Rachel Walling, he agrees to the deal.
The
fast-moving plot travels up and down the hills of the city, unearthing a mound of municipal corruption. As Bosch says, in L.A. the fix is always in. The outcome is bad, and Bosch soon realizes he's been set up, and
by someone close to him. Connelly's Harry Bosch series is a long-standing one, and I'm hooked. Bosch operates on Zen-like instinct "like a surfer waiting for the right swell before starting to paddle, he felt
his wave was coming in." He's a true detective, one of the guys who takes it all in and cares. It makes him good at his job but also vulnerable. There's an intensity and rhythm here that carries through to the
final page. Echo Park is a great police procedural and a worthy addition to a terrific series.
— Lesley McAllister, NOW Magazine (Toronto)
Harry Bosch, still working for the Open Unsolved (cold cases) Unit, is brought into a new scenario. The killer in question claims to be responsible for a number of older cases, including one that
centered on the disappearance of a woman whose body was never found. Bosch, still haunted by those circumstances, has been hounding another man he thinks is responsible. As he and partner Kiz Rider are pulled
further into the prosecution of the alleged killer, Bosch learns that nothing is as it seems. Sidelined from the case after an incident, he teams up with FBI agent Rachel Walling (first introduced in The Poet) and continues to investigate. Connelly offers strong action writing and exciting plot twists, coupled with more development of Bosch's character and his internal conflicts. Another excellent and riveting entry in the longstanding series by one of mystery fiction's best writers.
— Elizabeth B. Lindsay, Washington State Univ. Libs., Library Journal
Who is Harry Bosch? He is a loner, mostly without friends, mostly unsuccessful at relationships with the opposite sex, at odds with authority and entirely committed to his work. Above all, Harry thinks of himself as
a "true detective, one who took it all inside and cared. Everybody counts or nobody counts." As a child, he was orphaned after his prostitute mother was murdered, a case that had much to do with his choice
of occupation, and which he investigates as an adult. But that's a different novel. (For a factual account of a similar incident, I recommend James Ellroy's My Dark Places, about the murder of his mother.) Echo Park is a Los Angeles neighbourhood "about four minutes and forty years from downtown." Thirteen years before, a young woman disappeared in the area. Bosch investigated the case but it was never solved. Now a multiple killer has claimed the woman as one of his victims. Harry, these days working on an elite cold-cases squad, is not so sure about the veracity of the confession. The case also has a personal resonance for Harry, one that is causing him a great deal of guilt and anguish. Years ago, he might have had the killer in his hands. But he bungled the investigation and allowed "something awful to be loose in the world. Something dark and evil, destroying life after life as it moved through the shadows." Harry returns to Echo Park to find the truth. But everyone has a different version of the past, and everybody is trying to shape the truth to suit their present purposes. Bosch has to go it alone -- which is the way he prefers it. Harry knows he is being manipulated in his search. But by whom? The killer, crooked cops, an ambitious district attorney, the celebrity criminal defence lawyer? Maybe all of them. Even his ex-partner can't be trusted. Harry finds out that he shares a past with the killer, a wily fox of shifting identities with a hidden lair somewhere in the city. I won't be giving anything away by saying that when Bosch finds the lair, the ensuing scene made my hair stand on end. Connelly's books are as much about Los Angeles -- "a sunny place for shady people," where the fix is always in -- as they are about Bosch. Connelly has consistently painted an engrossing and gritty portrait of the city. Even Harry's full name, Hieronymus Bosch, is a clever play on the 15th-century Dutch painter whose demon-filled, hellish visions can be likened to the Los Angeles that Harry inhabits. Connelly's books are more than thrillers. Deeper themes exist. Bosch is not an especially kindly man; he doesn't always adhere strictly to the law he is sworn to uphold. He might not even be a good man. But he is an honourable man who believes in the truth, and he is incorruptible. Connelly paints him as a moral character, one of the few in the book, who stands for certain values, not too complicated, of honesty, justice and honour. Against him are arrayed the twisted minds of killers, the expedience of publicity-seeking politicians, the corrupt cops looking for a shortcut to easy retirement, the random violence of the city. Connelly is a superlative writer (winner of practically every major prize for crime fiction) who creates intricate plots with convincing characters and an entirely believable city. He is the true heir of those grand masters of the genre, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and Bosch is a vivid Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade for our times. (In my opinion, Connelly surpasses his antecedents.) These are not so much mystery novels as police procedurals. Connelly once worked the crime beat as a journalist, and he is very good at depicting the orderly and frustrating search for truth in the overwhelming chaos of the city. His characters, the all-too-human men and women who stand as bastions against evil, are convincing and sympathetically drawn. If you're already a Connelly aficionado, Echo Park won't disappoint. If you've never met Bosch before, this is the perfect place to listen to the echoes.
— Lewis DeSoto, Globe & Mail (Canada)
Just when amateur sleuth readers think they might have Michael Connelly's measure, the master detective writer pulls another plot twist out of the hat. It's what keeps Connelly at the top of the charts -- and keeps
his readers holding on tight to the edges of his book. He seems to be having more fun than ever with his latest Harry Bosch novel, Echo Park. Hieronymous (Harry) Bosch is the classic renegade cop. He
has disrespect for authority, an estranged marriage and a history with alcohol, yet in Connelly's hands he never reads like a cliche. Fans will remember him from Connelly's last Bosch novel, The Closers, but
you need not have been previously acquainted with this wonderfully flawed hero to enjoy him in Echo Park. Back on the job after a failed retirement, Bosch is working in the open-unsolved department, where he
repeatedly tortures himself over a case he couldn't crack 13 years previously. The murder of Marie Gesto, a young equestrian who went missing in 1993, is Bosch's most heartfelt failure. He constantly combs her file
for a clue he might have missed and periodically rings her heartbroken parents.
When a killer named Raynard Waits is caught with female body parts in bags in his van and offers to confess to the murder of Marie
Gesto -- and nine others -- in order to escape the death penalty, it seems Bosch might have found the man he has hunted for 13 years. But something just doesn't add up and Harry's instincts are operating at fever
pitch. When it is revealed Harry missed a vital lead in the initial investigation, the great detective is in danger of coming undone. Here Connelly masterfully pokes around Harry's psychological weak spots while
still keeping the plot bounding along. Could Harry be responsible for the deaths of nine subsequent victims? Is he the supremely good cop we all thought he was, or an ill-disciplined rogue? Connelly builds another
layer into his story as too-smooth prosecutor Rick O'Shea manoeuvres to become district attorney. The author shows a frighteningly good grasp of cynical politicking and Machiavellian moves for power. This particular
brand of intrigue ramps up the narrative strength of Echo Park. Echo Park is utterly gripping to the end.
— Lucy Clark, Sunday Telegraph (Australia)
Detective Harry Bosch has a Los Angeles phone number (323-244-5631) that takes messages. You can listen to his recorded voice or play back his voice mail. You can also see him on YouTube in a video that shows him
enacting the opening scene from "Echo Park," the latest book about him. And you can read a serialized version of the novella "The Overlook," yet another of his adventures, continuing in The New York Times Magazine.
All told, Harry's doing quite nicely for a guy who doesn't exist. The flip side of this fame is familiarity. By now there's not much about Harry that Michael Connelly's readers don't know. Since the first Bosch
novel, "The Black Echo," appeared in 1992, readers have learned that Harry broods, loves jazz, hates corruption, behaves like a lone wolf and feels morally obligated to help crime victims who are too dead to help
themselves. He likes to refer to this last part as his mission. Mr. Connelly's own mission is more complicated. He turns out Bosch novels at a brisk pace, but he also tries periodically to branch out beyond this
inexorable franchise. His previous book was "Crime Beat," a collection of nonfiction pieces he wrote as a newspaper reporter, with glimmers of what would eventually become the tight, propulsive Bosch style. Before
that came "The Lincoln Lawyer," the start of a less solemn crime series about Mickey Haller, Harry's much trickier and conniving half-brother. "Echo Park" includes a truism about "the dog you feed," the side of
oneself that an individual chooses to favor. Feeding Harry Bosch remains Mr. Connelly's unavoidable mandate, even if it means writing what are essentially episodes of a long-running television series. Its main
character holds no novelty. Almost all of its supporting characters are in place. Its well-chosen locations are murky even by Los Angeles noir standards and make picture-perfect crime scenes. Whenever Harry rivets
the reader, he is succeeding at something that makes detective work look easy by comparison. "Echo Park" is another prime demonstration of Mr. Connelly's handiwork: he has woven entirely unsurprising elements into a
surprisingly suspense-filled story. Just read his rivals in the crime genre to realize how difficult this is and how easy he makes it look. The book begins, as in that YouTube video, with the 1993 discovery of a car
linked to a missing-persons case. It is found in the garage of the High Tower apartments in Hollywood, and aficionados of noir fiction should take note. Harry's partner mentions that this place has been made
familiar by movies, but this is an understatement. It was the home of Raymond Chandler's detective, Philip Marlowe, in Robert Altman's 1973 version of "The Long Goodbye." It was also home to Mr. Chandler. And Mr.
Connelly now does some of his writing in Mr. Chandler's old apartment, a place he uses for inspiration. No living crime writer has a better right to be there. The car belonged to a young woman named Marie Gesto. She
has never been found, and for 13 years she has haunted Harry. So Harry becomes extremely interested when a creep nicknamed the Echo Park Bagman, because he was caught in Echo Park with plastic bags containing body
parts, confesses to having killed Marie. Guilt, obsession, justice overdue: here we go again, or so it would seem. But another staple of these books is that they give first impressions that turn out to be wrong. The
creep is called Raynard Waits. For a while he threatens to lead the way into James Patterson country, since there is a storybook connection: reynard means fox, and that means the fox of a French medieval fable. ("I
studied European folklore in college," says the character explaining this to Harry.) Add the fact that female foxes are called vixens and you have Waits, serial killer of women. You also have Hannibal Lecter, who is
evoked by Waits's taunting demeanor and eagerness to give Harry a sadistic runaround. This is merely the setup for a novel that involves a political angle (one scheming character is running for district attorney), a
few wonderfully red herrings (like the venerable character almost ready to retire from the police force and move to a Caribbean paradise), some forgotten details that remind Harry of a long-overlooked Carnegie Hall
recording of John Coltrane with Thelonious Monk and, of course, Harry's trademark insubordination. The Zen Master of Homicide, as a girlfriend and colleague teasingly calls Harry, simply isn't very good at following
orders. Mr. Connelly stages a tense, extended sequence in which the police are directed through the wilds of Beachwood Canyon to the spot where Marie is supposedly buried. And Harry, like the Dirty Harry whose
stubbornness he shares, plays ball with a killer because he has no other choice. But when this outing turns deadly, all bets are off for Harry: he begins operating as a solo agent despite having been yanked off this
case. Mr. Connelly then leads him into a second, even more nerve-racking action episode that plays on Harry's fear of tunnels. As "The Black Echo" made clear right from the start, Harry saw enough tunnels during his
stint in Vietnam. "Echo Park" takes its title not only from the Bagman but from Mr. Connelly's typically sharp, evocative eye for his Los Angeles terrain. Of this melting-pot neighborhood near Dodger Stadium, he
writes: "By day a walk down the main drag of Sunset Boulevard might require skills in five or more languages to read all of the storefronts. By night it was the only place in the city where the air could be split by
the sound of gang gunfire, the cheer for a home-run ball, and the baying of the hillside coyotes — all in the same hour." The familiar sound of Harry Bosch stalking justice can now be heard there, too.
— Janet Maslin, New York Times
Connelly could teach a course in keeping a series lively and addictive; his Bosch novels blessedly maintain high-quality prose, absorbing explorations of crime and justice and a profoundly moving sense of melancholy.
So it's no surprise that Echo Park is breathtakingly suspenseful as well as keenly perceptive of the psychology of its characters, particularly Vietnam vet Bosch, the L.A.P.D. detective who believes ''Everybody matters or nobody matters'' but is not above meting out his brand of justice. Connelly revisits the familiar serial killer vs. law enforcement-nemesis conflict but he never allows Echo Park to read like a retread. Bosch is settling into the job he started in The Closers,
working in the Open-Unsolved unit with his former partner Kiz Rider. He's the perfect cold-case investigator because the past never stops troubling him. One case has haunted him for 13 years: the murder of young
Marie Gesto, who disappeared en route to an afternoon of horseback riding. Her body was never found. When Bosch learns another unit is reopening the case in hopes of bargaining with smirking serial killer Raynard
Waits, he is torn by conflict: He has always needed to find Marie's killer, mostly but not solely to offer her family solace. But the price for closing the case is saving Waits from the death penalty, and the idea
sickens him. Connelly is not squeamish about Bosch's hardline, eye-for-an-eye beliefs or examining how they have shaped him as a cop -- and as a human being. The author is equally skilled at illustrating the
outrageously complex and frustrating police department politics and at building shivery tension, especially in one explosive scene in which Waits leads cops, politicians and a camera crew into the woods to exhume
Marie's remains. It's an unforgettable setpiece but not the only one in Echo Park, one of those books that makes you happy just to be alive to read it.
— Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald
In Michael Connelly's Echo Park, Harry Bosch is working in the Open-Unsolved Unit when he hears that a killer, Raynard Waits, has been caught red-handed with rubbish bags containing the body parts of two
women, and is prepared to confess to the murder of -- among several others -- Marie Gesto, one of Bosch's unsolved cases from 13 years previously, in return for avoiding the death penalty. As Bosch reviews the case,
he is haunted by the fact that he and his partner missed a vital clue back in 1993, and that his hunch about the killer's identity appears to have been mistaken. Or was it? This has got to be one of Connelly's
finest thrillers,, complete with trademark twists and political shenanigans.
— Carla McKay, Daily Mail (London)
As we discover early in Michael Connelly's 17th and newest novel, his series hero Harry Bosch, now a detective operating out of the LAPD's Open-Unsolved unit, has been haunted by an unsolved case of his own since
1993. That's when he was unable to unearth the fate of a missing young woman named Marie Gesto, a failing that has moved him to continue an unofficial on-and-off investigation ever since. The 13-year-old cold file
is no farther away than his elbow when he receives word that a serial predator known as Raynard Waits, arrested in Echo Park with the body parts of his most recent victims, has confessed to killing Gesto, among
others, in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Suspicious of the confession and motives of a political district attorney and the self-serving detective heading the investigation, Bosch wants in on Waits'
interrogation. When a friend suggests that because he takes his work so much to heart he may not want to engage in a sit-down with the killer, Bosch replies, "It's still my case. And taking it straight to heart
is the way of the true detective. The only way." What a remarkable thing for a modern-day fictional hero to say -- not just the near-quaint phraseology but the sentiment untainted by cynicism or irony. At a
time when snarkiness and sarcasm are attitudes to be celebrated, Connelly continues to provide evidence that Bosch, unlike many of his sleuthing contemporaries, is a true believer.
There are a number of elements that make these novels such a pleasure to read. Clean prose, a smart blend of character and story, clever twists, bright flashes of suspense and surprising extras (prepare to learn a little about French folklore here). But one of the main reasons for Bosch's popularity is that he's the kind of guy who can spend time staring into the abyss and still take his cases "straight to heart." He's a hero who lives up to the designation. Probably because of Connelly's descriptions of Los Angeles (most of the activity takes place at the High Tower Apartments near the Hollywood Bowl, on wilderness trails in Beachwood Canyon and, not surprisingly, in and around Echo Park), the Bosch novels are frequently compared to Raymond Chandler's cityscape-rich stories about private eye Philip Marlowe. But Marlowe took his cases to mind, not to heart. With rare exceptions ("The Long Goodbye" comes to mind), he worked them like the chess problems that occupied his at-home moments of sobriety. Bosch probably isn't much of a chess player. He's too emotional, too much a man of action and reaction. If there is a comparison to be made, it is to James Lee Burke's bayou lawman Dave Robicheaux, who is engaged in a continual battle against the arrogance and greed of the powerful and for the rights of the helpless and disenfranchised. Both men have a ferocious belief in justice. Bosch has a bit more control over his temper; to my knowledge, he's never dumped a pot of boiling gumbo over a wrongo. But like Robicheaux, he is inclined -- against the pleas and advice of friends and supervisors -- to offend whomever he wants and to do precisely what he wants. These men of law see themselves as missionaries. Connelly often refers to Bosch's work as a mission -- carrying, if not the word of God, the sword of justice to an unholy land. In "Echo Park," his calling leads him where FBI agents and fellow cops fear to tread. While they hold fast, he steps forward empty-handed to a one-on-one confrontation with an armed and addled killer about to add another female victim to his list. Bosch's romantic interest complains that he's too reckless. But when there's a life to be saved, what else should she -- or we -- expect from a true detective who takes his cases straight to heart?
— Dick Lochte, Los Angeles Times
Harry Bosch is one of those detectives whose episodic return is guaranteed to cause rejoicing among the faithful. For fans going through withdrawal since finishing Michael Connelly's The Closers,
published last year, that time has finally arrived. In Connelly's new book, Echo Park, Los Angeles police department detective Bosch is forced to revisit a 1993 unsolved murder that has never stopped
haunting him, as well as confront the anguishing possibility that his negligence may have led to the deaths of many more victims. "Everybody counts," Bosch was once told by a mentor. It is this credo that
at once makes him such a good detective, and such a vulnerable one. It all begins when two policemen looking for a burglar in the Echo Park section of L.A. stumble instead upon a suspicious van containing garbage
bags filled with freshly butchered body parts. As part of a plea to avoid the death penalty, the suspect offers to give details about nine unsolved murders, including that of Marie Gesto, a young woman who
disappeared in 1993. Her body has never been found, and Bosch would dearly love to give Marie's parents the peace they seek. As is customary in a Bosch tale, characters from the past appear to weave in and out of
the action. "It's all part of the same canvas," Connelly recently told the New York Times, speaking of his proclivity for having his many characters' lives intersect. And so it is that we see
ex-partner Jerry Edgar, former boss and nemesis Irvin Irving and one-time lover, FBI profiler Rachel Walling, among others. Added to the mix this time are an ambitious DA who sees this case as his ticket to the
highest office; a lawyer whose motives are suspect, and LAPD officers who may be dirty. Through the turf wars and political minefields, Bosch forges ahead single-mindedly even as his life is thrown into turmoil. A
former police reporter, Connelly has said he fought promotion because he wanted to hone his crime-writing skills. That background brings a veracity to all of his novels, but ultimately it's the humanity in Bosch and
other characters that has made the books resonate with readers. The crimes change, but the rich, complex characters, taut writing style and gripping tales are Connelly trademarks. For Bosch fans, Echo Park
is a fix that makes the wait worthwhile.
— Juanita Ng, Vancouver Sun
Harry Bosch considers himself "a true detective, one who took it all inside and cared." He is that, and it's one of the reasons Michael Connelly's long-running series remains compelling. In this day and age
when violent crime is taken as a norm, Harry is always offended by it, sometimes haunted. It's inevitable then that when he rejoins the force after a tortured history with the LAPD, one of his own cold cases would
cross his desk in the Open-Unsolved Unit. In 1993, a young woman, Marie Gesto, went missing, and within days Bosch had the brutish son of an oil magnate figured for the murder. The only problem was, there was no
proof. Not even a corpse. Thirteen years later, that's still the case. Bosch's habit is to pull the Gesto file every few months, and he has it in hand when he gets a call from the office of an ambitious young
prosecutor. Raynard Waits was stopped in a Los Angeles neighborhood, Echo Park, and garbage bags filled with body parts were found in his van. To dodge the death sentence, he's willing to confess to nine more
murders. As proof that his word is good, Waits offers to lead investigators to Gesto's remains. Wary that the prosecutor is looking for a political bump, Bosch has strong doubts that Waits is his perp, since the
1993 murder seems out of sync with the others. Still, it's possible that after the outcry Gesto's parents set off, Waits switched to victims "he could pull beneath the surface without notice." There's no
question he ultimately evolved into a serial murderer who worked the fringes, not getting off on seeing his work in the headlines, in it only for the kill. Scary. Bosch has no choice but to go along to get along
with the high-ranking badges on the field trip. He registers that Waits seems a little uncertain in locating Gesto's gravesite, which he claims to have visited recently, but that observation is lost when the
prisoner snatches a detective's gun and turns it on the heavily armed search party. Two cops are dead, Bosch's partner is critically injured, and a serial killer is loose in the city. While it's still an open
question as to whether Waits' killed Gesto or was just claiming one more corpse as part of an elaborate setup, there's no doubt that the freed murderer's first imperative will be to find another victim. So, Bosch is
back at it, staggering through a fog of corruption while trying to close distance on a killer. Morality is typically an issue in Connelly's fiction - Bosch's as much as anyone else's. There's a line drawn and
suspense leading up to the moment we learn which side he's come down on. Precisely because Bosch cares, there's always a question of how far he'll go.
— Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News
In "The Closers," Michael Connelly's complex, honorable, and intelligent detective Harry Bosch was assigned to the cold case squad, called the Open-Unsolved Unit in Los Angeles. His partner back then was
Kiz Rider, for whom he had deep affection and respect, though no romantic involvement since she waltzed to a different tune. She's back in the new book, "Echo Park," though in a slightly diminished role as
another outstanding female character has resurfaced on center stage. If you've read the earlier Bosch novels (and if you haven't, why not, for heaven's sake?), you'll remember Rachel Walling, now a member of the
Tactical Intelligence unit, a group of hunters and gatherers created to identify terrorists, but that mainly discovers information for the DEA. Harry wants to get her help, but finds it a little uncomfortable at
first. When he first meets up with her after some years have passed,"It was an awkward moment. He didn't know whether to hug her or kiss her or just shake hands. There was that night in Vegas, but it had been
followed by that day in L.A., on the back deck of his house, when everything had come apart and things had ended before they really started." As one would expect, if a cop has the job of re-examining cases that
have remained unsolved for years, he will gravitate to the particularly horrific ones, those that linger in the memory and grow brighter in the mind in the darkest hours of the night. This much is profoundly true in
this outstanding new novel, as Bosch is haunted by the fact that he and his partner missed a clue in 1993 that might have helped catch the villain who then went on to commit nine more brutal murders. Just as in
George Pelecano's superb "The Night Gardener," the self-inflicted guilt and frustration with which good cops must cope when they fail to catch murderers permeates Bosch's story and gives it a richness that
few narratives can match. The reader becomes enmeshed in the hell that bludgeons the detective as he struggles with the past as well as the present. It is a tribute to Mr. Connelly that he is able to take so many
familiar (familiar being a way of saying trite) plot elements and give them such vitality and freshness that they feel like they're being encountered for the first time. A clever serial killer who uses a pseudonym
that is a clue to his identity; an event from the past resonating in the present; a heroic police officer who flaunts the rules, engendering enmity in his superiors; a partner so close and so smart that they appear
to have a psychic connection, and political infighting within the department that seems more important to the ambitious cops than solving crimes. We've seen them all before and surely will again, but no one uses the
staples of the genre as well as this author who has already cemented his position in the pantheon of the greatest mystery writers of all time. "Echo Park" begins when, by sheer happenstance, the police
stop a van at 2:00 a.m. and discover two trash bags filled with women's body parts. The arrest clearly suggests a solid case. As Mr. Connelly states, "Nothing like being caught in the possession of body parts.
A defense attorney's nightmare; a prosecutor's dream."When the D.A. decides to go for the death penalty, the killer agrees to confess to nine additional murders in exchange for a life sentence. One of the
murders to which he cops is of Marie Gesto, the case that has caused Bosch to grieve for so many years. She was a young woman who simply disappeared one day, her body never found. Bosch cannot erase the snapshot of
her neatly folded clothes from his brain. He wants the captured man to be the murderer, but he doesn't believe him. There are inconsistencies and, rather than just accept the confession, as his bosses want him to
do, Bosch feels compelled to poke around, much to the irritation of one and all. The brass doesn't really care if the confession is true; they just want to close the case. If it means ignoring evidence, or even
making some up, that's fine by them. "To Bosch," Mr. Connelly writes, "it seemed that as far back as you could remember in L.A., the fix was always in." The City of Angels has been a fertile
field for crime fiction for a long time. Raymond Chandler flourished there, and so did Nathaniel West, Horace Mc-Coy, many of the top pulp writers, and among today's giants of the genre, Robert Crais, James Ellroy,
Andrew Klavan, and Joseph Wambaugh. Perhaps that should not be a surprise. As Mr. Connelly writes, "L.A. is a sunny place for shady people." "Echo Park" is a hard-boiled cop novel, but a poignant
one, examining with clarity and insight two equally powerful drives: the internal struggle of a good man as well as the external challenge of solving a mystery with finality, etching the solution in marble, so that
it's able to withstand the magnified examinations of time. As with his masterpiece last year, "The Lincoln Lawyer," Mr. Connelly has again produced that rarity in mystery fiction, indeed a rarity among all
fiction: a flawless work of art that perfectly balances action and suspense with intelligent dialogue and fleshed-out characters. What may not be surprising (since he was a police reporter) is that Mr. Connelly
understands the mentality of police officers. What is surprising is how well he seems to understand the mentality of women. But what's shocking, and a little scary, is how well he seems to understand the minds of
vicious killers.
— Otto Penzler, The New York Sun
"Echo Park" by Michael Connelly is the latest exciting book in the series starring Harry Bosch, a veteran Los Angeles police detective.Bosch, working in the Open-Unsolved Unit, gets a call from the
district attorney that serial killer Raynard Waits has claimed responsibility for the 1993 disappearance of Marie Gesto. To avoid the death penalty, Waits will show police where Gesto's body is buried. As one of the
initial investigating officers on the case, Bosch is surprised when evidence appears that indicates the case could have been solved if he and his partner had correctly followed procedures. Getting help from his
current partner, Kiz Rider, and former FBI profiler and lover Rachael Walling, Bosch digs deeper into the case, exploring clues that indicate the possibility of political corruption. This is one of Connelly's best
books yet - and that's saying a lot - with high- octane suspense and exceptional characterization."
— Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal
Back in 1992, when Michael Connelly first launched the career of LAPD detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch, he laid down a winning formula that has served him well. Put Bosch in a situation where he will be
in conflict with his bosses, link him with a female FBI agent whenever possible, allow for some brooding, maybe about his abusive childhood, then let him triumph over threats from within and outside the police
department. It is testament to Connelly's skills that he makes each variation on the Bosch theme work. He has scored again with Echo Park (a worthy addition to the Bosch line that began with The Black Echo).Now
working for the Open-Unsolved Unit, Bosch is called in when Raynard Waits, caught in the Echo Park neighborhood with two chopped-up bodies in his car, tries to avoid a death sentence by confessing to nine earlier
homicides. One of those killings involved the 1995 disappearance of Marie Gesto, a case that has haunted Bosch, who was convinced the 22-year-old woman had been killed by the son of a wealthy oilman. The case is
being handled by a slimy homicide detective, Freddy Olivas, and an ambitious candidate for district attorney, Richard O'Shea, neither of whom Bosch trusts. But when evidence suggests that Bosch and his then-partner
missed a vital clue 11 years earlier that could have led them to the killer, he is plunged into self-recriminations and despair. Fortunately, it doesn't take Bosch long to snap out of his funk, thanks to tender
loving care from his old flame at the FBI, Rachel Walling, who agrees to do an unofficial profile of Waits. Connelly is at his inventive best in Echo Park. He even finds a way to play off Waits' first name.
And he draws parallels between the investigation and the discovery in archives after 50 years of Bosch's favorite recording of jazz greats Coltrane and Monk. It may be a cliche to say you can't put a book down, but
once I started reading Echo Park, I just couldn't turn the pages fast enough, and the thrills and surprises kept coming. If only there were another 405 pages to go.
— Ann Hellmuth, Orlando Sentinel
Ever since the publication of his first novel, The Black Echo, in 1992, Michael Connelly has produced some of the finest work the mystery genre has seen - novels of distinction that not only succeed as rousing
stories of suspense and intrigue, but that also form a virtual biography of a city, a social history of Los Angeles as seen through the ideas of a simple, yet extraordinary man. Through the years of O.J. and the
riots, the ups and downs of the Dodgers and Lakers, the Northridge Quake and the Night Stalker, the story of Detective Harry Bosch has unfolded against the backdrop of this magical, but troubled city. During that
time, Bosch has developed into one of the richest and most compelling characters in crime fiction - or any fiction, for that matter. Bosch is a man defined by his contrasts, who brings answers to others, but is
constantly plagued by doubt. A public servant insubordinate to the establishment, yet fiercely loyal to the victims of crime. A detective who helps others find peace, but who knows nothing in this life but trouble.
For the 12th novel in the Bosch series, Connelly has chosen a name - Echo Park - that is evocative of the series' opener, and in many ways we can see the detective coming full circle. He is back working for
the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide division, tracking down "cold cases," crimes that have lingered unsolved, often for many years. Bosch has also once again found romance with a female FBI agent, a
relationship that has little more chance for success than his prior liaison with an agent more than a decade earlier. That previous romance brought marriage and parenthood, but wife and child are gone now, living
halfway around the world. Bosch once again is alone.
His personal life remains a vacuum, cold and empty, the only fire inside him burning for his mission, the one thing that keeps bringing him back from the abyss. Bosch has dedicated himself to speaking for the dead, giving a voice to those who no longer have one, and bringing their killers to justice. One of those victims has lingered in his thoughts for more than a decade: a young woman whose murder he originally investigated but could not solve. Now it appears that the killer has been caught, and he's ready to admit to everything as part of a plea bargain to escape the death penalty. Bosch finds no closure in this trade-off, and suspects that the confession is as hollow as the deal. As he starts to pluck at the strings holding the case together, Bosch learns more and more about what is really going on. He eventually learns more than he wanted to know when he uncovers a crucial clue that he missed all of those years before, a clue that might have led to an arrest that would have saved several lives. As is the case with all of Connelly's work, the plot is exquisitely drawn, a finely wrought and intricate story of detection and police procedure that is so good it would almost make you think that the author was right there in the car with the detectives. Along with plot, Connelly also excels at creating a taut and engrossing narrative, telling his story in simple, but compelling fashion. He leaves the narrative unadorned, never indulging in verbose language or flowery prose. Even so, his writing never fails to paint a full and lush picture, both of the story's setting and its characters. It is in those two areas, in particular, that this writer's work truly shines. No one has ever written about the city of Los Angeles with as sharp yet loving an eye as this former journalist does. And it is through the eyes of his characters, particularly the immortal Harry Bosch, that he unveils this rich tapestry. Among contemporary crime writers, Connelly is, quite simply, the best of the best.
— David J. Montgomery, The Phildelphia Inquirer
``Echo Park'' is Michael Connelly writing pretty much at the top of his craft, which is to say at the top of mystery writing today, and he seems to be following one of Elmore Leonard's famous Ten Rules for Writing:
``Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.'' This tale of Harry Bosch again battling bad people in Los Angeles grabs the reader early on and doesn't let go, with a story about Bosch doggedly pursuing a
case he hadn't been able to close 13 years ago. A young woman, Marie Gesto, had disappeared. Her car is found, and Bosch sees ``a small stack of neatly folded clothing on top of a pair of running shoes. . . . It was
her clothes that got to Bosch. The way they were folded so neatly. Did she do that? Or had it been the one who took her from this world? It was the little questions that always bothered him, filled the hollow inside
with dread.'' And it's the details of a good cop's life in L.A., as well as the crime details, that always make Connelly's books so good — in addition to the rock-solid characterizations and the stories that always
touch on issues that have gritty meaning to them. The title of this book refers to an L.A. neighborhood, Echo Park, which is ``in the shadows of downtown's spires and under the glow of lights from Dodger Stadium. .
. . By night it was the only place in the city where the air could be split by the sound of gang gunfire, the cheers for a home-run ball and the baying of the hillside coyotes — all in the same hour.'' (OK, to split
a hair -- all of those sounds can probably also be heard in certain places in the San Fernando Valley, which is also part of Los Angeles, except the cheers would be for Little League or high school ball, not
professional.) The Gesto case has eaten at Bosch for years, even during the time he had quit the LAPD and certainly again once he re-upped and became part of the Open-Unsolved detectives division, working out of
Parker Center in downtown. Every once in a while he spends a week or two working the Gesto case, hits a wall and returns the files to archives. A few months later, he tries again. He has a gut feeling that a rich
punk named Anthony Garland, son of the powerful oil man T. Rex Garland, killed Gesto, but has never been able to prove it. The Garlands have taken legal steps to keep Bosch away. Early in ``Echo Park,'' as Bosch
again is looking at the Gesto file, another detective demands to see it because he has just arrested a suspected serial killer who might have murdered Marie Gesto all those years ago. Raynard Waits was busted on a
traffic stop as he was heading into Echo Park. The officers were looking for a burglar, but instead found three bags in the van filled with the parts of two dead women. Turns out Waits has killed at least eight
women, and now the assistant district attorney handling the case is looking to give Waits a deal wherein Waits gets a life sentence instead of the death penalty if he leads them to where he says he buried Marie
Gesto. Bosch doesn't want such a deal. If Waits did all those crimes, ``They ought to strap him down, put the juice in him and send him on down the hole to where he belongs.'' And the whole case just doesn't sit
right with Bosch. Even when Waits leads them to a shallowly buried body. And if there's anything we've learned in the course of Connelly's excellent series, if Bosch smells a rat somewhere, there is a rat somewhere.
Of course, Bosch isn't perfect, and it turns out that some of his sense of what is going on in this case isn't quite right. But that just makes for some good switcheroo fun as Connelly keeps us securely belted for
his roller-coaster of a mystery ride. Bosch as always is a cop not afraid to break a rule, or even the law, in the pursuit of the greater good, and as usual is also willing to fly bravely in the face of bureaucratic
dangers within the department. Big issues for us all in this age. And this story also touches briefly on the topic of individual choice. It turns out that Bosch and the killer Waits had both lived in the same
government home, McLaren, for abandoned or battered children. ``At McLaren they used to pass around that saying about every man having two dogs inside,'' Waits tells Bosch at one point. ``One good and one bad. They
fight all the time because only one can be the alpha dog, the one in charge. . . . And the one that wins is always the dog you chose to feed. I fed the wrong one. You fed the right one.''
— John Orr, San Jose Mercury News
It starts with the 1993 discovery of a Honda Accord in the garage of a landmark Los Angeles apartment house - and the pace never lets up from there. The car, it turns out, belongs to a young woman named Marie Gesto,
who disappeared after simply walking out of a supermarket. Detective Harry (Hieronymous) Bosch and his partner work the case hard, but they never crack it. Dead or alive, Gesto is never found. But then, the story
moves to the present. In the meantime much has happened. Bosch had retired from the police department (under some duress), but now he's back working in the Open - Unsolved Unit, where he keeps the Gesto file close
to hand. And here comes a call from the DA's office. A man, a monster really, has just been accused of two ghastly killings (he was arrested while transporting severed bodies in Echo Park). And he's willing to come
clean about the Gesto case as part of a plea bargain. Will Bosch help the DA put him away? Well, yes, he will. But not particularly willingly. Bosch had a different suspect years ago. He gets involved anyway,
especially after he is told that he missed a significant clue back in '93 that could have solved the case. Oh, the guilt! As always, Connelly writes at roller coaster speed with action and surprise at every plot
twist. Bam, bash, bang. The book is a page-turner for sure. There's a foray with the accused to unearth Marie's body; there are political machinations; there is clever detective work; there are confrontations with
the monster whose life, we discover, did not begin all that differently from Bosch's.
Both boys had tragic childhoods; both were raised in the same municipal foster home; both are obsessives but obviously very
different obsessives. Oh, the irony! "Every man has two dogs inside him. One good and one bad," the accused man tells Bosch when we finally cut to the chase. "They fight all the time because only one
can be the alpha dog. "And the one that wins is always the dog you choose to feed. I fed the wrong one. You fed the right one." Bosch will brood on that statement for a long, long time, we know. Because
he's a brooder all right. A tough cop who goes his own way, defying the powers that be whenever he thinks it's necessary but still - a brooder.
And a loner, too. That's important because it's Bosch's personality
and Connelly's breathless writing that make the series so popular. Deservedly so, you will agree.
— Janice Okun, Buffalo News
Echo Park received the following honors:
—The Globe and Mail (Canada) Top 100 Books In 2006
—The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oline Cogdill, Best of 2006
—The New York Sun, Otto Penzler, 10 Best Mysteries of the Year
—The Mirror (London), Henry Sutton, Best of 2006
—Echo Park won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize For Best Mystery/Thriller
|
