Echo Park (Harry Bosch)

Definitely one of the better books in the series.

Another terrific outing for Harry Bosch in the Open Unsolved Unit, showing his usual pig-headed approach to solving crime by the book! A welcome reappearance of FBI Agent Rachel Walling too as well as other old friends like partner Kiz Rider and former partner Jerry Edgar.

Fun, fast-paced read that's hard to put down. Harry Bosch character is very likeable, and this plot was GOOD! After 15 years, a recently apprehended serial killer confesses to a crime that has haunted Bosch. A young woman on her way to a stable vanishes without a trace, her clothes found neatly

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folded on the front seat of her car. Many twists and turns later, we get to the heart of this confession.

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Brilliant. I was so wrapped up in the end I forgot to pay the bill at a restaurant! Luckily I was called back before I left the building. A continuing return to form for one of the best crime writers around.

What keeps me coming back to this series is the personality of Harry Bosch and his ongoing tilting against his employers.

Detective Harry Bosch, who has recently returned to the force after a try-out at retirement, is still haunted by some of his open cold cases, particularly the death of Marie Gesto, over a decade ago. He checks the case file out periodically and while he has it out this time, the Echo Park bagman

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(named because he was caught with garbage bags of body parts)is caught and eventually brokers a deal naming the Gesto murder as his. They call on Bosch to help verify the details of Raynard Waits confession, which includes a field trip to the grave site of Gesto. Somewhat predicatably, things go south and Bosch is caught in the middle of quite the mystery. A solid police procedural novel.

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That "Echo Park" is my first experience with a Michael Connelly novel is a little hard for me to believe since it is at least the seventh or eighth Harry Bosch novel that I've purchased over the years. I've been aware of Connelly's success for a very long time, and even ran into him at a Houston

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bookstore when he was signing one of his first Harry Bosch books. But, read him, I had not done until now, so it was probably not a great idea for me to start with the twelfth book in the series - too much water under the bridge for Harry, his co-workers, his lovers (past and present), his friends and his enemies.

That is not to say that "Echo Park" does not work well as a standalone novel, because it does stand just fine on its own. It is more the feeling I got that so much had already happened between some of the book's main characters that Connelly did not feel it necessary to fully develop them again in "Echo Park." But I'm not discouraged - I now plan to read the rest of the series in the order in which the books were written.

Harry Bosch, now almost 60 years old, has returned to the LAPD where he works cold cases, some of which he has been working off and on for years, a few even from home before he rejoined the department. Harry was never able to forget the Marie Gesto case involving a young woman, assumed murdered, whose body was never found. All Gesto left behind was an empty apartment and the neatly folded set of clothing found on the seat of her car.

Harry has a favorite suspect for the crime and periodically pushes on the man until a lawyer forces him to stay away from the suspect. When Harry is notified that someone else is willing to confess to the Gesto murder as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, he is slow to give up on his favorite suspect. It is only when serial killer Reynard Waits leads the police to where Gesto's body was hidden more than a decade before that Harry begins to believe that the real killer has been found.

His instincts have served Harry well through the years, however, and his sense of unease about what he is told about Gesto's murder keeps him poking around the edges of the case until he becomes certain that there is much more to the plea bargain than he has been told.

The Harry Bosch of "Echo Park" is a borderline rogue cop, a guy determined to see justice done, department rules, be damned. He is willing to risk not only his own life, but the life of his FBI lover, Rachel Walling, if it means that he gets his man. Echo Park is a textbook police procedural, even if Bosch does not always follow accepted police procedure, but it is also quite a thriller, encompassing an exciting manhunt and showdown that bring out both the best, and the worst, in Harry Bosch.

Bosch seems to be a good cop trying to get by because it is all he knows how to do. It will be interesting to see how Harry ages as the series continues to move along, but first I am going to visit the much younger Harry Bosch from 1992's "The Black Echo" to see how different he was as a cop close to 20 years younger than the one in "Echo Park." It should be an interesting trip.

Rated at: 3.5

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Bosch returns as the lone wolf. The crime and intrigue were well set up with an interesting albeit simple psychological profile. The political intrigue was a thin and rather unbelievable. Good but not Connelly's best.

I was really enjoying this, and then.... it ended. It's not as if it didn't finish the story, it did. But the end just didn't satisfy me, and I really don't know why. I'm wondering if maybe even though the crime story finishes, Harry's story doesn't, and that makes me want to know what's happening

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next. He always seems to be up in the air at the end of a book. There never seem to be solid personal endings for him. Maybe that's just the way he is. But this time, I was actually a little disappointed.

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Harry Boesch is now part of the cold case division working a case of a missing woman that he investigated 13 years earlier. Harry fixes on a psycho as the killer while dealing with corruption in the ranks. He enlists the help of a female friend in the FBI but acts recklessly and is put on home

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suspension. I didn't enjoy this book as well as the others in the series that I've read.

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Another briskly entertaining crime novel from Connelly.

Moving right along at a really fast pace Connelly yet again misses the opportunity to fine tune, or at least devote a paragraph towards Bosch's relationship with his ex wife and daughter. Another thing that is irksome is this continuing saga of bad cops.
Of course the LAPD has it's share of

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corruption, but surely it would be realistic to have them go annoy another Detective or two for a while. Even so, this was one of the better ones. It moves great, has some interesting twists, and you're as stunned as Harry when the betrayer is revealed.

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A good Harry Bosch story. Connelly manages to maintain the high standards of this series of cop thrillers

Another well written and fast paced Harry Bosh novel by Michael Connelly, Good plot and intriguing serial killer thriller.

This book is about Detective Harry Baush of the open unsolved unit finds himself in a bigger case then the one that has haunted him for thirteen years. I think that the characters were believable and the plot flowed well and keep you guessing till the end.
This audio book was bought from Great Escape

This is #12 in the Harry Bosch series of mystery/thrillers, and it's the last one I will be reading. I just got worn down by the sameness of it all. It's what makes series books appealing, on the one hand, that comfortable familiarity; but too much of it loosens my grip on the give-a-damn lever.

Now

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that Harry's in the unsolved crimes unit, he runs across a 13-year-old case of his that's bugged him and worried him because he feels sure there's something he and/or his partner missed.

Enter a convicted killer facing death, willing to cop to the crime. Trouble is, Harry's not at all sure he did it.

So there you have it. You know the whole story. Don't flag me for spoilering, either, because all that's in the flap copy. Now you see why I am done with the series: The basics are good, but the *oomph* that could sustain me over the long haul is gone.

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I love Harry Bosch books and this one was great as well! The book was suspensful and interesting from start to finish.

Michael Connelly created another super Mystery.

After I finished reading Echo Park I thought "what a great story" and I really enjoyed it. The plot was super and the author kept the action moving while keeping me wondering what was going to happen next. Overall, I though Echo Park was thrilling

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mystery and Michael Connelly as always never disappointed me in this story.
If you are a mystery fan then don't miss this one. It's a fast pace of a read that will keep you turning page after page.

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Harry's back and Persistent as ever.

I was a bit disappointed in the last few Bosch novels but after reading "Echo Park" Michael Connelly and Harry Bosch are back with this excellent and well told tale.

Harry Bosch has returned from retirement and is now working in the Open Unsolved Unit. The book

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opens with Harry working on a case that involves the murder of a young beautiful girl. Harry still remains a believable character. He has his flaws but overall he is a pretty decent fellow. In other words he's the same old Harry that I have always enjoyed reading about. Echo Park continues Harry's journey into the dark side of men and once again he gets knocked around, but his persistence keeps him faithfully at doing his job.
In summary, I give Echo Park a enthusiastic endorsement.

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This was my first Harry Bosch novel. It takes place in LA and has all the parts you would expect in a police mystery--good cop, bad cop, evil villain. I enjoyed the book, but I don't know that I will bother to get another from the series. It has enough twists to keep one turning the pages, but i

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found it a bit formulaic and predictable.

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Harry Bosch investigates an old case that haunted him for years when details of the case coincide with a new series of gruesome killings. Haunting book, even the bad guy is a little sympathetic.

Murder mystery, not very engrossing.

The first book read from this aurthor. Very good. Makes me wonder why I'm reading the Scandinavian crime writers. The comparison to them is interesting. They can't maintain interest with the dull, plodding, unfocused style they seem to all prefer. Definitely will red more of Connelly.

Started extremely well, but I found the ending rather disappointing