Book Report: The Black Echo

10. Michael Connelly, The Black Echo (1991) (5/3/19)

I decided a while back to read all the Harry Bosch books, starting at the beginning—so that I could see how homicide detective Bosch's character grows and changes. Some of the books, including this one, I've read already, but not in a long while. And now I'm off: one down, twenty-one to go.

As I read, there was one, rather central character that I kept thinking was hinky—just a vague memory, but at a few spots in the narrative, this character's actions or words were definitely "off," if you happened to be paying attention. Turned out, I was right, but there was another hinky character that I'd completely forgotten about—and that one really was a bad guy. The first character's motives were basically good. And no one was supposed to get hurt.

The title of the book refers to Vietnam, and "tunnel rats": soldiers whose job it was to go into the VC tunnels and clear them of the enemy. As the story gets going, some fifteen years later, one of those tunnel rats is found dead in a concrete pipe—ostensibly from an overdose, but Bosch is suspicious. His suspicions take him to the FBI and an unsolved bank heist from the year before, which was accomplished by, yes, tunneling.

It was interesting to watch Bosch as he worked things through, carefully fitting clues both new and old into a framework, sometimes stepping back to second-guess or self-correct. Connelly also does a good job of obfuscating, which allows the conclusion to draw out in a series of surprises.

And of course, one thing I especially enjoy about Connelly's books is the "character" of Los Angeles. This one features the Federal Building on Wilshire and the VA cemetery across the street—which back in the day I used to ride my bike through, to get from my house in Santa Monica to UCLA, a five-mile trip. It features the Mulholland Dam as well, Bosch's spectacular view over L.A. from his house on stilts in the Hollywood Hills, Wilshire Blvd. through Beverly Hills, and "Little Vietnam." It's a world I'm quite familiar with, which only adds to the pleasure.

I flagged two sections for the telling writing. In the first, Bosch and FBI agent Eleanor Wish are interviewing a witness, a young graffiti artist who got things rolling when he witnessed the vet's body being dumped and called it in as an anonymous tip.

The boy reached for his cigarettes on the table and Bosch pulled back and got out one of his own. The leaning in and out of his face was a technique Bosch had learned while spending what seemed like ten thousand hours in these little rooms. Lean in, invade that foot and a half that is all theirs, their own space. Lean back when you get what you want. It's subliminal. Most of what goes on in a police interrogation has nothing to do with what is said. It is interpretation, nuance. And sometimes what isn't said. He lit Sharkey's cigarette first. Wish leaned back in her chair as they exhaled the blue smoke.
 "You wanna smoke, Agent Wish?" Bosch asked.
 She shook her head no.
 Bosch looked at Sharkey and a knowing look passed between them. It said, You and me, sport. The boy smiled. Bosch nodded for him to start his story and he did. And it was a story.

The following explains the book title, when Wish asks him,

"Harry, tell me about the black echo. What you said the other day. What did you mean?" . . .
 "There isn't anything really to tell. It's just what we called one of the intangibles."
 "Intangibles?"
 "There was no name for it, so we made up a name. It was the darkness, the damp emptiness you'd feel when you were down there alone in those tunnels. It was like you were in a place where you felt dead and buried in the dark. But you were alive. And you were scared. Your own breath kind of echoed in the darkness, loud enough to give you away. Or so you thought. I don't know. It's hard to explain. Just . . . the black echo."

The next books in the series, in order, are: The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, Trunk Music, Angels Flight, A Darkness More Than Night, City of Bones, Lost Light, The Narrows, The Closers, Echo Park, The Overlook, 9 Dragons, The Drop, The Black Box, Switchblade, The Burning Room, The Crossing, The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Two Kinds of Truth, Dark Sacred Night, and coming out in October, The Night Fire. A few of these feature Bosch's half-brother, Mickey Haller, and the two most recent feature a fellow night-shift detective, Renée Ballard.

I will take my time polishing them all off. This will be a years-long project. But one that I look forward to pursuing.