Book Review
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly – It’s the blueprint for the Prime Series.

Again, this book is not like the series. Although the book is not set in our present day, it holds up, the storyline is complex and engrossing.

In The Black Ice, Hieronymus Bosch is back on the job in this second book in the Bosch series by Michael Connelly.

In The Black Ice, it’s Christmas Eve and Harry is on call for the Hollywood Homicide desk of the LAPD but when a body is discovered in a flop motel, Harry is left out.

Once again we see that Harry is considered an outsider in the department but at least for this book, he’s not under investigation by IAD.

The storyline of The Black Ice deals with narcotics, narcotic undercover officers, dead bodies, and drug smuggling from both Hawaii and Mexico. Harry shows himself to be a bit of a lonely man player, with two lovers. The encounters are not over the top in description with the perfect amount left to the imagination.

Under all that is a dead cop and another cop who decides to pull the pin causing his caseload onto Bosch.

As with The Black Echo, LA is a character, that is not as in-depth as in the first book but Connelly does a good job of describing the border town and Mexican town where part of the story unfolds.

The Black Ice is a good sophomore effort, an excellent story with many moving pieces that the author weaves together seamlessly.

Recommend?

I do recommend reading the Bosch books if you loved the Prime series and even if you didn’t. The intricacies and different threads have to be followed to unravel the mystery that is expertly tangled and then followed.

Review also on

Disclaimer
I received via the OverDrive/Libby app from the Harris County Library system. It was read as a Libby epub.