Rating: 
Summary: Good descriptions and narrative, but contrived plot.
Review: This is a readable book, with some good characterizations and a flowing narrative. It is, however, spoiled by a hugely contrived plot which strains believability. As the plot is worked out at the end of the book unfolds it pretty much spoiled it for me. I'd read Connelly again though, hoping that his talents wouldn't be wasted as they were in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Even when you're not reading it - you're thinking about it!
Review: Michael Connelly is a master at getting your attention and holding it until the last word. He uses all his knowledge and know-how from his crime reporter background to weave a tale full of mystery, intrigue and surprise. You cannot outguess him! His character Hieronymus Bosch is a genius at what he does, a homicide detective, and Connelly tells us just enough to keep us wondering what the next twist and turn will be. All the emotions are played when it comes to Bosch - you cannot help but join forces with this complex, super-smart detective. Connelly won the Edgar Award for this book. When I finished reading it, I immediately ordered ALL of the seven books he has written so that I may follow Bosch's life in sequence. This author is one you should not miss meeting and enjoying!
Rating:
Summary: Fast start, instant reader interest, great surprise ending.
Review: The reader of this book will instantly become a fan of Michael Connelly and Harry Bosch. The author captures the reader with rivetting action and a plot that is not totally revealed until the very last page.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good police novel
Review: I enjoyed this book very much as far as the characters go. The crime involved was not quite as interesting, but still good enough and with enough twists to keep me interested until the end. And I have to admit, I also liked it because it took place in LA and all the locations mentioned and talked about I could relate to. I liked this book well enough that I've already bought Black Ice. Worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Read Concrete Blonde first
Review: Unlike most authors with continuing characters, Connelly has not published the Bosch stories in chronological order. Black Echo is an entertaining novel but it reveals key plot elements of The Dollmaker case, described in the Concrete Blonde. I didn't find the plot as compelling in The Black Echo as in his later books, but perhaps that's because of my lack of interest in war experiences. The writing is unusually descriptive -- I was starting to cough with all Bosch's smoking. (Surprising he wasn't the character needing a heart transplant, described in my favorite of Connelly's books (so far), Blood Work).
Rating:
Summary: Connelly's first and still the best
Review: Connelly spent years on the crime beat for the LA Times and his knowledge shows. An extremely talented writer, he introduces Harry Bosch, a great new character on the police procedural lineup. I have read everything Connelly has written, and this is still my favorite. Besides, he is a really NICE guy (I've had the pleasure to have him sign some of my books) He deserves our support so that he will keep on writing!!!
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Facinating. Awesome!
Review: The plot twists in this just blew my mind.Would an movie exec in Hollywood PLEASE make a movie of this one. :-) I couldn't put the book down, am I'm not just saying that.
Rating:
Summary: Stop here! This is the BEST of Bosch
Review: I have now read all of the Bosch series, and the first is the best. Although there is a little reliance on formula, Connely takes the reader into another world that really seems to exist. Not too detailed (as some of Cornwell's books try to teach us all forensic medicine), but very engaging. If you only read one Bosch, this is it. But I also found "The Poet" a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Connelly brings Bosch's cigarette smoke inside your room.
Review: I finished it in a few days, but didn't want to put it down. Connelly keeps you curious and doesn't fill up the book with boring dialogue. It flows with an intelligent character in Det. Harry Bosch.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable, if overlong, debut that won the Edgar.
Review: Michael Connelly's debut, which won the Edgar Award for Best 1st Novel, is an engrossing mystery in the tradition of updated L.A. noir. It begins when near-burnout detective
Harry Bosch is called on to investigate the death of a smackhead found in a drainage pipe. Turns out the dead junkie is an old war buddy of Harry's. Other facts about the apparent O.D. begin to bother the lone-wolf detective, and what begins as a routine inquiry turns into a convoluted mystery involving the FBI, the Internal Affairs Division of the LAPD, and old secrets from 'Nam.
Connelly uses a wealth of authentic detail and an intricate-but-never-incomprehensible plot to great effect,
but the book is hampered by hackneyed characterizations and verbosity. In fact, Connelly's over-writing telegraphs many of the surprises of the story, especially when he tries to portray Bosch's thought-processes on the verge of discovery. Bosch's mullings circle important clues again and again, in Connelly's attempt at a kind of angst, until the reader wants to reach into the book and scream the all-too-obvious conclusions at the detective. The book could have been cut by a fourth without losing anything, and the cuts would have strengthened the tautness the mystery's spine.
The character of Bosch himself is not particularly vibrant or inventive, conforming to all the cliches of the genre of wounded, lone-wolf detectives whose only saving graces consist of a plodding perseverance and a kind of reckless courage, although there is an interesting attempt to elevate Bosch's woundedness to a kind of metaphor involving a Hopper painting and the artist who is Bosch's namesake. The other characters are, for the most part, even flatter.
Given that this is 1st novel, however, it is a promising one, especially in its detailed authenticity, and I would recommend it as a starting place for anyone interested in contemporary LA police procedurals.
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