The Harry Bosch Novels: The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde

Rating:
Summary: the concrete blond
Review: this is a great book in a great series.harry bosch is my favorite literary character and michael connelly my favorite author.the concrete blond shows harry at his toughest and most vulnerable.the mystery of the concrete blond will keep you guessing until the end.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reads at a Super Value
Review: This volume collects the first three Harry Bosch novels into one hardbound edition. Bosch is a detective with the LAPD - a bit of a maverick, a bit of a loose cannon, a whole lot of an outsider within the force. His ideals and devotion to justice repeatedly put him at odds with the bureacrats, political movers and crooked officers within the force.

Each of these three books is a great read on its own. The stories are well-paced, the crimes and subsequent investigations are intriguing, and Connelly's gift with words (especially dialogue) is apparent. But reading these three books one right the other really hooks the reader on the Bosch character. There's a great balance here between the individual crime plots and the developments in Bosch's life that made him who he is today and continue to guide him toward his future. Connelly also does a great job of credibly moving characters in and out of Bosch's life in the books further down the road, so these three provide a necessary foundation.

The best of the three is final book, "The Concrete Blonde". Throughout the earlier books there are references to a very important case in Bosch's past. In "The Concrete Blonde", Connelly uses an excellent tactic to flesh out this case without resorting to a prequel: the case is reopened and retried when new evidence is brought to light that may exonerate the man whom Bosch originally collared. The current day trial retells the original events while Bosch must reinvestigate his own methods and conclusions, all leading up to a super surprise ending. Very good whodunit reading.

Since the original printings are long gone, this volume represents your only shot to get them in a new hardcover edition. The fact that this attractive package costs less than would the three paperbacks combined makes it a must-have for any fan of mystery or police procedural fiction.