As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, Michael Connelly is my favorite writer of mysteries that take place in the Los Angeles area. I’ve read others such as Walter Mosley whose Easy Rawlins mysteries take place in the L.A. of past eras and Robert Crais whose main character I found to be a bit unbelievable and egotistical. I think I first heard of Connelly from reading the old L.A. Times books reviews between 2001 and 2006 when I used to get the paper. He’s been writing mysteries since the early 1990’s and before that he was a crime reporter for the Times and other papers. Most of his mysteries have detective Harry (short for Hieronymus) Bosch as the main character. Other Connelly mysteries have different main characters and one of these, Blood Work, was made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood in the early 2000’s. I had read the first two books in the Bosch series: The Black Echo and The Black Ice from the early 1990’s and I enjoyed them. They both take place during the time they were written. The cases usually include elements that are personal to Bosch. There’s also always an interesting twist or two making for an unexpected resolution.
Echo Park is a later installment in the Bosch series having been written and taking place in 2005-2006. Bosch now uses a cell phone regularly but he still relies on his younger colleagues for use of computers. By this point he must be in his 50’s. He is a Vietnam Veteran and a longtime LAPD detective who has even tried retirement. He now works in the open/unsolved unit. He was named after the painter of the same name. His mother, a prostitute who had to give him up to the state, felt like life in L.A. was like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. I remember studying these paintings in my art history class in college. They contained many small people committing various acts of debauchery. I think one of his works is called “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. His paintings contrasted with those of Alberecht Durer, who painted large, divine-like images of people. To continue with the art history digression, the Edward Hopper painting “Night Hawks” is featured prominently in The Black Echo. We saw that painting at the Tate Modern Art Museum in London back in 2004.
Not all the Harry Bosch books have the words Black or Echo in the title. I think the third in the series is called The Concrete Blond. The namesake L.A. neighborhood in Echo Park contains important elements of the story. Connelly is familiar with the Echo Park of 2006. It’s a neighborhood to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and he writes about it: “These days Echo Park was a favored destination of another class of newcomer – the young and hip. The cool. Artists, musicians and writers were moving in. Cafés and vintage clothing shops were squeezing in next to the bodegas and mariscos stands. A wave of gentrification was washing across the flats and up the hillsides below the baseball stadium. It meant the character of the place was changing. It meant real estate prices were going up, pushing out the working class and the gangs.” (Connelly, p. 57-58) That’s the Echo Park I remember from when we used to leave in nearby Downtown L.A. Connelly captures it well in his description of the old houses and hilly streets. He describes how Figueroa Street branches off into the hilly, shorter street, Figueroa Terrace and finally Figueroa Lane. A look at my Thomas Guide doesn’t exactly confirm this. Figueroa Street actually extends all the way into Eagle Rock and to the 134. It’s supposedly one of the longest streets in the U.S.
The reason I picked the book Echo Park, even though I usually try to read mysteries in sequence, is that my wife recently went to a restaurant called Bird’s in Hollywood for a girls’ night out. She had the meat loaf and didn’t think it was anything special. When researching the restaurant before going there she learned that it was mentioned in the book Echo Park by Michael Connelly. It turns out that the accused murderer in the book liked to go to Bird’s when he lived on Franklin in Hollywood. He enjoyed their roast chicken. Bird’s isn’t the only restaurant mentioned that sounded familiar to me. Bosch and his sometime ladyfriend eat out at the Water Grill in Downtown. Later she brings him meat loaf from Just Another Restaurant or JAR in Santa Monica. I haven’t been to those places because, respectively, they are out of my price range and geographic range.
Echo Park isn’t the only part of L.A. featured in the book. Bosch spends some time in downtown L.A. because he works at Parker Center, the main LAPD station, since replaced. The DWP building is also featured. Much of the action also takes place in Hollywood, the surrounding hills, and Griffith Park. The book begins with a flashback to 1993 when Bosch and his then partner check out an apartment connected to the case. It’s in a (fictional?) complex called the Hightower that’s built along the side of a hill. Though the apartment has an excellent view of the city, it’s only 400 square feet. The rent in 1993 is $1,000 per month most likely due to the view.
I enjoy reading Connelly because he knows L.A. and he knows police work. He describes how detectives must assemble “murder books” for each homicide case that contain everything connected to the case. This includes a record of all events and things done in the investigation. When a police officer fires his weapon, Connelly describes the process of the Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) investigation. He knows all the acronyms, proceedings, and resources such as Autotrack, the computer database that “could provide an individual’s address history through utility and cable hookups, DMV records, and other sources. It was tremendously useful in tracing people back through time.” (p. 55)
I also like that Bosch is an imperfect protagonist. He has theories that turn out to be false and he has a tendency for recklessness and bending the rules when he feels lives are on the line. But he’s also very smart, thorough, and willing to approach questions from different angles. I like how Connelly takes us through his thought processes. He also gives us much insight into Bosch as a person: his past as an orphan ward of the state and later a Vietnam vet, even his past acquaintances and relationships that I’m guessing were explored in earlier books in the series. Bosch is a big fan of jazz and in one scene plays a CD of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk live at Carnegie Hall recorded in 1957. The tape had sat in an unmarked box in the national archives for 50 years before a “Library of Congress guy was going through all the boxes and performance taps and just recognizes what they had there . . . It’s a miracle to think it was there all the time. It took the right person to find it. To recognize it.” (p. 147) Bosch uses this as a model for his detective work.
The plot and twists of Echo Park aren’t quite as compelling as The Black Echo and The Black Ice but it’s still very good. There are many characters with different motives, both political and personal, and some are more than they initially seem. I didn’t find it hard to follow the seemingly complicated plot. Everything isn’t resolved until the end and, even then, not everything is explained. But enough is to satisfy Bosch and the reader. Each book is its own story, yet in total the series tells the continuing story of Bosch and some of the other recurring characters.
Echo Park is a later installment in the Bosch series having been written and taking place in 2005-2006. Bosch now uses a cell phone regularly but he still relies on his younger colleagues for use of computers. By this point he must be in his 50’s. He is a Vietnam Veteran and a longtime LAPD detective who has even tried retirement. He now works in the open/unsolved unit. He was named after the painter of the same name. His mother, a prostitute who had to give him up to the state, felt like life in L.A. was like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. I remember studying these paintings in my art history class in college. They contained many small people committing various acts of debauchery. I think one of his works is called “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. His paintings contrasted with those of Alberecht Durer, who painted large, divine-like images of people. To continue with the art history digression, the Edward Hopper painting “Night Hawks” is featured prominently in The Black Echo. We saw that painting at the Tate Modern Art Museum in London back in 2004.
Not all the Harry Bosch books have the words Black or Echo in the title. I think the third in the series is called The Concrete Blond. The namesake L.A. neighborhood in Echo Park contains important elements of the story. Connelly is familiar with the Echo Park of 2006. It’s a neighborhood to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles and he writes about it: “These days Echo Park was a favored destination of another class of newcomer – the young and hip. The cool. Artists, musicians and writers were moving in. Cafés and vintage clothing shops were squeezing in next to the bodegas and mariscos stands. A wave of gentrification was washing across the flats and up the hillsides below the baseball stadium. It meant the character of the place was changing. It meant real estate prices were going up, pushing out the working class and the gangs.” (Connelly, p. 57-58) That’s the Echo Park I remember from when we used to leave in nearby Downtown L.A. Connelly captures it well in his description of the old houses and hilly streets. He describes how Figueroa Street branches off into the hilly, shorter street, Figueroa Terrace and finally Figueroa Lane. A look at my Thomas Guide doesn’t exactly confirm this. Figueroa Street actually extends all the way into Eagle Rock and to the 134. It’s supposedly one of the longest streets in the U.S.
The reason I picked the book Echo Park, even though I usually try to read mysteries in sequence, is that my wife recently went to a restaurant called Bird’s in Hollywood for a girls’ night out. She had the meat loaf and didn’t think it was anything special. When researching the restaurant before going there she learned that it was mentioned in the book Echo Park by Michael Connelly. It turns out that the accused murderer in the book liked to go to Bird’s when he lived on Franklin in Hollywood. He enjoyed their roast chicken. Bird’s isn’t the only restaurant mentioned that sounded familiar to me. Bosch and his sometime ladyfriend eat out at the Water Grill in Downtown. Later she brings him meat loaf from Just Another Restaurant or JAR in Santa Monica. I haven’t been to those places because, respectively, they are out of my price range and geographic range.
Echo Park isn’t the only part of L.A. featured in the book. Bosch spends some time in downtown L.A. because he works at Parker Center, the main LAPD station, since replaced. The DWP building is also featured. Much of the action also takes place in Hollywood, the surrounding hills, and Griffith Park. The book begins with a flashback to 1993 when Bosch and his then partner check out an apartment connected to the case. It’s in a (fictional?) complex called the Hightower that’s built along the side of a hill. Though the apartment has an excellent view of the city, it’s only 400 square feet. The rent in 1993 is $1,000 per month most likely due to the view.
I enjoy reading Connelly because he knows L.A. and he knows police work. He describes how detectives must assemble “murder books” for each homicide case that contain everything connected to the case. This includes a record of all events and things done in the investigation. When a police officer fires his weapon, Connelly describes the process of the Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) investigation. He knows all the acronyms, proceedings, and resources such as Autotrack, the computer database that “could provide an individual’s address history through utility and cable hookups, DMV records, and other sources. It was tremendously useful in tracing people back through time.” (p. 55)
I also like that Bosch is an imperfect protagonist. He has theories that turn out to be false and he has a tendency for recklessness and bending the rules when he feels lives are on the line. But he’s also very smart, thorough, and willing to approach questions from different angles. I like how Connelly takes us through his thought processes. He also gives us much insight into Bosch as a person: his past as an orphan ward of the state and later a Vietnam vet, even his past acquaintances and relationships that I’m guessing were explored in earlier books in the series. Bosch is a big fan of jazz and in one scene plays a CD of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk live at Carnegie Hall recorded in 1957. The tape had sat in an unmarked box in the national archives for 50 years before a “Library of Congress guy was going through all the boxes and performance taps and just recognizes what they had there . . . It’s a miracle to think it was there all the time. It took the right person to find it. To recognize it.” (p. 147) Bosch uses this as a model for his detective work.
The plot and twists of Echo Park aren’t quite as compelling as The Black Echo and The Black Ice but it’s still very good. There are many characters with different motives, both political and personal, and some are more than they initially seem. I didn’t find it hard to follow the seemingly complicated plot. Everything isn’t resolved until the end and, even then, not everything is explained. But enough is to satisfy Bosch and the reader. Each book is its own story, yet in total the series tells the continuing story of Bosch and some of the other recurring characters.
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