The Harry Bosch Books
I should have added this review a couple of years ago but only just realised today that I had not done so. So it's now happening - and better late than never.
Someone (I can't remember who at this late stage) had recommended to me that I should read the Harry Bosch books in order and that's what I did over the Covid lockdown period. Some I sourced in hardcopy form from local opshops, some I borrowed from the local library and some I read in e-book form. You take what you can find!
And just who is Harry Bosch? Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is a fictional character created by American author Michael Connelly. Bosch debuted as the lead character in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, the first in a best-selling police procedural series now numbering 25 novels (with a 26th due to be published later this year).
Here's the full list:
The Black Echo (1992)
The Black Ice (1993)
The Concrete Blonde (1994)
The Last Coyote (1995)
Trunk Music (1997)
Angels Flight (1999)
A Darkness More Than Night (2001)
City Of Bones (2002)
Lost Light (2003)
The Narrows (2004) (sequel to The Poet)
The Closers (2005)
Echo Park (2006)
The Overlook (2007)
Nine Dragons (2009) (also featuring Mickey Haller)
The Drop (2011)
The Black Box (2012)
The Burning Room (2014)
The Crossing (2015) (also featuring Mickey Haller)
The Wrong Side Of Goodbye (2016) (also featuring Mickey Haller)
Two Kinds Of Truth (2017) (also featuring Mickey Haller)
Dark Sacred Night (2018) (also featuring Renée Ballard)
The Night Fire (2019) (also featuring Renée Ballard)
The Dark Hours (2021) (also featuring Renée Ballard)
Desert Star (2022) (also featuring Renée Ballard)
The Waiting (October 15, 2024) (also featuring Renée Ballard)
The novels are more or less coincident in timeframe with the year in which they were published. When we first meet Bosch in 1992, he is in his early 40s, working homicide out of the Hollywood Division and decidedly out of favour with his higher-ups at the LAPD. He is a loner, angry and impulsive. In The Waiting, Connelly’s latest book, Bosch is in his 70s, retired and in failing health. He has become an icon, respected in the circles he cares about; reviled in those he doesn’t. But he is at heart the same detective we met 30 years earlier. He has slowed down and learned from his mistakes, but he is still solitary, still infuriating to those trying to supervise him, still driven and brilliant. And more than ever, he is a cop you can’t help but root for.
Driven by his mantra "Everybody Counts or Nobody Counts," he will never let a case rest, no matter the cost.
The setting of Los Angeles plays a crucial role in the storytelling. Connelly vividly describes the city’s landscape, from its seedy underbelly to its glitzy exterior, illustrating how the environment can shape people’s lives and experiences. This backdrop enhances the tension and enables readers to grasp the contrasts between the city and the lives entangled within it.
The first book starts with a body in a drainpipe at Mulholland Dam. Subsequent books feature many iconic sites around Los Angeles, West Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills, so much so that "Bosch" tours are always on offer for those who want to experience the Bosch World first hand.
If Bosch doesn’t mellow, he does change and grow over time. As he ages, so does Los Angeles. The L.A. riots add to a building distrust of the police. The LAPD hierarchy changes with each new police chief. Mayors and council members come and go. The pandemic hits, as do the Black Lives Matter protests. Favourite restaurants — Gorky’s, Chinese Friends, Kate Mantilini — close their doors. And then there’s technology, with DNA playing an ever increasing role in crime solving, especially during his time in the Open-Unsolved Unit.
Reading the books in order is like a walk through the city’s recent history with a guide who knows it intimately. The recommendation is always to start with The Black Echo and read straight through to The Waiting. And of course the Bosch world overlaps with the worlds of Mickey Haller and Renee Ballard. So there are even more books to read - and they are all excellent.
Check out the full list at https://www.michaelconnelly.com/series/.
I can honestly say that every one of the 25 Bosch books is a 5 star rating as far as I am concerned. Connelly is the undisputed king of crime writing today.
And of course, don't forget the Bosch TV series, directed by Michael Connelly and starring Titus Welliver as the title character.
Of course, Bosch is only the latest in a long line of LA detectives, the most famous being Philip Marlowe, a Los Angeles-based private detective created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye. They are also worth a read. And there is always the iconic Philip Marlowe movie The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart, rated as one of the greatest film noirs ever made.
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