The Black Ice (Harry Bosch) by Michael Connelly
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Book Reviews of The Black Ice (Harry Bosch)
Book Review: Black Ice can send you skidding right off the road ...
Summary: 4 Stars
Having grown up in the upper Midwest (eastern Montana), I know all about black ice. It is deceptive - the road looks perfectly fine, but if you aren't very careful, and if you hit a patch just right (or wrong, I suppose, would be more correct), it can send you careening off in an unexpected direction. This idea is used to good effect in this very excellent novel by Michael Connelly.
Harry Bosch only knew about the killing because one of the transmissions happened to go out on the regular frequency. He was angry, because he was supposed to be on call that night for any murders, so he decided to go and crash the party, so to speak. When he arrived, it was to discover that one of the vice cops - Calexio Moore - had apparently taken a shotgun, propped himself against the bathtub, held it to his face and pulled both the triggers with his toe. There wasn't much left of his face. When the body is finally moved and searched, a note is found in his back pocket which reads "I found out who I was."
Harry is told in no uncertain terms that his help is not wanted on this case but because Harry is completely incapable of letting things go, he begins to investigate the matter anyway. What he discovers eventually leads him to the barrio Cal grew up in, in Calexico - right across the border from Mexicali. From bull fights to a castle on a hill, Harry's time spent in this area is vivid and beautifully described.
This is an amazing book. Fans of noir, thrillers, good mysteries and/or this series will love this Bosch story!
Book Review: A Weaker Sequel to The Black Echo
Summary: 4 Stars
Be sure you read The Black Echo before this book. The back story and characterizations rely a lot on these books being read in the order they were written.
The Black Ice has many things to recommend it. Harry Bosch is a modern "noir" detective working in LA's underbelly, the sleazy streets of Hollywood, who sees himself as an avenging angel with no room for anything else in his life. That characterization is tested in The Black Ice when Harry is affected to his toes by meeting the widow of a murder victim.
The descriptions of drug manufacture, distribution, and dealing are powerful and memorable. The book has lots of exciting action.
You'll also feel like you've been taken on a well-run tour of Hollywood and Mexicali . . . to see the tawdriest locales.
But the book does go wrong, tarnishing lots of good writing. Michael Connelly inexplicably and unnecessarily uses one of the oldest and least satisfying plot devices in the mystery author's filing cabinet. I won't say more, but you'll know what I mean when the book is over.
The effect of hitting that plot device is like going from a smooth ride in a jet to a kid's soap box derby crate rolling over potholes. The ride just isn't the same. Up until the plot device is triggered, the book is clearly a five-star effort.
But you have better things ahead. The Concrete Blonde, the third Harry Bosch mystery, is a much better and more rewarding book to read.
Book Review: A solid thriller in the series
Summary: 4 Stars
Black Ice, by Michael Connelly, is my second Harry Bosch novel after reading the Closers. In Black Ice, policeman Cal Moore is found dead in a dilapidated hotel room on New Years Eve. Moore worked on the narc squad. Harry Bosch is on call and hears the murder on the police scanner. He expects to be called in but isn't because the higher ups want to handle this one. Harry gets one part of the case, he gets to tell Mrs. Moore her husband is dead.
Bosch moves on. He's given some cases another detective was working on and told to try and close them before the end of the year to make the numbers look good. Bosch begins looking at a murder of a Mexican immigrant and sees the body was found by Cal Moore. Bosch looks further into Moore's past and soon finds three murder cases that are all interrelated. In what I gather is a theme of Bosch novels, the detective goes off on his own to try and solve the murder. The last third of the book is spent in the Mexico border town of Calexico. The DEA, Mexican police and drug lords are all part of the story. The story comes together nicely in the end as Bosch saves the day.
This novel is slow and methodical, perhaps the way a police prodecural should be. It never was boring though, as Connelly created good characters that held my interest. I'll definitely read more Connelly novels, but won't be in a hurry to read them as fast as I can like books by Harlen Coben or John Sandford.
Book Review: Not as good as the first, but still fine
Summary: 4 Stars
"The black ice" is the second book in the Harry Bosch series, following "The black echo". Harry Bosch is still the same, lonely, bitter, determined and not giving a damn about what his superiors think. The plot of the book, however, is not as strong as in "The black echo". Connelly continues to develop his main character, and that's good, because Bosch can be read like a real person, full of flaws and weaknesses, but also with an incredible sense of duty.
This time, the apparent suicide of a fellow policeman triggers an investigation that leads to a powerful new drug, secrets from the past, and an investigation that will take Bosch to the mexican border, amid sterile insects and bullfights. Yes, it seems strange, but the book is solid... until a certain point. Similar to what happened in "The poet", the final "explanation" of the whole case is not very believable, and depends on too many assumptions to work. Anyway, I see "The black ice" as a good oportunity to know how Bosch live and work a little further.
I begun reading "The concrete blonde" as soon as I finished "The black ice" and, already halfway thorugh it, I can see it's more interesting then the second one. Like other reviewers stated, "The black ice" may be seen as a bridge between the first and the third book in the series.
Grade 7.2/10
Book Review: Great Second Harry Bosch Book (4.4 *s)
Summary: 4 Stars
Black Ice is another well-constructed Harry Bosch novel. Harry, an outsider detective within his own department, cannot accept convenient coincidences or inconsistencies. He is forever on the lookout for situations that are painted or constructed to be what they are not. This skepticism is exactly what is needed on Christmas night when Harry intercepts radio traffic about a death in a seedy motel room in his district while he is on call. But Assistant Chief Irving has rushed to the scene and quickly concludes, too quickly for Harry's liking, that the death of narcotics detective Cal Moore is a suicide - end of story.
But Harry finds several cases that seem to be much too conveniently attached to Moore, suggesting that Moore may have been a target. Bosch almost methodically pieces together the connections. The evidence in all the cases finally points to a drug operation involving black ice in Mexicali, Mexico. Harry has to use all of his expertise in surviving this case.
The Black Echo and The Black Ice are too very good entries into this genre. There are some references to the first book, but not overly so. With the creation of Bosch and his complex, well-paced stories, Connelly's success is unsurprising.