The Black Echo
Michael Connelly
Hardcover
(ImPress, March 15, 2004)
Winner, 1993 Edgar Award. Nominated, 1993 Anthony Award, 1993 Dilys Award. First in series, followed by The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, and others. The novel centres round Harry Bosch, a Vietnam veteran who served as a "tunnel rat" during the war, became an L. A. police detective advancing to the Robbery-Homicide Division. However, after killing the main suspect in the "Dollmaker" serial killings, Bosch is demoted to "Hollywood Division" homicide, where he partners with Jerry Edgar. The death of Billy Meadows, a friend and fellow "tunnel rat" from the war, attracts Bosch's interest, especially when he determines that it may have been connected to a spectacular bank robbery using subterranean tunnels.