The Black Ice
by Michael Connelly
Copyright: 1993
Pages: 427
Read: Feb. 16-22, 2013
Challenge: 2013 Sequel Challenge; Off the Shelf Challenge 2013
Yearly count: 11
Format: Print
Source: Personal copy
Blurb: Narcotics officer Cal Moore’s orders were to look into the city’s latest drug killing. Instead, he ends up in a motel room with a fatal bullet wound to the head and a suicide note stuffed in his back pocket. Working the case, LAPD detective Harry Bosch is reminded of the primal police rule he learned long ago: Don’t look for the facts, but the glue that holds them together. Soon Harry’s making some very dangerous connections, starting with a dead cop and leading to a bloody string of murders that wind from Hollywood Boulevard to the back alleys south of the border. Now this battle-scared veteran will find himself in the center of a complex and deadly game – one in which he may be the next and likeliest victim.
Review: This is the second in the Harry Bosch series. I read the first, The Black Echo back in 2008 and hadn’t ever gotten around to reading this one. I think my problem is that I wasn’t all too impressed with the first in the series – I remember it being just okay. That probably affected my choice in to continuously pass this book up. Plus is also doesn’t help that there’s a gazillion more books in this series – I tend to get really overwhelmed when there’s a lot of books ahead of me (I must read all the books, in order).
Regardless of the reason as to why I had waited so long to read this one – I finally picked it up. And I have to say that while it had a somewhat slow beginning, it got really good really quickly. However, I didn’t think it was all perfect. There were some things that I just didn’t care for – first of all was the Mexican connection. Obviously, having read the blurb, I knew that it was a part of the book. However, I wasn’t expecting more than half of the book to be set in Mexico. And for some reason I had a problem with it – I felt like Harry was much better when he was in LA, on his own turf. But this is just a personal preference.
There was a pretty big twist that I found to be very interesting. It definitely made the book so much more enjoyable. It was quite shocking to me, and I really liked how Harry brought everything together in the end. Bosch also did something that for sure made it obvious that he’s not a cookie-cutter police officer. I liked that.
All in all, as I was reading this book I realized that I was wanting to know more about Harry – who is he, where did he come from? We get snippets here and there of the boy he was and the man he is; and I can only look forward to learning more about Harry Bosch in the future!
Bottom line: Want a good hard-boiled story with a flawed detective? Pick up this book. And although this book can be read as a standalone, as with any series I read, I recommend starting at the beginning.
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