Checking at a poll on Crime Fiction Dossier a couple of moths ago, this book, “The Black Echo”, was mentioned as one of the best ten PI/Detective novels ever written.

I think this is a good book though very meticulous in a bad way. But it’s Michael Connelly’s debut effort so that makes this a bit hard to judge. But being honest I think both author and book are overrated.
Perhaps “The Black Echo” didn’t work for me because the focus of attention is Vietnam. It doesn’t identify me. I’ve no relatives that went there so for me it wasn’t a unique experience reading this book.
But leaving Vietnam aside I found the pace of the book slow and the mystery weak. Michael Connelly describes too many unimportant things taking away the suspense. At times I felt I was getting nowhere. I even predicted some of the plot, which I think is not my virtue but the author’s failure.

So, does “The Black Echo” rank amongst my favourite PI/Detective novels?

In no particular order:

Mystic River, Darkness, Take My Hand, Gone Baby Gone, The Killing Kind, The Unquiet, Gorky Park, Red Square, A Simple Act of Violence, A Quiet Belief in Angels, Already Dead, No Dominion, Silence of the Grave, A Welcome Grave, The Neon Rain, A Small death in Lisbon.

Answer: NO!

cheers
Cristian

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