The Black Box

By: Michael Connelly

Narrated by: Michael McConnohie

In a case that spans 20 years, Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a file from 1992, the killing of a young female photographer during the L.A. riots. Harry originally investigated the murder, but it was then handed off to the Riot Crimes Task Force and never solved.

Now Bosch's ballistics match indicates that her death was not random violence, but something more personal, and connected to a deeper intrigue. Like an investigator combing through the wreckage after a plane crash, Bosch searches for the "black box," the one piece of evidence that will pull the case together.

Riveting and relentlessly paced, THE BLACK BOX leads Harry Bosch, "one of the greats of crime fiction" (New York Daily News), into one of his most fraught and perilous cases.

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR THE DROP:

"Connelly inherits the mantle of Raymond Chandler.... Their books share a kind of ambitious artistry that strains to reach beyond genre fiction."—Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe

"Connelly is superb at building suspense."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"Bosch is one of the best detectives in crime fiction, and Connelly continues to amaze with his latest effort."—Jeff Ayers, Associated Press

Music distracting

Bosch is Bosch. The author is trying to keep with recent events (Gulf war, cities rioting) but it isn’t needed. Good detective work is just good detective work.
Bosch is becoming more sensitive to others now that his teenage daughter is living with him. Some of Bosch’s sensitivity verbalizing are little ’ over the top’ but more so for Bosch.
I miss the real Bosch.

Good Bosch

This is a good Harry Bosch story. Not his best but still intriguing and with a faster than average pace. It’s a bit shorter than some others but worthwhile. Quite a decent puzzle gets unraveled. However the narrator is very 1980s - sounds like an old school used car radio advert.

Love Harry Bosch

If you could sum up The Black Box in three words, what would they be?

Always enjoy Harry

Who was your favorite character and why?

Harry, I always enjoy the way he solves a mystery. Like peeling an onion - one layer at a time to solve the murder.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not particularly

Any additional comments?

Harry must be coming to the end of his career.

Solid story. Believable.

Always enjoy Bosch stories. This was good but lacked the LA scenes I enjoy. I have family in Manteca (mispronounced as Mon Tayka in the reading). Overall I’d rated this one a B-

Cold Case

I am a fan of Harry Bosch, he seems such a down to earth hero. Michael Connelly has done a good job keeping the series from becoming stale. Harry is in the cold case department now, and was assigned a case of a murdered Danish journalist find in an alley during the L.A. riots. The case demonstrates the tedious work of a police detective, as Bosch follows his leads then toward the end of the book it is all action and suspense. On the home front Harry and his daughter continue to work on their relationship and Harry as always is having trouble with the boss at work. The story ties into the first Gulf War and has international aspects gives a bit of different aspect to a Bosch case. Michael McConnohie did a good job narrating the book. If you are a Bosch fan you will not be disappointed.