The Black Box by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch is working in the Open Unsolved Unit trying to solve the case of a Danish Journalist shot dead during the L.A riots in 1992. Finding evidence or eyewitness for riot cases are hard enough, but as years pass by wouldn't it be impossible to solve. Bosch is not one to take no for an answer. With advancement in technology on his side, Bosch finds a lead, matching the bullet casings to another case. With this little bit of evidence, Harry works doggedly despite pressure from his bosses to stop the case or pursue it after sometime. Harry's bosses do not want him to solve the murder of the only White dead woman in the riots when hundreds of Blacks were killed during the riots. But our Hieronymus Bosch is not one to be stopped by politics. He is passionate about cases he is working, and he wants justice done.

This is a police procedural, where Bosch works persistently and thoroughly looking into various angles, looking for any leads that would help him solve the case. He looks into small leads, that at the outset look unimportant, like a call made at the tenth anniversary of the riots to find out if the case is still open. With almost practically nothing in the beginning to hunting the perps in the dramatic end, it is interesting.

In the home front, Bosch teenager daughter wants to become a detective and Bosch takes her to play a Simulation game for police detectives testing their decision making skills. The simulation game sounds really really interesting, wish I could play it too. Every case has a Black box, if you find it the case is solved. But you need somebody like Bosch who works doggedly to find the Black Box.

Blood Work by Michael Connelly

Blood Work published in 1998 features ex-FBI agent Terrel McCaleb who is in retirement following his heart transplant and lives on a boat. Graciella Rivers approaches McCaleb to find her sister Gloria's killer. McCaleb agrees to look into it. Now that he is retired the LAPD is hostile and doesn't want to share files with him. Will he catch Gloria's Killer? Is he ready for the task, so soon after his transplant? McCaleb is a serial killer expert so is he reading more into a murder for robbery?
Life is full of coincidences, while flipping channels, I found Blood Work being played featuring Clint Eastwood as McCaleb. I didn't see the movie as I didn't want it to spoil the book for me. My dad saw the movie and told me who the killer is. At one level I was excited, I kind of guessed the killer and I was spot on. At another level, so what is the point in reading. Knowing the killer did not spoil the book for me, I kind of enjoyed it. And I had a real surprise, the killer wasn't the guy I guessed. The movie version was different from the book.
The book is a bit slow, it could have been fast paced. There are some twists and turns and surprises. But some surprises are kind of lame something that could be easily guessed. I wouldn't say it was great but it wasn't bad either.

Echo Park by Michael Connelly

Detective Harry Bosch is obsessed with a missing person case for last 13 years. On and Off he looks into the records to look for a clue or a break of what happened to Marie Gesto. Thriteen years after Marie Gesto had gone missing, serial killer, Reynard Waits confesses to the murder of Marie Gesto. He even leads to the corpse of Marie Gesto.
Reynard Waits reminds us of Hannibal Lecter and Connelly himself points out that this guy is like Hannibal. It is not a typical whodunit and more or less we know who is the killer. But it is well written and has a fast narration. The chase sequences, final denouement and field trip sequences are nail biting and graphic. With the details given you can actually visualize the entire sequences. Probably Connelly had written this with an eye for the movie. Yes it would make a good movie.