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    The Black Ice
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    The Black Ice
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    The Black Ice
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    The Black Ice

    Written by Michael Connelly

    Narrated by Dick Hill

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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 his head in several pieces and a suicide note stuffed in his back pocket.

    Years ago, Harry Bosch learned the first rule of the good cop: don't look for the facts, but the glue that holds them together. Now, Harry's making some very dangerous connections, starting with one dead cop and leading to a bloody string of murders that winds from Hollywood Boulevard's drug bazaar to the dusty back alleys south of the border and into the center of a complex and lethal game-one in which Harry is the next and likeliest victim.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 28, 2012
    ISBN9781469224770
    Unavailable
    The Black Ice
    Author

    Michael Connelly

    Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books have been translated into 36 languages and have won many awards. He lives with his family in Florida.

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    Reviews for The Black Ice

    4/5

    1,146 ratings54 reviews

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    • 4/5
      [Cross-posted to Knite Writes]Wow, this one was even better than the first one. I got into this one a lot more quickly than The Black Echo. The way it was structured made me feel like the story “started” sooner than the plot of its predecessor. There was plenty of action, good old detective work, and a really great twist to keep the story interesting throughout. Again, I can’t fault Connelly on his plot, structure, or pacing. He knows his genre very well. His plot is complex enough for his twists and turns to not be entirely foreseeable, but the clues he gives you to follow allow you to keep guessing along with Harry as the story progresses. Enough but not too much.I think Connelly’s characters really shined in this one. There was a lot of heavy characterization that went unspoken in this story, and I loved the way Connelly pulled it off — through symbolism. He told an entire backstory using a few photographs and a tattoo. And I appreciated that — I like it when a writer can flesh out secondary characters without having their stories intrude upon the main plot. That’s very hard to pull off sometimes, especially when you have a fast-paced plot.So, a great story across the board!
    • 5/5
      The exceptional homicide investigator, Harry Bosch, once again colors outside the lines and does the things he needs to do to solve his cases while walking the tightrope of keeping the "suits" (police administrators) reasonably happy and occasionally satisfied.Harry is a thinking man's detective and not much gets by him, but as with any other human he is not infallible, so sometimes he is tricked, and sometimes he doesn't make connections on his cases as quickly as he would like. Nevertheless, he personifies perseverance and is honest in anything of consequence, the really important core values. The Black Ice investigation leads him across the border into Mexico where he skillfully assembles the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to solve his cases while also wading through the parallels he encounters with people having had a life as difficult or more difficult than his own.Connelly is a master weaver of a tale and he takes you on a journey of a realistic and enjoyable police procedural while delving into the complex dynamics of human emotions, experiences and behaviors. Connelly never disappoints. He is regularly a "2 a.m." read, at least for me - hard to put down and always worth the effort!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book it had a great storyline. I love Harry Bosch, He is a great character. Looking forward to reading more of this series
    • 4/5
      This was a book of two halves, it took some while to get going and really engage me, but the second half fully engaged me and kept me wanting to read on. The later part of the book was full of action and was more like a thriller than a crime book. Overall I will rate this four stars on balance.
    • 4/5
      Liked this one much better than the first one. (Could just be my state of mind while reading either one of them.) But there was one thing that I REALLY liked better about this one ... shorter chapters! Sounds silly, but I like to stop reading at the end of a chapter, but if it takes an hour or so to read a chapter, that isn't always very feasible. In any event, the plot was solid as were the characters. Just a good solid entertaining read!
    • 4/5
      Suspenseful. Harry Bosch is very purposeful in his investigation. He looks for the connecting threads that joined to caused this murder, though it may put a target on his back.
    • 4/5
      I started reading Bosch because I love the Amazon series. These books remind me of John Standford’s Davenport series-these are thicky, meaty mysteries that require some attention and time.Dirty cops, working both sides of the US/Mexico border, and an unsupportive command is all waiting for Bosch in this installment. I loved the layers and did not see the twist coming at the end. This is a fantastic mystery series to check out!
    • 4/5
      Harry Bosch navigates his way through three murders and the limits placed upon him by his department to find the connections to the drug black ice and the paired border towns Calexico and Mexicali. Dealing with the past and its injustices is a theme as is loneliness and living within organizations, but I still haven't much of a feel for Bosch's character yet. The story and the settings are very interesting in a dark way and the pacing is excellent.
    • 3/5
      The was a quick read and I did enjoy the conclusion of this one. I am already somewhat tired of the IA out to get Harry portion of the story and hope that this is not so much front and center in future books.

      3.5 stars for a good ending.
    • 4/5
      Harry persists on his own after the apparent suicide of a crooked cop leads him to investigate an influx of "black ice" drugs into Los Angeles. He ends up across the border, uncovering the background of Moore and his half brother in the barrio, and their gang Saints and Sinners.
    • 4/5
      It's Christmas when Harry Bosch learns of the death of one of his fellow LAPD detectives, Calexico Moore. Harry's bosses want to write it off as suicide because there are hints that Moore may have been dirty. But Harry thinks it was murder, and he thinks it connects with a couple other cases he's investigating, involving the dealing of a new drug nicknamed Black Ice. His investigation leads him down to the Mexico border and across it, where he tries to figure out who he can trust and who might h e been with Moore on the dark side. The second book in this series, and a good one.
    • 4/5
      I don't know what it is that draws me to loner male detectives like Harry Bosch and John Rebus. Maybe it is the fact that both of these fictions adore the music that I like (Bosch is very partial to jazz saxophonists while Rebus is more eclectic in his tastes but numbers Van Morrison among his favourites). Or maybe it is the fact that they both strive for justice in an imperfect world. Whatever the case Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series rates almost as high as Ian Rankin's Rebus books for me. This book is set in the final week of the year (probably 1992) so it was appropriate that I chose to read it in the final week of 2016. Bosch's boss at the Hollywood Homicide Unit wants to improve the year end percentage of closed cases. If they can close one more case then they will have solved fifty percent of the year's murders. So he pulls Bosch off the case of a drug smuggler from Hawaii who was garrotted and asks him to look at another detective's unsolved cases because that detective has taken stress leave. But Bosch is also concerned about the death of a fellow officer even though he is not officially on the case. Calexico Moore was found dead in a motel bathroom on Christmas Day with his head blown off by a shotgun that was found beside him. The Robbery Homicide Division would like to call this a suicide but some things don't seem right. Bosch is soon looking at this case in conjunction with a Juan Doe that was found by Moore just before his death and seeing links to his own case of the strangled drug smuggler. Black Ice, a drug that combines heroin, PCP and coke, which was made in Mexico seems to be the common theme. Can Bosch tie it all together before the end of the year? Of course he can.
    • 4/5
      Definitely one of the better Connelly books. Saw the ending too soon though.
    • 4/5
      Harry Bosch continues to inhabit a dark part of the world, in L.A. and also in Mexico, and to go rogue whenever it suits him. This time he is investigating the death of a fellow detective, an ostensible suicide, and somehow involved in the importation of new illegal drugs. Somehow, even in the daylight he seems to live in the dark.
    • 3/5
      This is the first Michael Connelly book for me. I listened to it on audio cd. The narrator wasn't the best especially with the women's voices so that was a bit irritating for me. The story line was good but I sometimes got lost as to which charatcters were who since he made them different by voice/accent changes only. That was probably what spoiled it for me. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read it and was able to keep track of the characters better. I think I'm intrigued enough though to read the others in this series.
    • 5/5
      Perhaps his best!!! If you like police procedurals this is a great
      start.
    • 4/5
      Fantastic! I think is better than the first book in the serie.
    • 2/5
      Really disappointing book for me. The main problem I have with it is that it just seems to unfocused and involves so many characters and entities. You're having to juggle all this nonsense in your head and there's no real reward or excitement from it.

      Until the twist that happens around the last 30 or so pages of this 320 page book it was a total chore to keep reading. And the twist isn't nearly good enough to make up for what came before it.

      Unfortunately probably won't be picking up another Harry Bosch book.
    • 4/5
      I liked this even better than the first one. Great thriller from start to finish.
    • 3/5
      I love the Harry Bosch series, as always exciting, but this one not as good as some of the others. In this fast-paced sequel to The Black Echo, LAPD detective Harry Bosch continues to investigate the drug-trafficking underworlds of inner-city Los Angeles and the wastelands of Mexico. When he discovers the body of a fellow police officer in a sleazy hotel, Harry gets entangled in a brutal web of violence and drugs.
    • 4/5
      A really interesting look back at the LA that was in the peak of the 80s/90s drug world. That's the interesting side of reading this series so long after publication-it's a time long gone. Hollywood Blvd. is safe and it's like the Times Squares of years past as well.I felt Harry's pain for Cal Moore and I love his determination to find the truth even if it isn't The Truth. Harry is a flawed hero, but one I like. And... I see the crime trend of hero falls for heroine each book developing.
    • 3/5
      All my concerns about the unnatural dialogue in Michael Connelly's first Harry Bosch novel, The Black Echo, are completely cleared up for his second outing. Bosch's supervisor, Pounds, has some sentences that could use some contractions to make them more natural, but he doesn't spend enough time talking for it to matter.Again, Connelly provides a twist in the end that I did not see coming, and the whole mystery was very well done. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series more now than I was after the first book.
    • 3/5
      Dirty Harry he's not. Homicide detective Harry Bosch is spending another holiday alone when the call comes in over the scanner - the body in the sleazy motel appears to be narcotics officer Cal Moore, and everything points to suicide. Except Harry isn't convinced, and as the brass pushes for the quick and easy conclusion, he digs in his heels and keeps right on poking his nose into places better left alone.Grit, blood, drugs and murder - not much optimism here, but a solid read if you like your cops determined, weathered , and years past naive, and your investigations stymied and stone-walled at every turn.
    • 5/5
      The backstory: The Black Ice is the second mystery in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series (read my review of The Black Echo, the first in the series.)The basics: When LAPD detective Cal Moore is found dead of an apparent suicide in a LA hotel room on Christmas, Harry Bosch investigates.My thoughts: After loving the first Bosch novel, I was curious to see if Michael Connelly could write another that was as good. He did. I was foolishly impatient when The Black Ice began. "Where's the mystery?" I wondered. Soon, the novel was swirling with numerous mysteries that may or may not be connected, and I was enchanted. There are some similarities to The Black Echo I could foresee becoming tropes, but they work here. Bosch is somewhat of a rogue, but he isn't a rogue for the sake of being one. As the action shifts to Mexico, the action became even more intense. I won't spoil the resolution, but I will say it is beautifully executed.Favorite passage: "We want the truth, Detective. You are confusing that with what we choose to tell the public."The verdict: The Black Ice is every bit as good as The Black Echo was. If you're a fan of dark mysteries, drop what you're doing and start reading this highly addictive and accomplished series.
    • 4/5
      It may be Christmas, but Harry (yes, his name is Hieronymus) Bosch is not exactly feeling peace and goodwill towards all of mankind. With the furor surrounding the events of the previous book finally cooling off and his bullet injury healing up nicely, Harry is back to the standard frustrations of Hollywood police's murder team. Currently, he's got a body in the morgue with no leads except for a link to a new and very expensive drug on the market. When the body of a fellow cop turns up on his beat, Harry is furious when the case is taken away from him. It is almost as though the department is falling apart--again. Another fellow detective has succumbed to drink, and lucky Harry has been given his entire case load with instructions to solve at least one case before New Year's. (That way, the statistics can be twisted to argue that the LAPD is solving at least half of the murders. Go figure.) As Harry begins to dig deeper, he begins to discover that three of his current cases are deeply entangled in a web of deception, lies, and drug trafficking.

      I devoured this book right after finishing its predecessor. I was incredibly curious how Bosch, after putting part of the department the grave, part in jail, and the remainder into an apoplectic fury, managed to actually keep his job. Turns out he's still there, still unpopular, and still butting heads with the department. And yet again, the book showcases all of the nasty underbelly possible in the police system: the inhuman cruelty, the lies, the tendency to view people as numbers rather than souls, and the corruption of the police. I guessed the twist at the end and thought one of the villains was a little too coldhearted and calculating to be reconcilable with his previous behavior, but I thought the mystery was quite well-done and there were some edge-of-the-seat nail-biting moments.

      One snippet of the story I very much enjoyed was Bosch's discussion with another character of Raymond Chandler and his works. There are so many similarities between Philip Marlowe and Harry Bosch--both continually butting heads with authority, both loners, both tarnished knights on the mean streets, and both living in LA, for pete's sake--that this little easter egg homage and analysis was a lot of fun. One major distinction between Chandler and Connelly, which is much to Connelly's credit: he doesn't fall back on quick and convenient racial stereotypes for his characters.

      I very much enjoyed the terse, telegraphic writing style, and I felt the dialogue felt more natural than in the last book. Again, Connelly's knowledge of the inner workings of the police system definitely came through and added an authoritative voice to the story. But again, I wonder at his cynicism. It seems that being part of "the system" translates to being cold and corrupt. I find this bitterness intriguing, and I wonder if it stems from anything in Connelly's career as a journalist--especially since journalists are presented positively and Bosch has repeatedly used the "moral force of the press" (hah) several times to outwit the corrupt bureaucracy of the police force. Overall, a very enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to the next.

    • 4/5
      The Black Ice by Michael Connelly; (3 1/2*)This story is another well written tale. This one is about an investigation in Mexico against the drug lord who is making and distributing black ice, the newest drug craze in the U.S.This novel reads like classic noir & the reader can feel the low reverberating tones of a lonely sax in the 'City of Angels'.I am really getting attached to this Bosch character and am thrilled that I found this series buried in a box of books that my brother gave me & I stored in our shop. I will have to purchase the more recent two when I come to them.
    • 4/5
      Bosch is a fearless soul. Moving in the roughest circles of the Mexican border he solves a murder and a missing cops case because its right and the woman is out of a Phillip Marlowe case. Love LA, Bosch, and the writing that is a great reflection on Chandler.
    • 4/5
      The Black Ice
      4 Stars

      When the apparent suicide of narcotics officer, Cal Moore, is linked to two of his unsolved homicide cases, Detective Harry Bosch’s investigation leads him on a dark and twisted path that places him, not only in the middle of a complex web of lies and deceit, but within the crosshairs of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpins. With numerous players intent on hindering his progress, Harry’s stalwart determination might get him through or it might get him killed.

      Drug dealers and corrupt cops are not particularly appealing themes. Nevertheless, the mystery is well-developed with several compelling twists and turns, although the final revelation is rather predictable as corpses without faces always raise suspicions concerning identity. Moreover, there is an appropriate sense of poetic justice in the climax and resolution.

      The characterization is one of the highlights of the book. The details of Harry’s past enhance the complexity of his character and the juxtaposition with Cal Moore’s upbringing adds nuance to both their actions and motivations.

      My one issue with the book is the writing. As in the first book, there are overly descriptive sections particularly during the action scenes toward the end, which cause the story to drag a little. Hopefully, this will improve in later installments.

      In sum, The Black Ice is an edgy police procedural with an enigmatic hero whose appeal only increases from book to book.
    • 3/5
      Book on CD read by Dick Hill

      The second novel in the Harry Bosch series begins with Harry on call on Christmas day. As he’s opening some cards he hears something on the police scanner that piques his interest. A homicide detective is needed … but they haven’t called Harry, who is the one on call? When he arrives at the scene and realizes the corpse is a missing narcotics officer he begins to understand. Rumor had it that Cal Moore had crossed over, fronting a new drug from Mexico called “black ice.” The brass downtown don’t want a hugely embarrassing case on their hands, so they quickly dub it a suicide and close the case. But Harry isn’t convinced; he suspects the man was murdered. He starts his own investigation which leads him to several bloody murders on both sides of the border. So he decides he has to go to Mexicali to get answers.

      Connelly crafts a fast and furious suspense-filled thriller. Informants are reluctant to come forth; Moore’s wife is circumspect; police files are contradictory; and Mexican authorities less than forthcoming. The pace is lightning quick, the plot twists come with no warning, and the reader isn’t any more sure than Harry whom to trust. I was in a delighted state of confusion trying to figure out the clues as fast as Harry – and we both arrived at the conclusion at about the same point (thought Harry was still ahead of me).

      One thing I really like about this series – and, admittedly, I’ve only read two books in the series – is that I’m getting to know Harry Bosch little by little: his childhood, his relationships, his service in Vietnam. He’s a richly drawn character with complex emotions. And I want to continue reading the series to get to know him better.

      Dick Hill does a great job of narrating the audio version. His pacing is good and he modulates his voice sufficiently to differentiate the many male characters.
    • 4/5
      The second Harry Bosch book was a very good read. We learned a lot more about Harry's background which was very interesting. The book also had a great plot with lots of twists and turns and kept me interested until the very end. Looking forward to reading the next installment of the series.