The Black Echo

Michael Connelly is one of the best modern writers of police procedurals. While his prose is unremarkable and his characters are in some ways a collection of cliches (Connelly's most popular series features LAPD detective Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch, a jazz-loving lone wolf who fights the police bureaucracy in order to enforce his personal code), his books are unusually well-plotted and include authentic procedural details that show he has done real research into how investigations are actually conducted. If you think this is faint praise, compare his books with those of his bestselling peers, and it is apparent not only how good Connelly is but how easy he makes it look. Like Stephen King, he is a professional in the best sense of the term.

In The Black Echo, Connelly’s first book but nowhere near his best, Bosch is called to investigate a dead body that (somewhat implausibly) turns out to be have been a fellow Vietnam veteran. Winner of the 1993 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.