Explanation of the title
Bosch served in the Vietnam War as a "tunnel rat" (nicknamed "Hara Kiri Bosch") with the 1st Infantry Division — a specialized soldier whose job it was to go into the maze of tunnels used as barracks, hospitals, and on some occasions, morgues, by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.[2] "The black echo" was a catchphrase developed by Bosch and several other soldiers in his unit, referring to the unique atmosphere of fear and uncertainty they experienced underground.
Plot Summary
After serving in Vietnam, Bosch became an LAPD detective advancing to the Robbery-Homicide Division. However, after killing the main suspect in the "Dollmaker" serial killings, Bosch was demoted to the Hollywood Division's homicide bureau, where he sometimes partners with Detective Jerry Edgar.
Bosch's interest is sparked by the death of Billy Meadows, a fellow tunnel rat from the war who Bosch was friendly with. Based on his military history, Bosch suspects that his death may be connected to a spectacular bank robbery that occurred the previous month, in which the thieves used tunnels. Because bank robbery is a federal crime, he approaches the FBI's Los Angeles office and is introduced to Special Agent-In-Charge John Rourke and his subordinate, Agent Eleanor Wish. Conceding that Bosch may have useful insight into the case, Rourke invites Bosch and Wish to temporarily partner up, with Bosch's superiors' reluctant agreement. Bosch and Wish grow closer and eventually become lovers.
Bosch and Wish track Meadows's recent movements to "Charlie Company", a halfway house for traumatized Vietnam veterans, from which two other members of Meadows's old company have recently gone missing. They also discover a connection with two Vietnamese expatriates who were high-ranking police officials in Saigon, who emigrated to the United States shortly before the end of the war. An associate of Wish's (implied to be an officer of the CIA) tells Bosch and Wish that, in exchange for their help during the war, the U.S. government helped the Vietnamese policemen to convert their assets into diamonds (now worth several million dollars) and helped them emigrate. Bosch guesses that the diamonds were being kept in safe deposit boxes in at least two locations, and the thieves are now targeting the second one, which they identify by following the second Vietnamese man, Tranh.
Rourke organizes a surveillance team and SWAT unit to discreetly watch the second vault location in Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, two Internal Affairs detectives who have been following Bosch mistake his surveillance for complicity in the robbery, and insist on opening the vault, interrupting the thieves in the process. One of the detectives is shot dead and the other is put into a coma. Bosch fires at the two thieves and follows them down into their tunnel, but is wounded in the shoulder by the thieves' mastermind: Rourke, who was a MP officer in Vietnam who worked with the government to convert the diamonds and assist with the emigration. Meadows was killed because he couldn't resist pawning a jade bracelet that was taken during the first heist. Now Rourke's other accomplices have been killed, and he is about to kill Harry, when he is shot dead by Wish, who followed Bosch down.
While recovering in the hospital, Bosch remembers Rourke saying something about his "share" of the heist being bigger thanks to the deaths of his two accomplices, but he didn't say he was keeping everything, meaning he had at least one other accomplice who is still at large. Bosch confronts Wish, who admits to being the accomplice.
Wish always believed her older brother was killed in Vietnam, until the Memorial in Washington, D.C. was unveiled and his name was not listed on it. When her parents refused to tell her the truth, she investigated on her own and found that he returned to the United States on leave and was killed in Los Angeles. He had stumbled onto Rourke's scheme to convert the diamonds and planned to demand a cut, only Rourke killed him. Wish didn't want any share of the heist, she only wanted revenge on Rourke and the others. When she discovered Rourke was also in the FBI, she maneuvered herself into the Los Angeles office and subtly influenced him into planning the heist (since Wish is her married name, Rourke never realized whose sister she was). Wish pleads with Bosch that no one was supposed to get hurt, she only wanted to give Rourke and the others a "taste" of the ultimate score, before sending them to prison for the rest of their lives. She also swears that their affair was not part of her plan, and her affection for him is real.
Wish tells Bosch that he doesn't have enough evidence for her to be convicted; he tells her she's right, but he gives her an ultimatum: turn herself in and confess, or he will share the details with the Vietnamese men, who will come after her on their own terms. When she asks why, he says that someone has to answer for "Sharkey", a teenaged informant who assisted their early investigation but, thanks to her, was identified by Rourke and killed. She agrees, and later, a prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney's Office meets with Bosch to confirm the particulars of Wish's confession, and to confide that she will probably serve no more than thirty months in prison, since she did not carry out any of the murders herself. As a farewell gift, Wish sends Bosch her print of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks which he was admiring in her home, and he identifies with the man sitting at the extreme left of the painting, alone.
Adaptation
Season 3 of the Amazon series Bosch is loosely adapted from this novel. After Harry captures a suspect, Detective Bosch tells him, "I'm going to make sure you live the rest of your life in the black echo."
