The Echo Park Analysis

One of the most common features in the procedural is the investigator being unsure of his/her potential. Generally, the uncertainty expresses itself in terms of lack of confidence. In The Echo Park, the character of Kiz Rider, Bosch’s official partner, undergoes a similar kind of dejection. She is severely injured during the encounter that followed the escape of the serial killer, Raynard Waits. She doubts her capacity as a police official and regards herself unfit for the job. She says:

I am not coming back… I shouldn’t be a cop… I froze out there, Harry. I froze and I let him…just shoot me… Those men are dead because of me. When he grabbed Olivas, I couldn’t move. I just watched. I should have put him down, but I just stood there… If you

Police Procedurals emphasize the increased vulnerability of the investigator and the victims or as in this case, the serial killer, on account of the pressure from the wealthy and the influential. The system they work for is corrupted. Waits’ confession of guilt with regard to Gesto’s case is in accordance with the force and pressure, imposed on him by conspirators, but in actuality, he did not commit the murder. It is an injustice done to him. They use Waits for their benefit because he is powerless in the face of authority. The conspirators take advantage of his vulnerability. Waits is one among those whom Bosch calls the ‘nobody’ in this society; the injustice done to them does not claim accountability. These ‘nobodies’ are people who have no claim to the family; these are people whose disappearance does not bother anyone. Interestingly, the victims chosen by Waits are also the ‘nobodies’, they are prostitutes who do not have a home and these women will never be reported missing. At a certain level, the novel highlights the way in which both the system and the criminal works on a similar track, where both tend to extend their control over these ‘nobodies’ and use them to their own political and personal benefits. Bosch and Waits become the subject of scandal; they are victims of the corruption built around

The popularity of police procedurals accounts to the fact that the police officials are part of the community; they are not the lone genius as featured in golden age detective fiction. The increased sense of the personal in the professional makes it easier for the reader to connect with the investigator. The extent to which Bosch’s sentiments affect his judgments and actions, equate his professionalism to the personal. In fact, from the very beginning, Bosch feels that Anthony Garland is the man involved in Gesto’s case. He says, “It was this guy I always thought could be good for it. But I never had anything on him… I wanted it to be him” (Connelly 321). Unlike the traditional detectives, whose professionalism depends on the highlight of their intellect, Bosch acts on his intuitions. Notably, his instinct does prove right. “Bosch considered himself a true detective, one who took it all inside and cared. Everybody counts or nobody counts. It made him good at the job but it also made him vulnerable.” (Connelly 314) The above-mentioned lines show that for Bosch the definition of a ‘true detective’ comes from his